Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.

org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

Home Water Leakage Detection and Monitoring

System Using IOT
Vijayakumar.T 1, Ramachandran.T 2, Vigneshkumar.M 3, N.Mohananthini 4, S. Saravanan 5
1, 2, 3
U G Students, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Muthayammal Engineering College,
Namakkal-637 408, Tamil Nadu, India.
4
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Muthayammal Engineering College,
Namakkal-637 408, Tamil Nadu, India.
5
Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Muthayammal Engineering College,
Namakkal-637 408, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract - The water supply shortage has increased in recent organism harmful to health, and ultimately must distribute
years due to overpopulation, climate change and obsolete water through pipes to homes safety.
facilities, where deteriorated pipes cause most of the water leaks.
The problem is not the size of the leak, but the time it takes to This work focuses on the issue of distribution, more
detect it. This paper presents the implementation of a system specifically, on the issue of “water leaks” in residential areas.
installed in the hydraulic facilities of a residence, to detect water In a developing country like India, loss of water in domestic
leaks. The system consists of a water sensor installed by a water sector on account of leakage is approximately 30 to 40% of
reservoir of interest, a microprocessor to interpret the data and the total flow in the distribution. This leads to high risks in
evaluate. The design of a water level sensor device that can public health, money invested and on the valuable natural
detect and control the level of water in a certain water tank, the
system firstly senses the amount of water available in the tank by
resource. India had an irrigation efficiency of ~36 percent in
the level detector part and then adjusts the state of the water 1993-1994 and projected that efficiency would have to
pump in accordance to the water level information. There has increase to 60 percent by 2050 to bring a balance in the
been wastage of water daily through the pipeline leakages due to demand and supply of water. Even those slow leaks that only
its full water were never arrived to the taps. The aims of our because mold damage require expenses to repair. The more
proposed work are to develop a real-time prototype pipeline water spilled (or splashed) the more money the repairs cost to
leakage alert system whether it is a water leak or not, an SMS residents. For this reason, it’s crucial to have some system
alert message, and an electrical actuator to shut off the main installed in residences to detect water leaks. Current digital
water supply to avoid leakage. water leak detection systems can locate multiple water leaks
Index Terms – NodeMCU, Water Flow Sensor, Ultrasonic to within 1-meter resolution over a complex network of cables
Sensor, Buzzer, IOT. running several kilo meters.
1. INTRODUCTION 2. RELATED WORKS
With the growth of the world population, the demand of fresh Water leak detection is an expression more commonly used
water has increased causing serious problems in the field of for larger, integrated systems installed in modern buildings or
water supply. Therefore, control of water has become a those containing valuable artifacts, materials or other critical
considerable issue today. With the growth of the world assets where early notification of a potentially damaging leak
population, the demand of fresh water has increased causing proves beneficial. Specifically, water leak detection has
serious problems in the field of water supply. Therefore, become a necessity in data centers, trading floors, banks,
control of water has become a considerable issue today. archives, and homes. The water leak detection industry, small
Scientists, technicians, politicians, and generally, many other yet specialized, has only a few manufacturers operating
inhabitants of the planet become increasingly educated on the world-wide. The existing water supply systems incorporate
subject. The threat of pollution hovers over and limits water high range acoustic and pressure detection devices are way
supplies. The shortage of this vital liquid requires great costlier to be implemented in developing countries. Some
attention. The proportion of fresh water found in rivers, lakes, irrigation leak detection systems use heating coils to detect
and underground sources comprise only 3% of the total the flow rate difference which has a drawback of detecting the
amount of water on earth. In addition, the water found needs fast change over in the system due to the uniform response of
treatment for human consumption, to eliminate particles and the temperature sensor. This single parameter does not help

