Site Home Page About HUMS Remote Sensor Data Directory Whole-Building Monitoring Whole-House Monitoring Fixture Level Monitoring (2016) Fixture Level Monitoring (2019)

HUMS Background

Welcome to the Texas Tech University Home Utility Management System, or HUMS for short. HUMS is an experimental home located in Junction, Texas, with the goal of capturing data that will propel the development of future sustainable homes and infrastructure.

The experimental home is currently custom outfitted with intelligent water and power monitoring and conservation systems, including solar panels, a wind turbine, a data-rich water tank, and a residential battery. These tools allow researchers to closely monitor the home's water and energy usage and develop innovative conservation solutions.

This website is the researchers fixture-level water use monitoring data repository

The repository is comprised of a network of Raspberry Pi Zero W computers connected to mass flow meters controlled by a central Raspberry Pi 4 multi-homed controller. The controller has public facing IP of 129.118.101.130, and a private address of 192.168.4.1. While modern billing software in larger communities allow hourly data collection and reporting; its whole-house usage. The HUMS project is fixture level usage. Fixture level monitoring is rare in residential applications, and part of this repository is to develop the experience in low-cost (hence the Raspberry Pis) and end-user maintainable. The system explicitly EXCLUDES the control aspect (i.e. the ability to throttle usage), but it would only require some small gate valves with actuators, a relay per valve, and a failure mode of valve open to be implemented for total autonomous water conservation.

At the time of the network development, the inexpensive commercial solutions in the navigation bar above were unobtainable, hence the DIY approach implemented herein.

Development Notes:

  • The controller hardware is a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Computer running Raspbian.
  • The public facing IP is 129.118.101.129. The controller hosts its own wireless network independent from the HUMS Network and TTUNet. The wireless network subnet is 192.168.4.xxx
  • The remote hardware are Raspberry Pi Zero W running Raspbian.
  • The flow sensors are hall-type detectors that count turns on a small turbine (a mass flow meter). The stall flow is about 0.01 liters/minute. Flows smaller than that are undetected.
  • The entire network is programmed to reboot if there is a power interruption; If the GFI outlets trip, then manual reset is required.

    • Links to Subdirectories in Sensor Data (Umbrella) Records

    Laundry Room (Hot and Cold) pixar1

    Shower Bathroom 1 (Hot and Cold) pixar2

    Sink Bathroom 1 (Hot and Cold) pixar3

    Toilet Bathroom 1 (NULL and Cold) pixar4

    Toilet Bathroom 2 (Hot and Cold) pixar5

    Shower Bathroom 2 (Hot and Cold) pixar6

    Sink Bathroom 2 (Hot and Cold) pixar7

    Kitchen Sink (Hot and Cold) pixar8

    Dishwasher (Hot and NULL) pixar9

    Links to meterspecs.txt file in Sensor Data Records

    Laundry Room (Hot and Cold) pixar1(192.168.4.?)

    Shower Bathroom 1 (Hot and Cold) pixar2(192.168.4.20)

    Sink Bathroom 1 (Hot and Cold) pixar3(192.168.4.15)

    Toilet Bathroom 1 (NULL and Cold) pixar4(192.168.4.25)

    Toilet Bathroom 2 (NULL and Cold) pixar5(192.168.4.24)

    Shower Bathroom 2 (Hot and Cold) pixar6(192.168.4.35)

    Sink Bathroom 2 (Hot and Cold) pixar7(192.168.4.34)

    Kitchen Sink (Hot and Cold) pixar8(192.168.4.14)

    Dishwasher (Hot and NULL) pixar9(192.168.4.18)

  • Add route to meterspecs.txt files and LAN addressing scheme for future debugging
  • Web Server Address change to 129.118.101.130
  • Activate Web Server on 129.118.101.129
  • Routing is limited to TTUNet wired ethernet
  • Copy CSS to decorate the public facing web pages