Helping SKANSKA Measure Water Levels Anywhere and Deliver Data to Building Managers

SKANSKA is a construction and development group operating in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania, and part of the global Skanska group headquartered in Sweden.

The Challenge

For its new development projects, the company wanted to pilot remote measurement of water levels in garages and rainwater-collection tanks. Because these locations usually have no mains power and no conventional internet connection, SKANSKA approached HARDWARIO. The goal was a device that would measure water level, send data to the internet, run on batteries for at least a year, and provide up-to-date information to building managers.

The Solution

For outdoor projects, our CHESTER IoT Hub is the best fit. We used its CHESTER-X0B extension and connected a robust L-MaxSonar-WRL ultrasonic sensor, and added air temperature and relative humidity measurement as well.

Data is sent to the internet over Vodafone’s NB-IoT network. For visualization we use Grafana and, above all, integration into the Sharry system that SKANSKA uses.

The outdoor L-MaxSonar-WRL ultrasonic sensor detects distances from very short up to 10 meters. It meets the IP67 standard for water ingress and matches standard 3/4-inch PVC electrical conduit fittings.

Benefits of Our Solution

• A battery-powered ultrasonic water-level measurement system
• Low acquisition and running costs
• Online data and alerts

Results

SKANSKA now has a battery-powered system for remote water-level measurement. The online data is available to building and unit managers in the Sharry system, where it can trigger follow-up actions - for example, an alert when the water level in a tank gets too high.