Monitoring water leaks during hurricane season
Filed under: environmental monitoring, Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, water leak monitoring
It’s official, hurricane season is upon us. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists June 1st as the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. The end of this particularly dangerous portion of the calendar year has been moving ever outward and now comes to a close at the end of November.
Bonnie Schneider reports for CNN that as of as early as Thursday, May 28th, the first Tropical Depression had already formed just over 300 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island. Winds, however, did not exceed 35 mph. This early storm turned out to be little more than a hazard to nearby fishing vessels, but could the early storm activity be an omen of future seasonal dangers? According to hurricane expert Robbie Berg of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, “A flurry of activity in late May or early June is not a sign of what’s to come.”
It’s good to know that despite the early indications of an active 2009 hurricane season, there is no reason for a Swine Flu like panic. However, regardless of whether this year will be any worse or better than the typical hurricane season, it is important for those in storm prone areas to take their normal yearly precautions. It could be said that any hurricane season is a bad hurricane season.
For those of us up here in the great state of Maine, we don’t have to worry as much. However, there are many of us that enjoy summers in Maine and winters in any one of the southern states. Recently, I helped a customer configure an environmental system for his summer home in Florida to watch for any water leaks, during the months when he was not there.
The system was simple to design and implement. Basically, a few water sensors were strategically placed around the house; one in the basement, two on the first floor and one in the attic. The customer liked the portability and size of the BitSight2; so with four sensors to attach, he needed two SensorProbes. We gave both BitSights external IPs on his home network and loaded them on the Internet, where he could hit them from his home in Maine.
Now, in the event that he has leaking or flooding on any floor of his summer home, the BitSight will alarm him immediately. Luckily for him, he has neighbors that live there year-round. So he can call someone to check things out, if his sensors alarm him, all the while being 3,000 miles away.
The BitSight2 line of environmental monitoring sensors are great for data centers and offices, but the size and flexibility of these entry level units makes them suitable for home use as well.
Are you putting measures in place to watch your home for water leaks, while you are away this hurricane season?
~ Jon Mills
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