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Authors Note
The authors of this manuscript are fifth year students under the Electronics Engineering
Department of the College of Engineering and Architecture, Holy Angel University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kristian Darl D. Tuazon,
31 St. Anthony Subdivision, Sindalan, City of San Fernando, Pampanga.
Email: tuazonkristiandarl@yahoo.com
Water is one of the most abundant substances on Earth covering more than 70-percent of
the earths surface and exists as vapor in the earths atmosphere. Water has played a vital role in
survival and is considered a source of life, keeping support for every living creature here on
Earth. There are many ways in which we can collect water and as the years go by, the methods
that enable us to acquire water sources became convenient enough that it only requires you to
turn on the water faucet to use it.
To provide measurement of consumers water consumption, analog water meters are
installed by water companies. Similar to a gas and electricity meter, a water meter is a device
installed in a household or any other shelter that records the amount of water consumed for
billing purposes. The water company sends a company employee (meter readers) on a monthly
basis that visits each condominium to collect the readings on these water meters. If there is no
one to accompany the meter readers during their time of visit, or if in any case the water meter is
found to be malfunctioning, the water reading would be based on the average water consumption
(Dita, Martinez & Miranda, 2013).This method is tedious since it would take days to read each
meter and costly with regards to time and revenues.
Since there is human intervention in the process, the traditional water meter reading is
prone to human corruption. Moreover, water meters are sometimes located in areas where
permission with the owner is needed so manual meter reading causes delayed work (Xie, 2007).
The water company United Utilities (2015) infers that traditional meter reading can cause
disturbances on the part of the owner. Not to mention that the life of a meter reader can be into
jeopardy as they encounter different elements on a route.
and vice versa (Utility Bill Guru, 2009). The researchers assumed that wireless transmission of
water meter data could enhance the entire process of collecting and disseminating bill reports to
the residents.
Problem of the study
The main problem of the study is the laborious process of manually collecting and
computing of the condominium residents water meter data and the possibility of miscalculated
billings due to human intervention.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study is to develop an SMS-based digital water meter reading
system for reading of water usage and transmission of the data from the condominium residents
to the company. Specifically, this study aims to:
1. Construct a prototype capable of collecting data from multiple digital meter
2. Interface a GPRS module to transmit data from the microcontroller to the database
3. Develop a database to store data readings and process residents' bill reports
4. Transmit bill reports to the resident via SMS
5. Create a website where residents bill reports are accessed
Scope and Limitation
The scope of the study lies only on the creation of the system to be used in transmitting
and receiving the water meter reading as well as the bill notification system and website updates.
Purchased 3/4 inch British Standard Pipe (BSP) thread flow sensor is utilized in the study. The
study uses two sets of Gizduino microcontroller each paired with a GPRS shield for storing and
transmitting of the reading data. For database management, the study uses MySQL coupled with
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) to create database driven website. A laptop is used as the server
via Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server and is tested using a Local Area Network
(LAN). Globe Telecommunications is the chosen network for the device. The researchers
specifically targeted condominium units as testing area because they have a designated room
where all water meters of all units are installed.
The study, however, does not consider any form of network interferences such as weather
conditions that may affect the transmission of the data. The network problems are not included in
the scope of the study because the immediate solution depends on the network provider. Any
security breach to the main database is also not taken into account and so is the construction of
the digital water meter. The control of the database system over the household device is also
limited. The frequency of the bill notification is left to the decision of the user or the water
company manager.
Significance of the Study
This study promotes wireless transmission of the water consumption data to the
companys main database using existing GPRS technology while notifying the condominium
residents of their bill reports via SMS.
The meter reading is integrated with a wireless technology, wherein bill reports are sent
to each resident via SMS. The data are transmitted to the main database so that companies can
access the residents billing data. The company may also establish a website that will provide
clearer information of a residents bill reports, ensuring transparent water billing system.
According to the company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) (n.d.), automating water billing
system allows water customers to monitor their usage consumption, thus they are more
encouraged to conserve water.
Furthermore, the success of this study will lessen the tedious work of the water
authorities and will also provide equally fast meter reading without adding heavy workforce.
This will also prevent them from sending employees to the field, thus ensuring their safety and
increasing their productivity (Itron, 2002).This will provide reading of the water consumption
and the billing notification will give the condominium residents an idea of their bill reading
beforehand, preventing unpleasant bill surprises on their part. Since the entire process has no
human intervention, condominium residents will be billed exactly according to their actual
consumption.
This study will increase the performance of data collection and generate revenues to the
water companies. This method is also suitable to keep pace with the urbanization and
development of communication technology.
