Promising new whole house water flow monitor - Osiris on Kickstarter

Hi all,

Thought I would share this in case of interest (I’m just a backer - not associated with the creator). They have been responsive to suggestions and are intending to incorporate SmartThings integration - which could provide another way to monitor water usage and leaks for the whole house, without having to reply solely upon individual water sensors at each point of concern.

Check out Osiris: The $65 Smart Water Monitor by AZ Electronic APPS, LLC on @Kickstarter http://kck.st/2mBIB3L

I have run into situations where I have had external leaks and obviously a moisture sensor would not be good because of rain - so this could be a good way to deal with those situations in addition to monitoring household water usage - both checking the monthly bill and also an additional security watch when not home (water being used but nobody home situation)

Intersted in feedback and thoughts - hope it proves of interest

Looks interesting, but almost every new miracle product crowdfunding campaign looks intriguing .
I can see where sound of water flowing through pipes, but don’t see how they can actually measure how much water is being used. Unless I missed something and it only tells you if any water is being used.
If they get it integrated so if water is running for more than X minutes it turns off your water valve.
However there are so many variables in that formula I think the logic behind an actually working algorithm would be able to control a space station. How does it decide whether it is the dishwasher, washing machine and somebody taking a shower simultaneously or consecutively , or a burst pipe causing water to flow for more than XX minutes ?

2 Likes

By tracking your normal routines for a year. They could probably do it to a house with maybe one person 70% of the time. I can’t see how it could be done with a family of 4. I have plenty of false positive with water sensors and water valve with ST so this definitely is over promised. I hope them the best and get it right cause it would be nice to have something like this.

2 Likes

They’ve got a patent pending and good engineering cred, so maybe they have something.

I agree that it sounds unlikely that it could detect a slow leak from a cracked pipe, but you never know.

The temperature detection seems silly, though. The pipe isn’t going to be colder than the rest of the area, so you can just use any temperature sensor to let you know that it’s gotten to freezing. If anything, a pipe with hot water will be warmer, so relying on this as the temperature sensor won’t let you know that the pipes in the exterior walls are freezing. But maybe I’m missing something.

1 Like

Hi Guys,

I’m Nick, a partner with AZ APPS, the group that created Osiris.

We’ve been in business for 14 years. We make credit-card-sized lab instruments like SP-8V (8-channel MicroVoltmeter) and SP-8I (8-channel NanoAmmeter).

To clarify:

Water flow in pipes is a non-linear sound. Hence Osiris knows approximate water flow, not exact gallons per minute.

What Osiris does know, very reliably, is when you run your water, and for how long. It graphs water use in minutes per hour. This shows you what times of day and days of the week you use the most water. Basically it tracks your water habits for you, making it easy to conserve.

During testing, Osiris had no trouble detecting small leaks, like a trickling faucet.

No problem if you don’t want to back Osiris now. Just wait a few months until we’re in production, and see how people like it.

3 Likes

Hi JDRoberts,

We recommend putting Osiris on one of the cold-water pipes. This allows Osiris to clearly hear both cold water and water flowing into the water heater, which becomes hot water. It also allows you to track the temperature of the cold water pipes, which are the ones in danger of freezing and bursting.

You could certainly look for a freeze alert from your smart thermostat, but many people don’t have them. Osiris is designed to work stand-alone. It protects your home from leaks & pipe freezes, even if you don’t have any smart home gadgets.

Thanks for the information. I understand. But since this specific forum is for people who already have a home automation system, most of them do have temperature sensors already of one kind or another.

Which of course brings up the next question, which is how would the Osiris device be integrated with SmartThings? SmartThings does have an IFTTT channel/service, so that allows for indirect integration with anything else which either has its own IFTTT service or which can send an email or an SMS message. Or if there is an open API, SmartThings has a very active developer community and a lot of integrations are built that way.

Do you have any plans for integration options?

1 Like

According to their web page under the Mar 11 announcement of SmartThings integration:

“We will provide a local REST API for direct access to Osiris data.”

“Osiris now supports MQTT as well.”

2 Likes

Hi JDRoberts,

Hoping to see the Osiris guys collaborate with our great dev community here to provide a robust device handler and smart app to show the usage, ‘leak’ and temp information, not just the IFTTT hook up.

Specifically I am looking for functionality along the following lines, where possible:-

  • If AWAY (and nobody home) then water should not be being used - except for things like a garden sprinkler system. Then using Rachio/Spruce or similar would know garden watering usage and compare using rules engine and detect a ‘concern’ situation. This of course could then turn off a main water valve (e.g. fortrezz) if concern valid and optionally turn off the connected water heater if appropriate.

