Non-intrusive water utility monitoring and free-space load monitoring

Abstract

This work presents a non-intrusive, single-point sensing scheme to monitor the water usage for various loads on a water utility pipe network through the vibration of a pipe near the water intake source. Experiments with the water utility sensor provided data sufficient to identify individual loads on the water distribution network both alone and during operation of multiple loads. This sensor setup is useful for smart-metering applications to promote water conservation by keeping track of the operational schedule of individual loads on the local water network. This work also presents the development of a free-space sensor to provide information about the operation and location of electrical loads: an electroquasistatic (EQS) sensor to detect voltage-mode events. The free-space sensor was able to detect events in a room, such as the activation of a line upon turning on a power strip or switching a light switch. This sensor could supplement a power monitoring system by helping to localize the activation of loads.