Abstract:
This paper presents a new approach to the design and development of a specific context-based smart water meter system and implementation methodology based on water flow sensor technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing services. The main objective of this paper is to solve the lack of transparency problem in water meter readings and prevention of water theft. The proposed smart water meter system is an improved technology to facilitate remote water meter reading and transparency in billing with the capacity for immediate detection of water theft and leakages which can result in better control of water consumption. The water flow sensor was able to provide real-time monitoring of water consumption data which was sent to ThingSpeak, a Cloud server platform. The system was inexpensive because less expensive components such as NodeMCU, the water flow sensor and ThingSpeak were the major components used in recording, visualising and analysing the water flow patterns.