Research Framework
Theories related to the research, research concepts and the operation of the system are
summarized in this section.
Theoretical Framework. The main problem the researchers would like to address is the
existing difficulties with the traditional meter reading (see Figure 1). These problems on the
traditional meter reading include the laborious and tedious work it requires with water companies
sending meter readers to check on the water meter, its susceptibility to human errors, and that at
times causes delayed work due to water meters placed inside households where may be
inaccessible for meter readers.
Conceptual Framework. Figure 2 shows the concept of this research. First, the input is
the meter reading data. The system summary will start from the acquisition of data using the flow
sensors in which data will be converted to digital and collected by the microcontroller. The
collected data will be transmitted to the water authority database via a GPRS. Bill computation
and processing will be done by the database; the system will then send corresponding bill reports
to respective customers via SMS and automatically updates web data.
Operational Framework. To test the functionality of this system, five variables are to be
tested as seen on Figure 3. First is the transmitting capability of the system, which will determine
if the system transmits the data accurately on time, the limit of transmission and the boundary of
data. Next are the capability of the system to receive is tested, first during a single input flow
sensor and then during multiple input flow sensors. Along with testing the transmit capability
and receive capability, accuracy of the flow sensor meter readings is to be tested as well to
ensure that the transmitted and received data are true and accurate compared to the readings of
the analog meter. Then, the updating of the system from a specified period will be monitored by
the researchers to verify the accuracy of the system in storing and updating data on every allotted
time interval of the transmission. Lastly, access to the website is tested as to whether recipients
are able to open their accounts or not and if information shown in the web account agrees with
the measured readings, computed bill, and necessary records.
The researchers hypothesized that the automated water billing system will solve the
existing difficulties and shortcomings of the traditional system. The improvement of the water
billing system will increase convenience and customer satisfaction.
Method
This part of the study discusses all of the instruments; procedures, equipment and testing
that were conducted by the researchers.
Research Design
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Procedure
The study is composed of two systems, hardware and software, both of which are further
divided into two more sub-systems. The hardware is composed of the reading and monitoring of
the data being acquired as well as its transmission to the database. The reading and monitoring
will be composed primarily of a microcontroller and a water meter sensor while the transmission
system will be composed of a GPRS module and a database wherein a laptop is used as server.
The software will be composed of the database and the website. The database will be responsible
for the storage of data, calculation of bills and processing for customer transaction. The website
will serve as the customers online information desk where it will allow recipients to access their
accounts and view their water consumption records.
These two systems are to be integrated together into a single main system. The water
meter sensor will be installed in series with the water source as the digital signal coming from
the sensor will be read and stored on the microcontroller. The stored data will be transmitted to
the database via GPRS module in which the system will store. The database is responsible for the
bill notification calculation and transmission to its recipients as well as the update of its system
website.
Prototype Testing
The prototype testing will be conducted with respect to the transmission capability of the
system, receiving capability of the system using both single and dual input, the systems database
update capability, and website account accessibility. It will be recorded whether it was
successfully received, transmitted and updated by the database system and if website account
was easily accessed. The results of this data will be the basis for the success rate of the
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transmitting, receiving, updating capability of the database system and easy access of website
account information.
An analog water meter connected in series with the prototype will be the basis of the true
values of meter readings. This is to test the accuracy of the meter readings.
Data Analysis
The result of the study will be based statistically which will be evaluated using
descriptive statistics.
The trials for the reading accuracy will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and
percentage error analysis. The measured values of the analog meter will be considered as the
known or accepted value and the prototype readings will be the tested values. The percentage
error between the two values will be measured by calculating the absolute value of the difference
of the values and to be divided by the accepted value. The calculated result will be expressed in
terms of percentage.
Moreover, descriptive statistics will be used to determine the success ratio of the
transmission capability of the system, receiving capability of the system using both single and
dual input, the systems database update capability, and web account information accessibility.
The number of successful transmitted data will be divided by the total number of data
sent by the database. Similarly, the number of received data will be divided by the total number
of data sent by the microcontroller. The number of successful received data will be divided by
the total number of data sent by the microcontroller for the single input. For the dual input, there
will be two tests for its success: (1) whether it was properly received by the database and (2)
whether it was stored to its proper customer number. The systems database must automatically
update once a data has been received. The successful update of the system will be divided by the
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total number of data received. The number of successful access to the web account will be
divided by the total number of times the web account was accessed. Successful access means the
serial used for access matches the recipient information. A 100% success rate is the ideal goal for
this study.
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References
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