Series 12 – Episode 3 – The role of IoT in water waste and leak monitoring

Johnson has been in the printed electronics industry for almost 15 years, working for a company called Bare Conductive. The goal was to equip people with the capabilities that, Johnson felt, were trapped in academia.

“We were very excited about putting tools in people’s hands and empowering them,” said Johnson.

In 2021, Johnson started LAIIER with a real interest in focusing on continuous monitoring of smart buildings.

“We saw an opportunity for a unique sensor form factor, and certainly the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for remote monitoring,” said Johnson.

LAIIER’s first use case is around monitoring the escape of water. So, that is water leaks from pipes, equipment, failures of building membranes, leaky roofs etc. – really focused on the commercial space.

“It’s not that the water is disappearing, it’s that it’s harder to predict, harder to measure and harder to manage,” said Johnson. “IoT can help us do that … IoT allows us to manage and monitor that much more precisely and create a real efficiency.

“As the price of water goes up and the cost of IoT products come down, then you hit a point where it’s cost effective to start monitoring things that previously wouldn’t have been cost effective to monitor.”

The systems we currently use to process wastewater are energy-intensive, globally using around 1.75 million gigawatt-hours each year – more than the combined electricity consumption of all households in the United States.

Johnson goes on to talk about how IoT can help reduce the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment, some the initiatives and opportunities that will make a big difference to water efficiency improvements and how he sees IoT technology’s use in this field advancing.

To hear more about IoT, water management, and much more, you can listen to Electronic Specifier’s interview with Matt Johnson on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.