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Cambridge, UK, April 26, 2020//-Data can drive insights, increase efficiency, and provide detailed information about current water and wastewater networks.
The water industry is one which has many unknowns, and more data can provide help to this mature and large industry.
The new report from IDTechEx, “Digital Water Networks 2020-2030”, provides a holistic overview of the opportunities and forecasts this market to grow to over $2Bn by 2030.
In the next decade, digital solutions will provide a way for utilities companies to monitor their networks in a variety of different ways.
This report discusses six main groups of sensors which can provide these insights: water flow meters, water level meters, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, acoustic sensors and chemical sensors.
Within these groups, different types of each sensor are discussed, and their benefits and drawbacks for different situations shown.
For example, water flow meters provide an excellent method to track the flow in pipes, providing parameters such as the mass flow or volumetric flow rate. In water pipes, these could be invasive, as these pipes are typically full, and are clean so have no solid particles to filter out. With the gaining popularity of the whole house water softener systems, homeowners everywhere are trying to find a way to improve their home in this manner without completely wasting away their savings accounts. This leads many homeowners to wonder if they could get by with purchasing a system that is on sale online or in a local home improvement store and then installing it for themselves. While putting in your own water softener system may save you a lot of time and money, there are some disadvantages which must be considered prior to making this decision. If you don’t know enough about your home plumbing system you may mistakes unknowingly. These mistakes may not be noticed by you right off, but in the future they could compromise the effectiveness of your softening unit or lead to other problems. Also, if you decide to install your own whole home water softener system you will have no one to call on in the event something goes wrong. You are dealing with the plumbing and water supply to your home, so you should at least have the phone number to a good encinitas emergency plumber who would be willing to come out last minute to help if necessary. For someone with basic plumbing knowledge, installing a home water softening system is not very difficult. There aren’t too many mistakes which could lead to serious problems and if you follow the directions exactly as they are presented in the product manual you should encounter very few problems.
According to picplumbing.com, as long as you are willing to spend the required time to do every step of the installation correctly, then you should be able to put in your own whole house water softener without problems. That said, it does take some time to get healthier, softer water flowing into all areas of your home, so you have to clear your schedule and spend the day working on this home improvement project. Before you decide to install your own system, make sure that you know where the unit should be placed within your home and how it will be connected into your water supply. You have to read the directions and all warnings through first and then determine that you have the knowledge needed to put in the system on your own.
You may also want to make sure you know where the main water shut-off for your home is since you will need to stop all water flow into the home prior to setting up your new system. This shut-off valve could be inside your home, such as in a basement, but it is also likely to be outside. If you aren’t sure what or where this is, then you should consider hiring a plumber or other service to come into your home and install the unit for you.
However, an invasive method requires passing stringent requirements for health and safety and, therefore, it may be more beneficial to have a non-invasive method which can calculate the flow speed through pipes.
The overall picture – potable water distribution pipes. Source: IDTechEx Report “Digital Water Networks 2020-2030”(www.IDTechEx.com/digitalwater).
Cost is a key factor with these sensors, and with some sensors requiring large holes to be dug to put them into the water network, the trade-off has to be long enough for a utilities company to reap the rewards of a data-driven network.
With sensors now lasting up to 10 years, this provides an excellent opportunity for pipe networks to be upgraded and provide continuous monitoring.
This report provides a concise and informative overview of the different applications and use cases of the various sensors currently available for market, which can be used for monitoring water and wastewater networks.
Not only does the cost matter, but different countries have different regulations which determine the priority of what sensors are more likely to be put into their networks.
For example, if leaks are a priority, then leak identifications solutions would have higher demand. This report provides a range of case studies which show the different ways that countries, companies, or joint ventures, have implemented smart water and digital water techniques and technology into their networks.
This report provides comprehensive information on various processes, sensors, in systems offered by the top players in the water and wastewater treatment markets.
The holistic overview includes industry analysis, a detailed summary of how each of the sensor groups can impact specific aspects of both the water and wastewater industries, and where the opportunities and hype will take this exciting technology in the coming decade.
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