Flume Intelligent Water Sensor

[alphatech]

Is anyone using this product for water consumption https://flumetech.com/ It looks like, it has an API as well. They are selling at Amazon as daily deal.

[Wade]

I use one that I purchased in conjunction with a rebate program from my water utility company. My hope has been that someone will do some HS3 integration as I don't have the knowledge and skills to do it myself. I've been satisfied with it in general, although the wireless connection between the pulse reader and hub sometimes drops out likely due to obstructions in my specific case (stone/plaster walls with metal lath, cast iron meter box, etc.).

Their support has been very good when I've contacted them via the app or email. It's seemed I was communicating with people either developing the product themselves, or very near to the process. That was 3-4 months ago.

If I find time and motivation I'll look into how to get flow = true / false into HS3 via the API. That's all I'm really looking for at this point--monitoring for flow when there should be none--and I suspect it's not too difficult with a little studying.

Here's a related threads in case you've not run across it.

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...and-streamlabs

[alphatech]

Thank you, great feedback.

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[Wade]

One thing to add regarding drop-out of the wireless connection between pulse reader and hub. Once connection is reestablished, the data catches up. That is to say, no data is lost, but there's less granular data for analysis and there would be delay in water flow/stop notification.

[Tomgru]

This looks pretty interesting, as it says the sensor can be 1000 feet from the bridge. I have a long driveway that is somewhere near 350 feet up a steep hill where the water meter is located. Wade how far is your meter from the bridge?

[Wade]

This looks pretty interesting, as it says the sensor can be 1000 feet from the bridge. I have a long driveway that is somewhere near 350 feet up a steep hill where the water meter is located. Wade how far is your meter from the bridge?

You're not going to like this answer. 90 ft. But as I said previously, it's inside a cast iron meter box that's in-ground and immediately behind a 12" solid stone masonry wall, then the hub is inside the house (not near a window, unfortunately) that is stone masonry exterior and cement plaster interior with steel lath. Probably not much for you to base a purchase decision on.

This said, if they advertise up to 1000', it seems like 350' might be worth a try if you have reasonably clear line of site.

[Tomgru]

You're not going to like this answer. 90 ft. But as I said previously, it's inside a cast iron meter box that's in-ground and immediately behind a 12" solid stone masonry wall, then the hub is inside the house (not near a window, unfortunately) that is stone masonry exterior and cement plaster interior with steel lath. Probably not much for you to base a purchase decision on.

This said, if they advertise up to 1000', it seems like 350' might be worth a try if you have reasonably clear line of site.

that's what I figured. I need a shutoff as well... looking at some other systems ( I posted a thread on this a few months back) that have both and were recommended by my insurance company (PURE)… but much, much more expensive. Granted, this may not be the area you want to go cheap on

[mterry63]

Not to revive an old thread, but I recently purchased and installed one of these flume units in our new home in Texas, with the incentive of a rebate of the full cost by the Water Utility. They have a web portal as well as the phone app, as well as a personal API. Since I own but have never used the Big5 PI maybe I'll give it a shot with this. Lots of good detail on water usage. With a new pool and irrigation system I need to keep an eye on water usage.

[Wade]

Not to revive an old thread, but I recently purchased and installed one of these flume units in our new home in Texas, with the incentive of a rebate of the full cost by the Water Utility. They have a web portal as well as the phone app, as well as a personal API. Since I own but have never used the Big5 PI maybe I'll give it a shot with this. Lots of good detail on water usage. With a new pool and irrigation system I need to keep an eye on water usage.

Keep us posted. Haven't gotten around to any integration yet so very interested in what you come up with.

[jacobegan]

Any update on this - were you able to get information from flume, pulled into HS?

[mterry63]

I haven't installed Big5 yet to see if the API can provide what I need. For now I just visit the flume website. It's on my list of things to do.

[jacobegan]

My main objective was to get notified of leaks and turn the valve off. To do this, I setup an E-mail notification, homeseer is checking the mailbox, taking appropriate action if the E-mail is received. This eliminated the need for connecting to any API or adding additional plugins. I've attached a sample event that i created. I've tested it and working well.. In the test I set the flume device to notify me after 4 minutes of running water, then homeseer checked the E-mail account, ran the event that specified to speak an alert - through the living room tablet, send me an E-mail, turn off the valve. In the event HS fails to turn off the Zwave water valve, I get another alert from flume letting me know it was unsuccessful.

[alphatech]

jacobegan, that is a great tip, thank you. I have noticed that Flume is using two sets of emails, support@flumetech.com and mailbox@flumewater.com. Do you know why?
In the body of the message, do you need to put the entire message or just the beginning of the body of the email? I see you using only 1 per 120, curious what is that?

[jacobegan]

Good questions, I’ve only noticed notifications coming from mailbox@

The body of the message contains the rule name as it’s listed on flume. In my example it’s .1 per 120. I just named the notification .1 per 120 as in .10 gal per 120 minutes.

This method is working well so far. I did have to increase the time on the flume alerts, apparently we use a lot of water in the evening and it causes false positives.


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[gbdesai]

I haven't installed Big5 yet to see if the API can provide what I need. For now I just visit the flume website. It's on my list of things to do.

I was able to get Big5 to make the first call to return your personal access token. Last time I programmed was 20+ years ago. The API requires some interesting calls which I haven't had the time to understand...