To ensure sewer systems are operating effectively and to reduce the risks of blockages, water companies often carry out flow surveys within their networks.  A flow survey will indicate how the sewer is performing day-to-day, as well as how it copes with the added water from rainfall events.

During any flow survey, water companies will also record the amount of rainwater that is delivered into the sewer system.  The recognised way of doing this is through the use of rain gauges.

The most common rain gauges, tipping bucket rain gauges, work by recording the number of times the tipping bucket tips when collecting rainwater.  The tipping mechanisms have a specific capacity, which when multiplied by the number of tips, calculates the amount of rainfall during a specific event.

When OnSite, one of the UK’s leading waste water specialists, was looking to improve the efficiency of their rain gauges they chose to partner with HWM.

To make their rain gauges more efficient, OnSite were looking for a datalogger that has the ability to automatically upload the collected data to a central point.  Not only would this save time, it would also be more cost-effective.

The solution HWM proposed for OnSite was their COMlog product; an innovative logger that uses the latest GPRS technology to provide rapid data transmission at low cost.  COMlog is compatible with any meter that uses pulse counting technology to take readings and processes them, making it perfect for OnSite’s requirements.

Automatically uploading data to a central server has numerous benefits for OnSite and their customers.  The data is available almost immediately, meaning it can be used more quickly and more efficiently.  It is also a much more cost-effective as automatic data transfer reduces the requirement for regular site visits for manual data downloads.

At HWM we’ve been pleased to be working in collaborative partnership with OnSite, delivering effective data monitoring solutions for them.  In turn, OnSite are particularly satisfied with both the versatility and reliability of COMlog, which has proved ideal for rainfall measurement applications.

To download the digital version of this case study please click here.