Claims:
1. A control device for managing water flow and consumption, in a building or a cluster of buildings, or a city, comprising an overhead tank fill control module, a submerged pump module, a ground level pump module, a ground level storage tank fill module, an inlet flow meter module, an outlet flow module and a flow control valve module; wherein the central control device communicates with an overhead tank fill control device through the overhead tank fill control module, with a submerged pump and / or ground level pump through the submerged pump module and /or ground level pump module, with a ground level storage tank fill device through the ground level storage tank fill module, with an inlet flow meter through inlet flow meter module, with a plurality of outlet flow meters through the outlet flow meter module and with flow control valves through the flow control valve module.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a user interface (UI) module for users, an administrator UI; wherein the user and administrator UI module allows a user to interact with the service provider and monitor water consumption through the control device.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprises a GPS locator and transmitter.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprises a GSM module.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the submerged pump fills the ground level storage tank or the sump, when the control device communicates the sump to be empty via the device.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the overhead tanks are pumped with water from the ground level storage tank or sump, when the control device communicates the overhead tanks to be empty.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interface UI module further comprises a bill payment system.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the device automatically communicates unavailability of water in, and location of, the ground storage tank to a water supplier.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein overhead tank filling is triggered manually or automatically.

10. The device as claimed in claim 1, the tank fill control device on the ground storage tank and the overhead tanks determine water level ultrasonically.

, Description:Field of Invention:
The present embodiment relates to water management system, and more particularly to a system and device for an apartment or a building, or a cluster of buildings or a whole city for management of supply & consumption of water.

Background of Invention:

Given the shortage of potable water, it is imperative to find solutions to monitor the water supply and consumption and control water wastage. Usually, in apartments, buildings or condominiums, there tends to be huge quantity of water wastage due to poor water management practices of the management and the residents. Moreover, especially in India, there seems to have an unbalanced demand for a water supplier to supply water to the ground level tanks, called as sumps, for those who don’t have independently dug bore wells.

Many devices exist for monitoring and controlling water usage, but they provide limited functionality. For example, water meters exist that allow consumers to measure their own water usage. These devices however have no time resolution or past history records. Users cannot tell exactly when water is being used and by whom. Water valves exist that allow users to shut off water flow but these devices are not connected to a central management system that can control their open or close status.

There are no systems available that smartly and intelligently automate the process of supplying water to a ground storage tanks of building or a cluster of buildings and from there to the overhead tanks for distribution to users independently. Current methods are largely manual and entail a huge loss of water together inconvenience to all stake holders.

Accordingly, there remains a need for a water management system and device to efficiently and automatically manage water consumption for a building, or a cluster of buildings or a city.

Summary of Invention:

In an aspect, a control device for managing water flow and consumption is provided. The device include an overhead tank fill control module, a submerged pump module, a ground level pump module, a ground level storage tank fill module, an inlet flow meter module, an outlet flow module and a flow control valve module; wherein the central control device communicates with an overhead tank fill control device through the overhead tank fill control module, with a submerged pump or ground level pump through the submerged pump module or ground level pump module, with a ground level storage tank fill device through the ground level storage tank fill module, with a plurality of inlet flow meters through inlet flow meter module, with a plurality of outlet flow meters through the outlet flow meter module and with flow control valves through the flow control valve module.

Brief Description of drawings:

The above-mentioned features and other advantages of this present disclosure, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the present disclosure will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig.1a and 1b illustrates different embodiment of water management system having a central control device, according to an embodiment herein;

Fig. 2 illustrates communication between the central control device of Figure 1 with elements of the water management system, according to an embodiment herein;

Fig. 3 illustrates a pumping process flow chart, according to an embodiment herein; and

Fig. 4 illustrates an overhead tank fill process flow chart, according to an embodiment herein.

Fig. 5: illustrates the overall system’s working integrated flowchart with the Central Control Device communicating, controlling and operating the overall system.

Detailed description of Invention:

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Before describing the detailed embodiments that are in accordance with the present disclosure, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations arrangement of the system according to an embodiment herein and as exemplified in FIG. 1 through FIG. 5.

Any embodiment described herein is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiment. All of the embodiment described in this detailed description are illustrative, and provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure and not to limit the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the claims.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present embodiment and disclosure cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the arrangement of the system according to an embodiment herein. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present embodiment can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures are shown in block diagram form only in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

As mentioned, there remains a need for a water management system and device to efficiently and automatically manage water consumption for a building, or a cluster of buildings or a city, the embodiment herein, accordingly, provide a central control device to manage water consumption and flows.

Fig. 1a illustrates a water management system having a central control device, according to an embodiment herein. The water management system includes a number of overhead water tanks 102, each tank interconnected to its bottom maintaining equal water level in all tanks and one tank having an overhead tank fill control device 104, a number of flow control valves 106, an inlet flow meter 108 to monitor the quantity of water filled to the overhead tanks from the ground level sump, a central control device 110, a sump 112, a ground level pump 114 to pump water from sump 112 to overhead tanks, an overhead tank inlet pipe 116, a number of outlet flow meters 118 to monitor the water usage quantity of each individual household, a solar panel 120 and a sump fill control device 122. In an embodiment, the overhead water tanks 102 are placed on top of a building such that each of the tanks caters to each of the floor of the building. In another embodiment, each tank may be specific to a resident or apartment within the building. Even in the independent housing, the overhead water tanks 102 are kept on the roof of the house. The overhead water tanks include the tank fill control device 104 that communicates with the central control device 110 automatically controls the ground level pump 114 to fill the overhead tanks in case of less water level and full water level. The inlet flow meter 108 is placed on the overhead tank inlet pipe 116 to monitor and measure the flow of water into the water tanks. The water in the overhead water tank 102 is drawn from the sump 112, which is connected with a ground level pump114 to pull water from a municipal supplyor through a bore well or from a water supplier stored in the sump. The sump also includes the sump fill control device 122. Further, the outlet flow meters 118 are provided to measure the outlet of the water and the flow control valves 106 are provided to shut-off or release the water supply by the central control device 110 to each of the resident or apartment or floor. In an embodiment, the sump 112 is connected with a submerged pump 114ato pump water from the beneath the ground or through a bore well, as depicted in Figure 1b.

