For the Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology, we have equipped some spring discharge wells with an automatic measuring system for the detection of precise flow in order to avoid the previously required readings -done by hand- for safety reasons as far as possible.
The spring discharges, already equipped with a Water Meter, were connected to a GPRS Datalogger to record a continuous flow rate and to automatically transfer it to a server of the HLNUG.
A built-in Water Meter continuously measures the current flow and delivers one pulse per detected unit, eg one pulse per liter. The Water Meter operates without power and can be operated without mains supply. On the HT side, the GPRS Datalogger type 255-U was provided for each spring, which continuously sums the pulses and thereby calculates the flow rate. In addition, a measuring probe for continuous recording of the water temperature was installed on the device by using a second input channel. Due to the extremely low power consumption of the GPRS Datalogger, battery life can be achieved when using 3 standard alkaline batteries about 3 years.
Through the use of an automatic remote data transmission, the data density and the data quality can be increased considerably, in addition, the continuous descent into the spring is omitted.