Teague's Arduino Water Meter Saves Lives!

One of the global issues today is the scarcity of water in certain areas; mainly areas in Africa and Asia. The interaction design team from Teague, a company dedicated to help distribute good clean water all around the world in areas where its needed the most, had conducted an experiment at their own kitchen of their studio. The experiment was to test how much water their workplace uses every time the faucet has been used using their very own water meter (Arduino Water Meter). Once the water meter had been installed, one would think there would be a change in water usage now that the faucet has been equipped with a blinking LED light at the opening and two visible electrical wires. This possible change toward conservative water usage can possibly be from of the idea of feeling insecure now that they are being watched, monitored, and experimented on. Surprisingly, stated Teague, it didn't change the behavior of water usage at all. The water meter measured about two gallons of water every time one would wash their hands. This was the case until they placed an Apple iPad displaying the data the water meter was putting out. This helped with the awareness of how much water is being wasted every time anyone casually washed their hands.  

TEAGUE Give Water from TEAGUE on Vimeo.

As you can see in the short video, Teague's Arduino water meter works; it works like any other similar water meter connected to any household or business getting a water bill. The functions of this type of water meter is measuring the fallen water coming out of the nozzle of the faucet, collecting data, and sending it to their program which stores it into its own data base. Its as simple as that. But although it seems like its such a common and simple design (come on, its a water meter), problems always come up; they need to in order to work out the kinks. Such problems would be like wireless connectivity of the meter to the program (in Teague's case, an iPad) to collect and store the data, the longevity of the meter (notice the difference between a standard household water meter versus the Arduino water meter [which is per faucet]), it's versatility (will these meters fit on any given faucet), or its durability (how much force does it take to knock off the meter from the faucet?).  

The Arduino meters appear to be very usable; all you do is turn on the faucet and monitor how much water you're using. I'm not sure if what they used in the demo was an iPad app that they had approved by Apple Inc., but if that was the case, then that would hurt a lot of peoples pockets just to monitor how much water is wasted per use. This means that the cost for having this system installed into your home or business, if an iPad was required, would cost at least $500. This is almost guaranteed to scare off potential buyers from purchasing this meter unless it is offered in Apple's iPhone app form as well; but even though, one would need an iPhone  The idea of trying to get people to understand how much installing at least one of these in their homes would impact those in desperate need of water might not be the hardest part to do when persuading someone to buy a these water meters, but the cost of how much would force consumers out the door.

Teague's Arduino water meter is definitely something that can change the world.  Now we can all find out instantaneously how much water we are using and adjust our behaviors to where we want our water usage level's be.  This will not only help those who pay the water bills but also those who don't regularly receive the proper amount of water each day to at least survive each day.  Although the Arduino water meters aren't as aesthetic as most of us like them to be, its function and and usability is what will save the world from being thirsty.

Instructions for the DIY Arduino Water Meter can be found at Teague Labs.

http://www.teague.com/
http://labs.teague.com/?p=722
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