Fig. 2 illustrates communication between the central control device of Figure 1 with elements of the water management system through different modules, according to an embodiment herein. The central control device 110 includes an overhead tank fill control module 202, a submerged pump module 204, a ground level pump module 206, a ground level storage tank fill control module 208, an inlet flow meter module 210, an outlet flow module 212 and a flow control valve module 214. The central control device 110 communicates with the overhead tank fill control device 104 through the overhead tank fill control module 202, with the submerged pump or ground level pump 114 through submerged pump module 204 or ground level pump module 206, with the ground level storage tank fill device 122 through the ground level storage tank fill module 208, with the inlet flow meters 108 through inlet flow meter module 210, with the outlet flow meter 118 through the outlet flow meter module 212 and with flow control valves 106 through the flow control valve module 214. The central control device 110 further includes a user interface (UI) module for a user 214, an administrator UI 216 to program the control devices from remote centers on various aspects like price per liter of water consumed, monitor the usage of each device etc., and an sms module 218 to communicate the bill to the users, water supply need to the water suppliers, pump / system malfunction alert to service professional. The user UI module 214 allows the user or a resident to interact with the service provider through the central control device 110 and monitor various water related activities such as consumption, bills, leakages etc.

Fig. 3 illustrates a pumping process flow chart, according to an embodiment herein. This is one of the various embodiment that can be obtained from the central control device of Figure 2. The central control device 110 monitors whether the sump 112 is empty via sump tank fill module 208 which communicates with the sump fill device 122. If the central control device 110 determines the sump 112 to be empty, then a water supplier is intimated to fill the water in the sump 112. In case of independent bore well availability the central control device 110 triggers ON the submerged pump 114a to fill the overhead tank. This may be communicated automatically through a mobile application as an alert. Furthermore, if the water supplier is not available in a given time, a service provider may directly be contacted. If the water supplier is available and water is filled on time, the stakeholders are intimated accordingly. Further, if the central control device 110 determines the pump to be hot, the central control device 110 automatically shuts off supplying water into the overhead tanks until the pump cools down.

Fig. 4 illustrates an overhead tank fill process flow chart, according to an embodiment herein. Once the sump 112 is filled, it is imperative to fill the overhead tanks 102. If the tanks 102 are not empty, the central control device 110 keeps the pump in OFF condition, if the tanks are empty, then the pumping is initiated to fill water from the sump 112 to the tanks 102. The central control device 110 through the inlet flow meter module 212 which communicates with the inlet flow meter 108 determine the quantity of water pumped into the tanks 102, and if a predetermined quantity is reached, the central control device 110 shuts-off the ground level pump 114to arrest the flow of the water into the overhead tanks 102.

Fig. 5 illustrates the flowchart of the overall system that o the communication and activation of individual devices and modules integrated to the central control device 110 including the payment model of the individual users. The value for price per liter of water usage becomes input to the central control device 110 through service provider by the cloud server. If the payment of the user for usage is not received by the server monitored through the central control device 110 then the outlet flow control valve 106 will automatically be shut-off to cut the water supply and be opened upon receiving the payment.

The tank fill control devices, for sump as well as for the overhead tanks may be mechanically operated or ultrasonically operated and communicate to the central control device 110, through the tank fill control modules 202 and 208, when there is a need to fill the overhead tanks 102. The overhead tanks 102, in a preferred embodiment, are all interconnected at the bottomso as to maintain a uniform water level. When the overhead tank fill control device 104communicates the water need to the central control device 110, through the module 202,it checks for the availability of water in the ground level storage tank or sump 112, if it is a water supply based ground level storage tank or sump. If water is not available in the ground level storage tank 112, the central control device 110, also having an inbuilt GPS and GSM module, sends an SMS intimation of the location and device ID to the water supplier regarding the need for water to be supplied to the ground level storage tank 112to have water supplied and the same intimation may be communicated to the super user (owner / secretary), device administrator and the service provider.

In case of a submersible pump operated system, the device 110 will immediately activate the submersible pump into the bore well to fill water to the ground level storage tank 112.

Once the sump is filled and the information is communicated to the users, the device 110, immediately actuates the ground level pump114. The ground level pump 114 includes a temperature sensor patch that is pasted to the casing to monitor the pump temperature, so that whenever the pump temperature rises, because of dry run, it will pause the pump and intimate the water supplier or activate the submerged pump 114a to fill in the ground level storage tank at the same time intimate the device administrator about the status.

In a preferred embodiment, the pumps are operated through solar hybrid power to save electricity. The individual users have connections to individual houses through dedicated piping arrangement. Each piping arrangement will have electronically operating outlet flow meters that will monitor the quantity of water used by each individual residence and the same will be communicated to the central control device 110 periodically. Each individual user will have a personalized mobile application through which they can monitor the quantity of water user over the period and at the same time pay for water services through online gateways. Each individual house piping arrangement will have independent flow control valves 106 that controls the water flow to each individual household which is actuated by the service provider through the central control device 110 in case of any defaults in payment or repairs.