Hi
I am very new to home assistant but I love the possibilities.
One thing I want to do is to track water usage, and create alerts on certain conditions.
I am struggling to find a suitable solution.
I live in the uk and my water meter is 20m from the house in the ground, with no power near by.
One thought I had was install a new meter inside the house and connect that to HA.
Any advice ?
Thanks.
If you do not mind a bit (more) DIY then you can use a hall water (pulse) thingy with a wemos d1 mini, you can ‘insert’ this into the pipe that enter your home … and yes… you must (want to) do a bit yourselves and learn esp
All in al < 20USD and some time
There are multiple examples available, the programming of the wemos is simple / straightforward as soon as you know HOW to program an esp device.
I just started to do this now. Might want to check this out, im doing this right now!
EDIT: you would need to install something on your main water line coming into the house (no matter if your meter is 20 m out).
I originally installed a StreamLabs Water Monitor: Water Leak Detector Residential | StreamLabs (streamlabswater.com) because a friend of mine had one and it worked well for him. I bought it last year for $139 but I see it’s more than twice as expensive now - probably would have passed on that right away for that amount.
Unfortunately, I could not make it work. I think the main reason was that the straight piece of pipe between where it come out of the ground and before it goes around a 90deg angle wasn’t long enough to support accurate measurement; it just had too many turbulences for the hall monitor to work properly.
I replaced it with a Flume Water Sensor which is strapped onto the water meter itself; as it is battery powered (supposed to last 1+ years) you don’t need power at the meter directly. But you need a bridge that connects it to your WiFi - and the line of sight from the water meter to the bridge should be pretty clear. Mine is more than just a little obstructed (the water meter is about 35m down the slope from my house, about 40cm in the ground and in a concrete box with a heavy metal lid) but it still seems to work okay. The Flume sensor worked fine until we had a major rain which washed a lot of dirt down the slope and over the water meter box, so the sensor lost connection to the bridge. After removing about 6cm of mud from the top of the lid the connection started working again but the battery was rather drained, and I had to replace it after less that 9 months.
Although Flume’s special battery seems to be nothing more than 4AA batteries it still cost me $15 for the new battery pack - next time it’s empty, I will just open up the little box/carrier to confirm that and replace it that way for way less money.
Overall, I’m still happy with the Flume and I hope I can deal with the odd occasion where I need to clear the dirt of the water meter box again. I am positively surprised that it seems to be accurate to about +/-@2.5% (with a minute-by-minute resolution on the reporting) and the integration with HA is working pretty reliably for me.
If you want a little more insight just take a look at this - I think it’s not 100% up to date any more but it will give you a good idea of the different approaches:
The Hook Up - All Home Smart Water Monitors. - YouTube
Caveat:
I’m in the US, so I don’t know what solutions are actually available in the UK.
That flow sensor at Ali for under $20US looks great!
You mention programming, does it have an ESP chip or just send pulses that you’d measure with an ESP board?
Also, did I read it correctly that it also has a temperature sensor?
The actions … trying to be transparent
Câble de téléchargement FT232 FT232BL FT232RL USB 2.0 vers TTL, Module adaptateur carte série 5V 3.3V, débogueur vers 232, compatible avec win10 | AliExpress
Simple Robot】 Mini Module Wemos D1 Esp8266 Esp-12 Esp12 Mini Carte De Développement Wifi Micro Usb 3.3v Basé Sur Esp-8266ex - Circuits Intégrés - AliExpress
And this is the connection schema (with a different ESP controller…but the same idea)
Brilliant thanks.
How accurate do you think it is? Also if the D1 loses connection does it update HA with the correct value when it gets a connection again?
Another option I was looking at was something like this
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrOwl7I
And then connect it to a modbus to ip/Wi-Fi converter.
More money but it does give a few different values I think.
Just not sure how well it would work.
Thank you!
One more question: If it’s just a pulse generator and a thermometer, could I just hook it up to a regular ESP development board running ESPHome, and let HA display the data?
… if you already have such a thing then why not …
These are entries in my yaml for my wemos (sorry for the French stuff)…aside the pins … you still need to calibrate it
sensor:
- platform: pulse_counter
id: water_flow_meter
pin: D3
name: "water_flow_meter"
update_interval: 1s
icon: mdi:water
filters:
- lambda: return (x / 5.48);
unit_of_measurement: "l"
- platform: total_daily_energy
name: "efs_du_jour"
power_id: water_flow_meter
unit_of_measurement: "l"
accuracy_decimals: 2
id: daily_efs
- platform: template
name: "efs_veille"
id: template_efs_veille
unit_of_measurement: "l"
accuracy_decimals: 2
icon: mdi:water
update_interval: 10sThat looks pretty simple, thank you again!
One final question, then I’ll stop monopolizing this thread: Do you also use the temperature sensor, and if so, can I see how it’s defined?
I donot, this picture comes from another thread where the person added a temp sensor…which is as simple too. On the esphome pages you can find many devices and how to yaml-them 
Where is this project, a different post?
Yes…but 1 year later, forgot…you’d have to search yourselves 
I have everything working except the temperature. Any reference for the temperature sensor yaml?
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I see a lot of posts on different threads for cheap water flow sensors from Ali Express and/or Amazon. Many of these sensors have not been tested or certified for potable water applications and could leach unknown toxins into your drinking water supply. There’s a reason reputable manufacturers sell ‘potable’ and ‘non potable’ water meters.
You may want to avoid putting a random $15 flow sensor to your water mains, unless you’re a risk taker when it comes to health and safety. Just something to think about.
My utility just made available its use of eye-on-water. Here is a screenshot of what it provides. It does not update minute by minute but it reads from the api often enough that I get accurate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly totals by using the free service provided by my utility.
I have a NSF potable rated shutoff valve installed to shut off the water with HA. Check with your utility if you already have a flow meter in place. Free is the best kind of sensor. (Yes, I know I pay for it in my water and sewer bill but not as a direct line item)
This may or may not work for you but it let’s me see how much water I use and if anything is leaking.
