Finding the best suited solution for unique applications
A custom instrument bracket designed for polemounted installations
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WRP offers the ideal water level monitoring solution: a Technolog data logger and VEGA sensor. By Kirsten Kelly
specialist engineering consultancy in water resource engineering, water conservation and water demand management, WRP Consulting has started to supply various products to the water industry. “As part of our consulting service, we have to measure and monitor pressures, flows and water levels. This has evolved to where we now source and supply these products to the industry,” says Boeta Swart, associate at WRP Consulting. Swart adds that they have also developed a web-based platform called Zednet that manages infrastructure. “It supplies management information about both the water resource itself and the monitoring hardware installed in a water distribution system. Because the service is hosted, no software needs to be installed on-site and the system can optionally be fully managed on behalf of a client.
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MAR /APR 2021
Raw data is centrally stored and backed up – and can be intelligently queried from anywhere, via the web, using any recent internet browser.”
Data logger
One of the products that WRP has sourced and supplied to the South African industry for the past 20 years is the Technolog Cello 4s GSM data logger – a remote monitoring solution that is both scalable and versatile. “We chose this type of data logger because it is rugged, portable, waterproof and very reliable. It is a unique, integral data logger that has an internal battery and GSM modem, which allows you to install the device in remote locations where you do not need external power to operate the device. It also powers the attached sensors from the data logger, so no external power sources are needed to run the instrumentation,” adds Swart. Equipped with the ideal data logger, WRP started to source a sensor.
TYPES OF SENSORS 1) Traditionally, the monitoring of water levels was done by a chart recorder. This monitoring device is actuated mechanically by a float that follows the water level. The graphic recorder provides a continuous pen and ink trace of the water level on a chart, which is graduated to record both water level and time. 2) A shaft encoder has a similar setup to the chart recorder, but it provides a digital recording of values instead of a pen line on a chart. 3) Submersible level transmitters are submerged in water and reference the head of the water above the sensor location. 4) Ultrasonic sensors fire ultrasonic pulses at the surface of the water. Return time calculations are used to determine the depth of the water.