  • if AWAY and nobody home - then water being used not for garden watering may indicate someone is in home? Security input. or see ridiculous landscaper usage below! Dashboard SHM input device option

  • if HOME/AWAY - then verifies garden watering is actually happening vs rachio or similar. I have had situations where automated valve opened and SmartThings ‘forgot’ to turn it off (i.e. failed open) and significant bill ensued. This of course could then turn off a main water valve (e.g. fortrezz) if concern valid

  • I had a ‘joyous’ situation where landscapers were using my external water connection to help themselves to water the neighborhood every week!!! So I could again use this to detect such abuse and do something (plus provide history of the event) and add it to the camera footage.

  • general usage vs monthly billing to see if bill appear consistent with in home usage monitoring over time - once calibrated with a few months of usage

  • Leak detection in addition to / or instead of individual moisture sensors deployed. Also deals with battery dead on an individual moisture sensor and this could provide a backup until battery replaced. Can deploy this where an external water moisture sensor cannot go (outside rain) as above.

  • I’m interested to deploy the device right after my water main enters the house - after manual and automated valves - so the temp at the main cold inflow is monitored - in addition to the multitude of other temp sensors we all have deployed around the house. Just for peace of mind. Again a backup.

  • Would be nice to have the graphs of use vs goals in the smartapp as a convenience

I am sure there are other possibilities - but hoping for that starter set via a Smartthings smart app/ device handler combo linked to a Osiris API which also would serve the intended Osiris apps. Obviously much of the main function can be done with existing Smartthings devices and smart apps - once a reliable water monitor is reflected into SmartThings as input.

So would require a reliable smartapp/device handler connect to Osiris API rather than just IFTTT and potential latency and unavailability, preferably.

2 Likes

I am more interested in small leak so how low of a flow/leak can Osiris detect? It’s usually the small leak behind a wall that will caused mold and major structure damage.

1 Like

Hi Guys,

When you get a leak / freeze, Osiris notifies you with the phone App. It also sends optional alerts via email / SMS, to make sure you know about it. So we are already doing something similar to IFTTT with our own cloud servers (secured with AES-256).

We are also going to support SmartThings IFTTT. You will be able to link your Osiris channel with your other IFTTT channels. So you will be able to say, “if Osiris detects a leak, then turn off my smart water valve.”

We already support direct access to Osiris via local REST APIs, at the request of another user. You can use your local REST client to get water data from a secure, local webserver running on Osiris. The interface is fast & rock-solid.

The overhead of using REST headers is minimal, but per user request, we added MQTT to Osiris. It’s running on the bench, communicating with a PC on the same LAN. So you can communicate via an MQTT broker on your LAN. Good option for hobbyists who use Raspberry Pi or Arduino.

We will look into an open API for SmartThings. Please understand that we are only 2 engineers working on many projects. We already wrote well-tested, stand-alone Android & iPhone Apps that provide most of the features requested here. Per user request, we now fully support local REST (w/ optional AES) / MQTT, and IFTTT. We also now support SSDP for the SmartThings service manager.

tintin, those are great ideas for a device handler, and we will try to implement them by August ship date. We saved your post, just in case this thread goes away.

Navat604, small leaks are usually high-pressure and fairly loud. Osiris has no trouble hearing a trickling faucet that you forgot to turn off, for example. Osiris hears a burst pipe, and a pipe or toilet hose spraying water. These are the leaks that cause major damage. A spraying toilet hose in an upstairs bath did $25K of damage to our friend’s home. Bill got an upstairs pipe leak in 2015 that made a hole in his ceiling. Osiris detects these kinds of leaks long before they damage your home. However, Osiris is not likely to detect a slowly dripping pipe. We will try to find time to do some testing and let you know.

3 Likes

Thank you for responding. Sounds promising and I will definitely keep an eye on your product once it’s out. Good luck with your project and hope to get one one day :+1:

1 Like

Thanks very much Navat604.

Sorry but one more question. Does it have local processing? Meaning does it work with the local network or Internet outage?

Good question. Osiris does MQTT and REST on the local network. Both will work with Internet outage. But with no Internet, I guess you’d need cellular backup to communicate with the outside world. SmartThings apparently doesn’t have cell, so you’d have to run a modem with cellular backup.

does it monitor water usage?

anybody know of a z-wave device that does, not sure if one exist…

Does anyone know if this works with Pex??