DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF IOT BASED VOLUME MONITORING MODULE IN WATER DISPENSER

• Main Author: Agung Priandoko, Gatut
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/46493
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Water dispensers normally work for 24 hours non-stop even if it is already runs-out of water. It causes it’s heating and cooling systems to continue running which results in inefficient use of electrical energy for the processes. This document presents the results of developing the solution for the above problem which is part of a smart-dispenser system developed in an undergraduate final project. The purpose of this subsystem is to continuously monitor the actual volume of the water in the dispenser that can be observed by a user through internet connection. Furthermore, when the decreasing volume of the water reaches a certain limit, this module automatically turns the dispenser off and sends a notification to the user. The water volume in the container is estimated through the measurements of the change in weight of the whole dispenser using load-cell which is based on strain gauge sensors. This monitoring subsystem is integrated with the other modules of an IoT system. The data-acquisition processes in this subsystem are performed using a NodeMCU microcontroller. Based on the accuracy-testing performed after implementation, the monitoring system gives an error of about 2.71% in estimating the water volume which is acceptable for this application. The overall impacts of adding this automatic monitoring module to a conventional dispenser have been evaluated using different user’s scenarios. Electric energy saving of about 3% - 6.22% can be achieved compared with the system without installing the monitoring system.