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Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

in stopping leakage in the system. In this paper, a flow sensor- small and light enough for any user to carry and install. The
based system integrated with microcontroller to detect the actuator can obtain power from a wall socket which negates
leak due to breakage has been discussed. This system is the need for additional power. India had an irrigation
designed to prevent the further leakage of water flowing efficiency of ~36 percent in 1993-1994 and projected that
through the pipe line. This paper is organized in the order of efficiency would have to increase to 60 percent by 2050 to
methodology which explains the working of the system, bring a balance in the demand and supply of water [7,8]. The
components used to build the system and the results which existing water supply systems incorporate high range acoustic
signify the efficient leakage prevention based on a prototype. and pressure detection devices are way costlier to be
The only available process information is velocity and pressure at implemented in developing countries. Some irrigation leak
the inlet and outlet of the pipe. Simulations demonstrate detection systems [9] use heating coils to detect the flow rate
accurate quantification and localization of the leak under difference which has a drawback of detecting the fast change
transient operation of the pipeline, such as for instance during over in the system due to the uniform response of the
shut-down. Current work focuses on replacing the simple temperature sensor. Some other systems [10-15] use the flow
model presented in this paper with a state of the art fluid flow sensors to measure the flow rate. This single parameter does
simulator and incorporating [1]. Previous researches on water not help in stopping leakage in the system.
pipeline monitoring and detection in water pipes have been
conducted before. In this paper, a flow sensor-based system integrated with
microcontroller to detect the leak due to breakage has been
Abdallah [2] conducted a research in monitoring the level of discussed. This system is designed to prevent the further
water flow, by utilizing web services and Zigbee as a leakage of water flowing through the pipe line. This paper is
communication device as well as some sensors such as level organized in the order of methodology which explains the
sensors, water flow sensors, and temperature sensor. In working of the system, components used to build the system
addition to web monitoring, the owner of the sensor can also and the results which signify the efficient leakage prevention
get important information about the flow of water via SMS to based on a prototype.
a personal mobile phone number of the owner. Akyildiz et al.
[3] was conducted to detect leakage of water pipeline. The 3. PROPOSED WORK
research investigated the impact of various pipe diameters on
pressure of the water flow in the pipes and the temperature 3.1 NodeMCU GPIO
changes around the pipe. FSR sensor is used to measure
changes in the pipe diameter, and temperature sensors are NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. It includes
used to measure the temperature around the pipe. In this firmware which runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from
research, they used 40 mm diameter PVC pipe with a constant Espressif, and hardware which is based on the ESP-12
pressure of 3 bars. 666 analyzed vibration in the pipe wall module. The term "NodeMCU" by default refers to the
caused by collisions between the water flows to the pipe wall. firmware rather than the dev kits. NodeMCU board as shown
Vibration is measured using a MEMS sensor. in fig 1. The firmware uses the Lua scripting language. It is
based on the eLua project and built on the Espressif Non-OS
Leakage is analyzed by comparing the vibration of the normal SDK for ESP8266. It uses many open source projects, such as
water flow and the vibration when there is a leak in the pipe. lua-cjson, and spiffs.
Tests are conducted by varying the pressure from 3 to 10 bar
with a constant water flow rate of 300m3/hr. A research that
compared the consumption savings of tap water using
wireless sensor network has been conducted. Carrano et al.
[5], this research uses Rfbee sensors to gather data received
from the water flow rate transducer, as a sender and a
recipient of the data. Data collected by Rfbee sensors will be
transmitted by wireless network to a computer connected
directly to the sensor Rfbee. A research to monitor and Fig 1. NodeMCU Board
control the water flow through a web server is carried out in
Reference [1]. Monitoring and controlling is done by using 3.2 Water flow sensor
Hall Effect Flow Sensors, Arduino, Raspberry PI, and Water flow sensor consists of a plastic valve body, a water
Solenoid Electro Valve. Hall Effect Flow Sensor with rotor, and a hall-effect sensor. When water flows through the
Arduino will measure fluid flow, while Raspberry PI will rotor, rotor rolls. Its speed changes with different rate of flow.
Control solenoid electro valve, which is used to close or to The hall-effect sensor outputs the corresponding pulse Signal.
open the flow of fluid through the pipe. Chen, et al. [6] the The water flow sensor as shown in fig 2.
actuator and water sensor used to deactivate the water pump is

