Sadborow Estate, Somerset

Sadborow Estate has a spring fed water supply which feeds numerous domestic properties and also several tenanted livestock farmsteads. The spring supply has a limited daily capacity and the Estate Manager was finding it very difficult to manage the water supply effectively as even a modest water leak from the estate supply network would quickly put the system out of balance and leave large parts of the estate with no water supply.

Tracking down water leaks across the entire estate was proving to be very time consuming. Whilst some water meters had been previously installed to allow the monitoring of individual areas of the network, the meter locations were difficult to access, especially during winter months. 

MJ Abbott designed and installed a wireless battery powered datalogging system that utilises the GSM phone network to send daily logs of water usage from a total of seven water meters to a central web-based reporting system. A battery powered level alarm from the same manufacturer was also installed on the estate water reservoir. This alerted the Estate Manager to any excessive water usage by way of a text message. By then logging on to the reporting system, it is now easy to see which localised area of the estate is drawing an excessive amount of water. This has cut down the time taken locating water leaks by a huge amount. The system is also used to provide the required data for billing the various users of the supply.

At the same time MJ Abbott designed and installed a bespoke control panel for the spring pumping system that fills the water reservoir. The system automatically balances the pumps output with the available water from the spring. Via a further text alarm system, the Estate Manager is alerted if the daily pump output is higher than normal or if the spring output drops below its normal daily average. The alarm system is also triggered by a pump fault or power cut.

MJ Abbott continue to provide service support for all of the system components.