We should not only be frugal with gas and electricity, but also with our drinking water. The big problem here is that most people have no idea how much water they actually use. With the new wifi water meter from HomeWizard you get a clear insight into your water consumption, you will be surprised how many liters of water you use in a day.
In the past few weeks, we were one of the first to test the Homewizard wifi water meter (HWE-WTR-13) in practice. You can read our findings in this review.
Gain insight into your water consumption
Due to the high and still rising gas prices, many families are closely monitoring their gas and electricity consumption. HomeWizard has developed a dongle for this purpose that you can connect to a smart P1 meter. In real time, you can view the gas and electricity consumption or look back at how much energy has been used over a certain period (day/month/year).
To monitor the water consumption in your home, there is now a similar solution. The HomeWizard Water Meter is a smart device that you attach to the water meter. The device uses 3 inductive sensors to check whether the liter indicator in the water meter moves. The meter registers these movements and converts the revolutions into the actual consumption in liters.
The HomeWizard Water Meter is equipped with wifi and can be powered by two (CR123A) batteries or a micro USB adapter. Only connected to the mains power you will see the real-time consumption (maximum 200 liters per minute). With batteries you will receive an update four times a day.
Install Homewizard wifi water meter
You can use the Homewizard WiFi water meter on water meters from the brands Itron (Actaris and Schlumberger), Elster (Honeywell) or Sensus.
The wifi water meter comes with a transparent adapter that you can attach to the water meter with screws. The hole in the adapter must be placed exactly above the liter dial (that is the larger dial on the right side). With screws you can position the adapter and secure it to the water meter. Specific screws are supplied for the different brands of water meters. In the concise manual you can find which screws should be used. We ourselves have mounted the water meter on an Elster water meter from Brabantwater. Placing the adapter on the water meter only took a few minutes and is very simple.
If the water meter adapter is positioned correctly, the wifi water meter can be placed on it. You can place two A123 batteries in the device when there is no power in the immediate vicinity of your water meter. If there is power, such as in our case (meter cupboard), you can connect a micro USB adapter to it.
If you use the battery-powered water meter, you will receive 4 updates per day in the Energy app. Connected to a USB adapter, you can view water consumption in real time at any time.
Connect to Energy app
After the physical installation, you can add the water meter to the Energy app. Open the Energy app and select the option ‘Add New Device’. A wizard will guide you step by step through the installation procedure. These are only a few steps and mainly consist of creating an account and connecting the water meter to an 802.11b/g/n wifi network.
If a newer firmware version is available for the meter, it will be installed during the installation process. After the installation process is completely finished, the water meter will automatically appear in the Energy application.
View consumption in the Energy app
The Energy app for viewing the measurement data is available for iOS and Android devices. In the app you see detailed graphs for now, day, week, month and year. In the ‘now’ overview you get to see directly how much water you are using at that moment. There is a small delay of a few seconds before the changes become visible after opening or closing a tap.
If you want to view consumption over a longer period, you can activate the day, week, month or year view. By default, the data is stored for 12 months and you can therefore look back 1 year. Via the settings of the app you can set the water rate per 1000 liters (cubic meter). Handy because this allows you to see exactly what the costs are for a selected period.
The app is easy to use and looks very good. The graphs are clearly displayed using beautiful contrasting colours on a black background. Via the settings of the app it is possible to give multiple family members access to the consumption data. A good option that can help to deal with water more consciously.
You also have access to a number of widgets that are completely in the style of the app. With these widgets you can see directly from the home screen how much water has been used in a certain period.
Leak detection
Later this year it will be possible to detect leaks with the HomeWizard wifi water meter. You will then be notified with a notification in case of a burst pipe, leaking tap or other unusual consumption. In order to use leak detection you will need an optional Energy+ subscription.
Optional Energy+ subscription
In the app it is possible to take out the Energy+ subscription for €0.99 per month. This is not a requirement for the operation of the wifi water meter. The plus subscription gives you some useful extra functions and longer storage of historical data. The most important Energy+ functions at a glance:
- Consumption history is retained for more than 12 months (water/gas/electricity).
- Notifications in the event of consumption that deviates from normal usage patterns.
- Leak detection.
- Possibility to export the data to a CSV file.
You can activate the optional Energy+ subscription from the Energy app by means of an in-
app purchase. The amount will then be automatically charged monthly via the App Store.
Local API
The HomeWizard wifi water meter is equipped with a local API that can be switched on and off via the settings. To use the API, the water meter must be connected to a USB adapter. The API is therefore not available if you use the water meter on batteries.
Through the API, developers can read the current water consumption in JSON format and use it in other applications. You can access the API by sending an HTTP GET request to the IP address of the water meter. With the URL below you can retrieve all available data, in which you will find the current and total measured water consumption.
GET http://{IP address}/api/v1/data
Conclusion: Wifi Water Meter
REVIEW SCORE
The HomeWizard wifi water meter (HWE-WTR-13) gives you a graphical insight into the water consumption over selected periods. The Energy app is completely in Dutch, looks slick and is super easy to use.
The installation of the water meter is a matter of minutes, if you doubt whether the wifi meter fits on your water meter then you can contact HomeWizard. In most cases this will not be a problem.
Whether you want to use the Energy+ functions is a choice you have to make for yourself, the meter can be used perfectly well without the optional plus subscription. The leakage detection that will be available later this year in the Energy+ subscription is a very interesting function that prevents a lot of misery.
The wifi water meter does exactly what it is supposed to do, monitoring water consumption. It is interesting to see how much water you use per day. That was an eye-opener for me.
To get the most out of the wifi water meter (real-time updates) it is necessary to connect it to the mains via a USB adapter. If this is not possible, you will receive four updates per day. This is still better than manually writing down the meter readings on a piece of paper every day.
- Contributes to more conscious water consumption
- Easy installation
- Beautiful and clear Dutch app
- API available for developers
- Without an Energy+ subscription, consumption data is only stored for 12 months
Buy Homewizard wifi water meter
The Homewizard WiFi Water Meter is for sale on the Homewizard website for €49.95