Remote sensing of water holding tank levels (measuring contraption)

[SF Man]

Having recently and unexpectedly run out of water in my holding tanks, I now see the value in some kind of remote warning system that can be seen inside the house.

Do you know of a good idea for remote sensing of holding tank water levels?

Presently, there is a chlorox bottle floating in the steel tank which is roped to a red wooden block that moves up when the water level goes down (and vice versa).

The problem with this manual method is you have to walk almost to the water tanks to 'see' the level of the block.

It would be nice to have an indicator in the house that showed the water level of the tanks, about 100 or 200 feet away and about 20 feet above the level of the house.

Any ideas for remote sensing of water level?

[Dean Hoffman]

There are probably plenty of remote liquid level sensors online. My first thought, being cheap, errr frugal, would be binoculars. Old farm chemical tanks used just a clear plastic hose mounted vertically outside the tank. There were openings on the side at the top and bottom of the tanks. A couple street Ls pointed at each other with hose barbs provided a way to connect the hose. One could rig up a larger hose with a bright colored floating ball in the hose. That wouldn't be much better than what you have though.

[Robert Neville]

How much do you want to spend? There are loads of commercial solutions - just Google. My favorite is the solar power satellite transmitter that sends you a text message.

Seriously. Well, that it exists - it's not may favorite. There's some slightly less expensive radio setups with a range of a few hundred feet.

[trader4]

Not sure what all is out there, but if power is available near the tank, that would enable him to put in any off the shelf wireless access point networking solution to get ethernet connectivity from the tank to the house. Then he would need some ethernet compatible water level sensor.

[SF Man]

Interesting concept.

There 'is' electricity since the booster pump is righ next to the tanks. I don't know if that's 220 or 110 but the point is there is electricity at the tanks.

I like the idea of tying into the existing wireless network ...

[Dean Hoffman]

Would some sort of remote camera be workable?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, RVs have warwe level monitor for water tanks. May be try RV paerts dept.?

[Sjouke Burry]

Connect a vertical pvc pipe to the bottom of the tank, put a magnet inside the pipe, floating on something, then put reed relays along the pipe, which switch a row of say 10-20 leds. That should give you a nice display, and the reed relays are safe from water.

[SF Man]

Actually, that's an idea I would never have thought of.

I was thinking electronics, with LEDs and the like ... but ... since the visual works just fine if you can just see it ... a camera would be the most direct remote sensing.

What I love about this camera idea is that it won't require modification of the tank sensing mechanism at all!

[SF Man]

That is an interesting idea.

I think you mean the standard pipes that go into the house for water? If so, that won't work (I don't think) because the booster pump at the tanks pressurizes the water to something like 60 psi.

But, if I could somehow put a separate hose to the house from the tanks ... that might work ...

But, the other ideas seem simpler. :)

[SF Man]

I'm amazed at the ingenuity of the suggestions!

This idea seems elegant.

A pipe with a floating magnet (either inside the pipe or a ring outside the pipe).

As the magnet moves up and down, differnet switches are turned on or off.

Are you suggesting that the one switch which is 'active' would be the water level?

I guess that would take a lot of reed switches ... to cover about 5 feet of water level travel ... but the result 'would' be an interesting display in the kitchen!

[trader4]

I'm sure you can find some kind of ethernet compatible I/O widget that has basic contact inputs that you could connect to this arrangement. Then you could hook that up to a wireless bridge, etc to connect to your home LAN.

How many switches it takes depends on what resolution you want. But it's also not as simple as the magnet keeping the switch closed. The magnet will trigger a switch while it's next to it. At that point, you need something on the other end, eg PC software program that keeps track of the last switch that was triggered. Then you know the water level is somewhere between the two switches on either side of the last one tripped. Would require quite a few switches to get any accuracy.

I would think a pressure sensor would be the easiest. One sensor does it. Not sure how easy it is to find one that covers the necessary range and is reasonable cost.

[G. Morgan]

Do you have an alarm system? You could add a wireless water sensor and have it alert a trouble on the keypad.

You could put a wireless web-cam in an enclosure maybe.

You can definitely do it with pro CCTV gear, right down to Internet monitoring and control of relays.

[G. Morgan]

Here is how pro's do it:

[Pete C.]

I would suggest that one of the simplest ways to monitor for low tank level on this apparently non pressurized tank would be to install a decent pressure gauge at the house and sharpie mark the pressures that correspond with low tank level and full tank level.

[Pete C.]

Ok, booster pump in the way at the house. Can you put a pressure switch at the outlet of the tank and just run wire back to the house to operate a warning light?

[bud--]

You might be able to rig a mechanical indicator that shows over the edge of the tank.

If you only need one or two level indicators you could have lights (like a light bulb) at the tank visible from the house. Other level indicators include float switches and simple conductivity.

[chaniarts]

pressure pump at the tank end of the pipe, so from the house, it looks like a pressurized tank.

[Pete C.]

Little to no chance the tank is pressurized:

After reading several more posts is seems to be that this is a gravity tank presumably on a hill, with a booster pump near the house.

[chaniarts]

didn't say the tank is pressurized. i said 'from the house' it looks like it is pressurized, implying that it's not a gravity pressurized system.

already stated the pump is next to the tank