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Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart

monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an
automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when
tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object
that can be assigned an IP address and is able to transfer data
over a network.
3.6 Block Diagram for Proposed Work
Fig 2. Water Flow Sensor
The block diagram consists of three main set of blocks and
3.3 Ultrasonic Sensor one microcontroller. In first block contains the converting
circuits. It has the step-down transformer, bridge rectifier and
Fig 3 shows the ultrasonic sensor is a device that can measure
7805 regulators. The 5v d.c supply is may use in the circuit
the distance to an object by using sound waves. It measures
for supply, then it reduces the circuit complexity, but it has
distance by sending out a sound wave at a specific frequency
one disadvantage recharging the battery after it will discharge
and listening for that sound wave to bounce back. By
completely. To overcome the disadvantage, we preferred the
recording the elapsed time between the sound wave being
combination of step-down transformer, bridge rectifier and
generated and the sound wave bouncing back, it is possible to
7805 regulators. These increases the complexity of the circuit,
calculate the distance between the sonar sensor and the object.
but the increase the life time and efficient use the project. The
main supply as 230v a.c supply is given into the step-down
transformer. The step-down transformer is a device to
decrease the primary voltage into the secondary voltage. This
process is to reduce the primary voltage as 230V a.c voltage
into 12V a.c voltage. Then the 12V a.c voltage is given to
Fig 3. Ultrasonic sensor bridge rectifier and it converts the a.c voltage into the d.c
3.4 Buzzer voltage.

A buzzer or beeper is an audio signaling device, which may The microcontroller contains the integrated processor,
be mechanical, electromechanical, or piezoelectric (piezo for memory, small of RAM and program memory which are used
short). Typical uses of buzzers shown in fig 4 and beepers to interact with things connected to the chip. It is the kind
include alarm devices, timers, and confirmation of user input used in personal computer. In the circuit, the Node MCU is
such as a mouse click or keystroke. act as a microcontroller. The Node MCU is most preferred to
interfacing the internet of things to our circuits. It requires the
5V d.c supply, so we want to interface the bridge rectifier into
the bridge 7805 regulator. The 7805 regulator converters the
12v d.c voltage into the 5V d.c voltage and the converting
voltage is given into Node MCU microcontroller. The water
flow sensor and ultra-sonic sensor is embedded in the circuit,
to play a vital role in the water leakage. Before starting the
process, the flow rate of each pipe can be determined, and
these values is known as the threshold value. This process can
Fig 4. Piezo Electric Buzzer
be repeated in all the pipelines in the home or industry.
3.5 Internet of Things
Then the water level in the tank will be reduced means the
flow rate can also reduce, it indicates the water leak in the
pipelines. To overcome the disadvantage, we want to measure
the amount of water in the tank by using the UV sensor. It is
used to measure the distance between two points, by using the
calculation we easily the amount of water present in the tank.
Ifsuppose the water level in the tank will be too low means,
the UV sensor send the signal to the microcontroller. The
microcontroller switch on the single-phase induction motor, is
to full the water in the tank. After that, there is any leak in any
block can be reducing the flow rate in each water flow sensor.
The flow rate is slightly differing from the threshold value;
Fig 5. Internet of Things the flow sensor sends the signal to the Node MCU. Then the

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Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

microcontroller receives the signal from flow sensor and the sensor and sends SMS when it detects leakage in water
sends into the output devices as LCD, buzzer and IOT. The where the water sensor was fixed. The time taken by the
LCD receives the signal from microcontroller, it suddenly system to deliver the SMS is dependent on the coverage area
displays the notification as “Leak is Detected in Kitchen or range of the specified mobile network. If the mobile is in
Room”, if there is leak in kitchen. Similarly, there leak in any the range of the system, then the SMS is delivered in 4
room in the home or industry, it easily identified and reported seconds. The prototype of home water leakage detection
to the user. At the same time the buzzer will produce the system and the outputs are as shown in fig 7-10.
sound signal to the entire surroundings. The block diagram of
proposed work is shown in fig 6.

