|
Irrimate™ Storage Meter The Irrimate™ Storage Meter is a low cost simple meter to replace gauge boards. The storage meter continuously measures and records storage depth, volume and water surface area in each storage providing valuable water management information. Based on a pressure sensor with an accuracy of ± 1cm, the unit has its own battery and small solar cell, data logger and liquid crystal display which can display storage volume (ML), water depth (m) and water surface area (ha). An adjustable logging interval allows this information to be continuously recorded and stored in the meter and/or downloaded to a USB thumb drive for viewing on a computer. The meter is available with optional Telstra Next G® Network telemetry for viewing data remotely on a dedicated website.At any time during a season it is therefore now possible to check actual storage water depth, volumes and water surface area from anywhere in the world via computer or mobile phone. The continuous record is downloaded to the website and allows establishment of harvested water volumes and flow rate of all inflows or outflows for each storage without using flow meters in pipes. This information also allows calculation of seepage and evaporation losses and whole farm water balances.
|
 |
Telemetry
The Irrimate™ Storage Meter is available with Telstra Next G® telemetry. This allows farmers to log into our dedicated website and check all their storage volumes from the office, or from anywhere in the world via a computer or mobile phone. Graphs show data from recent days for a brief look at inflow, outflows and water harvesting. A downloadable spreadsheet file also available for more detailed data for the entire time the meter has been in the storage.
Data Interpretation
As well as providing a continuous record of water depth, storage volume and water surface area, and the continuous graph of water volume allows interpretation of storage behaviour. Figure A shows the storage behaviour in real time. For example, water was pumped into the storage at 3 different rates (34ML / Day, 5ML / Day then 15ML / Day) between 28/10/2009 and 14/11/2009. The storage was not used between 14/11/2009 and 27/11/2009 and lost 40ML to seepage and evaporation at a rate of 3.1ML / day. Between 27/11/2009 and 2/12/2009, 205ML was used for irrigation at a rate of 41ML / day. Over the next 2 days 60ML of irrigation tailwater was pumped back into the storage at 30ML / day.
By knowing irrigation and rainfall dates a full knowledge of water behaviour is available. This simple and accurate meter provides unprecidented water information. This information allows superior water management and potentially thousands of dollars of increased production each year from the scarce water source.
The Storage Meter also provides actual volumes of storm water and flood plain harvesting to be calculated which until now have been very difficult to measure.
Figure A Continuous Water Volume Records
Webstie
Access to the Storage Meter data is available through our dedicated website by username and password when telemetry is fitted. Figure B shows the "Latest Readings" graph with options to include:
- Depth (cm)
- Volume (ML)
- Surface Area (ha)
- Air Temperature (c)
- Logger Battery Voltage (V)
as required by the selection boxes provided. Placing the mouse on the graph shows the accurate values at that point.
Figure B Example of the interactive graph from our dedicated Irrimate™ telemetry monitoring site
Figure C shows the table of latest readings in more detail to allow accurate water inflow and outflow to be calculated.
Figure C Table of most recent readings from our dedicated Irrimate™ telemetry monitoring site
Figure D is the same data but in a convenient spreadsheet format to allow further manipulation of the data.
Figure D Example of downloadable spreadsheet with entire history for the individual meter
For more information please contact Aquatech Consulting on 02 6792 1265.