I am currently living in my parents house, which is fed water by a private well, and we have no way of knowing exactly how much water we use. Since I’m planning on building my own house, I wanted to know how much water I (and everyone else in the house) realistically used. In addition, I wanted to know how much hot water we use and how frequently we use hot water, so I could model hot water heating systems.

I am currently living in my parents house, which is fed water by a private well. Due to the mineral content in most well water, we use a water softener. For those of you with city water, a water softener is a type of ion exchange filter which uses salt (sodium chloride) to replace calcium, magnesium, and other metals in the water with sodium. None of these minerals are hazardous, but they do stain everything, so reducing them is desirable.

Inspired by Jonathan Oxer’s Air Quality project, I decided to build my own, but with my own twist and my own software. This project was an adventure bridging my long-held Arduino skills with modern Ethernet microcontrollers, object-oriented programming, and a lesson in how important mechanical design is. Concept Design Jon’s sensor uses a Plantower PMS5003, and later adds a Bosch BME680 air quality sensor. I decided to use the similar Plantower PMS7003, Bosch BME680, and also a CCS811 environmental sensor which measures eCO2 for comparison to the BME680.