Fig 7. Prototype of Home water leakage detection system

Test Case 1:
Title: Water Leakage
System: Home Water Leakage Detecting and Monitoring
System
Input Instructions: Acquire the water sensor reading while
there was leakage in the master washroom pipes.
Output: Alarming the user on his mobile by sending an SMS
Fig 6. Block Diagram for Proposed Work to the Android mobile application
After receiving the notification, the user is to be alerted and Result: Test Succeeded.
automatically cut off the main supply and after repair the pipe
and it is used to promote water consumption. The IOT is used
to send the alert signal to the email and web browser. These
will be easy and more secure, and it is pretty good in
industrial purpose, because of the water leak is to cause the
damage in the machinery system by using the project to
promote the water consumption and usage. These will come
under the home automation. Now-a-days these projects will
alert the people “How to use water”, “How to maintain the
water wastage” and these things will be more important. We
all are must do these, because of to protect our future
generation and environment.
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
After finishing all the Home water leakage Detection system
connections and programming, system gives good response to Fig 8. Result when leakage detected in washroom pipe

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Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

Test Case 2: 5. CONCLUSION

Title: Water Leakage Water for domestic purposes is always very essential and it is
mandatory to prevent it from getting wasted due to any
System: Home Water Leakage Detecting and Monitoring
pipeline leaks. Hence the designed prototype is an effective
System
solution for monitoring the flow of water as well as detecting
Input Instructions: Acquire the water sensor reading while for leaks in the pipelines. The smart water leakage detection
there was leakage in kitchen pipes. system can help in water distribution process by remote
activation of solenoid valves. Usage of cloud logging
Output: Alarming the user on his mobile by sending an SMS
technique enables the data acquisition and analysis in any
to the Android mobile application and close valve2. point of the pipeline. This system makes cost efficient and
Result: Test Succeeded. simple. The flow of water through the domestic pipeline can
be monitored, forecasted and visualize from anywhere in the
world using internet through computer or Smartphone. The
collected data can be analyzed for making predictions to the
users for demand management, asset management, and
leakage management. With water as a flowing liquid the
system has been tested successfully. The work can be
extended to forecast data for larger communities with
customer satisfaction involving low cost and better
performance of the overall system.
The location of the leak has determining a maximum distance
of 2 meters and it can determine the location of the leak
closest to the actual location of the leak with an average flow
rate of 10 liters per minute. One plan in the future work is to
Fig 9. Result when leakage detected in Kitchen pipe extend the detection ability to more than 2 meters, which later
on can be developed by considering the time duration of the
Test Case 3: reduction in water flow rate when there is a leak, so the
Title: Water Leakage accuracy of the leakage location is improved. Another future
work is to implement the detection system to branched
System: Home Water Leakage Detecting and Monitoring pipelines as well as using various water flow rates.
System.
REFERENCES
Input Instructions: Acquire the water sensor (A4) reading
while there was leakage in the master Bedroom pipes. [1] Aamo OM, Salvesen J, Foss B (2006) Observer design using
boundary injections for pipeline monitoring and leak detection.
Output: Alarming the user on his mobile by sending an SMS IFAC Symp. Adv. Control Chem. Process, pp 2–5.
to the Android mobile application and close valve3. [2] Abdallah S (2011) Generalizing unweighted network measures
tocapture the focus in interactions. J SocNetw Anal Min 1(4):255–
Result: Test Succeeded. 269.
[3] Akyildiz IF, Stuntebeck EP (2006) Wireless underground sensor
networks: research challenges. Ad Hoc Netw 4(6):669–686.
[4] Akyildiz IF, Su.W,Sankarasubramaniam Y, Cayirci E
(2002)Wireless sensornetworks: a survey’’. Comput Netw38
(4):393–422.
[5] Carrano R, Passos D, Magalhaes L, Albuquerque C (2014) Survey
and taxonomy of duty cycling mechanisms in wireless sensor
networks’’. J IEEE CommunSurv Tutor 16(1):181–194
[6] Chen K, Ma M, Cheng E, Yuan F, Su W (2014) A survey on mac
protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks. J IEEE
CommunSurv Tutor 16(3):1433–1447
[7] Water sector in India: Overview and focus areas for the future,
PanIIT Conclave 2010, Available from: https://www.
kpmg.de/docs/Water sector in India.
[8] Guidelines for Improving Water Use Efficiency in Irrigation,
Domestic & Industrial Sectors, Central water commission, Ministry
of water resources, Government of India, November 2014.
[9] Adam Openshaw, Kalvin Vu, Irrigation Leak Detection- Using Flow
Fig 10. Result when leakage detected in Bedroom pipe Rate Sensors to Detect Breaks in an Irrigation System,
Availablefrom:http:

