Based on an installed base with real time data of over 200 000 water meters and close collaboration with customer´s property and maintenance managers, Smartvatten has developed proprietary and highly advanced leak detection algorithms, with the purpose of detecting small leaks before they turn into big problems while avoiding false alarms.
Smartvatten uses two main types of alarms:
1) Continuous flow and
2) Abnormal consumption.
With the continuous flow alarms the system detects continuous consumption from night time consumption data to alarm customers about a leakage. Sources of leakages can be a faulty water appliance, like a running toilet seat, dripping tap or an untight pipe coupling.
Service module PRO – minute level monitoring
The system employs a number of algorithms to analyze minute-by-minute the water flows between 00 to 06 AM each night. The leak detection is carried out in three stages, correlating minute, hourly and rolling average flow values, through which it can determine the size of any continuously running water flows, also in complex buildings where there is normally intermittent consumption of water during every hour of the night. The system will generate an alarm indicting the flow level of the leak.
Continuous flow alarms are calculated at 07:00 AM local time and delivered to alarm recipients immediately thereafter.
The alarm is deactivated when a continuous flow is not detected. This happens also at 07:00 AM. Smaller leakage alarms (under 0,3l/min) are deactivated when there are two consecutive nights without continuous flow.
If the leak continues, a reactivation message is sent to the customer every other day. With smaller leaks (under 0,3l/min) this will happen once a week.
Service module BASIC – hourly level monitoring
The alarm function keeps track on hourly consumption between 2 a.m and 5 a.m and compares with a pre-set alarm threshold. The alarm threshold can be customized in Smartvatten Hub.
If the hourly consumption for every single hour between 2 AM and 5 AM is above the alarm limit of the premise, the alarm message will be delivered to the customer in the morning.
The alarm deactivation message is sent when the hourly consumption during the night is below the alarm limit.
Abnormal consumption alarms
Abnormally high consumption alarm can be detected from water meters which are read by the optical reader. These indicate a serious leak incident with high flow volumes, such as a sudden pipe breakage, and alarms are sent immediately upon detection.
The alarms are triggered by continuously monitoring the water flow over rolling short time periods and compare it to calculated high-flow limits. The limits are calculated by the system individually for each property. The limits can automatically be adapted to varying consumption patterns between week- and weekend-days in order to identify serious incidents also when the water consumption patterns differ over the week. (E.g Office buildings typically closed at weekends.) There are three alarm limit levels which are calculated automatically for each individual property based on it´s water consumption pattern.
The default /minimum limits are:
Low = 25 l/min
Mid = 50 l/min
High = 75 l/min
Depending on the flow rate, alarms are triggered if the abnormally high flow has been detected for a certain duration of time. The highest level of alarm is reported within 10 minutes.
Abnormal consumption alarm is deactivated after consumption drops below the alarm limits.