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Journal of Network Communications and Emerging Technologies (JNCET) www.jncet.org
Volume 9, Issue 4, April (2019)

//digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&co Dr.S.Saravanan received his B.E. Degree in

ntext=cpesp. Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Madras
[10] Teddy Ariyatham, water leak detection, california state university, University, Tamilnadu, India in 2000, M.E. Degree in
northridge, /132789/Ariyatham-Teddy-thesis-2015.pdf? sequence . Applied Electronics from Anna University,
[11] Ria Sood, Manjit Kaur, Hemant Lenka, design and development of Tamilnadu, India in 2005 and Ph.D Degree in
automatic water flow meter, International Journal of Computer Information and Communication Engineering from
Science, Engineering and Applications (IJCSEA) Vol.3, No.3, June Anna University, Tamilnadu, India in 2011. He is
2013. currently working as Professor in the Department of
[12] Stoianov I, Nachman L, Madden S, Tokmouline T, Csail M (2007) Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Muthayammal
Pipe net: A wireless sensor network for pipeline monitoring. In: Engineering College, Tamilnadu, India. Dr.S.Saravanan is a life member of
IEEE 6th international symposium on information processing in the Institution of Engineers (India), Indian Society of Technical Education
sensor networks, pp 264–273 life member of Solar Energy Society of India and Indian Sociery for
[13] Sun Z, Wang P, Vuran MC, Al-Rodhaan MA, Al- Technical Education. He has published many papers in national/international
DhelaanAM,Akyildiz IF (2011) Mise-pipe: magnetic induction- journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include power
based wirelesssensor networks for underground pipeline monitoring. electronics, power system, artificial intelligence and VLSI.
J AdHocNetw 9(3):218–227
[14] Sportiello L (2013) A methodology for designing robust and
efficient hybrid monitoring systems. Int J Crit
InfrastructProt6(3):132–146
[15] Shuqing Z, Tianye G, Hong X, Guangpu H, Zhongdong W (2009)
Study on new methods of improving the accuracy of leak detection
and location of natural gas pipeline Measuring. IEEE
IntConfTechnolMechAutom 1:360–3
Authors
Mohananthini Natarajan received her B.E.
(Electrical and Electronics) Degree from Annai
Mathammal Sheela Engineering College, Namakkal,
Tamil Nadu, India in 2007. She received her M.E.
(Applied Electronics) Degree from College of
Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai,
Tamil Nadu, India in 2009. She received her Ph.D.
Degree in Electrical Engineering (Image
Processing) from the Annamalai University in the
year 2017. She has published many technical papers
in national and international conferences and journals. Currently, she is
working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering, Muthayammal Engineering College (Autonomous),
Rasipuram, Tamil Nadu, India. Her current research areas are digital image
processing, information security, optimization, power system and power
electronics.

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