Design And Construction Of An Automatic Water Pump Controller With Water Timed Flushing Mechanism

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The total amount of water available on Earth has been estimated at 1.4 billion cubic kilometers, enough to cover the planet with a layer of about 3 km. About 95% of the Earth’s water is in the oceans, which is unfit for human consumption. According to United Nations (UN) report, almost half of the world’s workers work in water-related sectors showing most of the jobs dependent on water [1]. Sustainability of available water resource in many reason of the word is now a dominant issue. This problem is quietly related to poor water allocation, inefficient use, and lack of adequate and integrated water management. Water is commonly used for agriculture, industry, and domestic consumption. Therefore, efficient use and water monitoring are potential constraint for home or office water management system [2]. Last few decades several monitoring system integrated with water level detection have become accepted. Measuring water level is an essential task for government and residence perspective. In this way, it would be possible to track the actual implementation of such initiatives with integration of various controlling activities. Therefore, water controlling system implementation makes potential significance in home applications.
The existing automated method of level detection is described and that can be used to make a device on/off. Moreover, the common method of level control for home appliance is simply to start the feed pump at a low level and allow it to run until a higher water level is reached in the water tank. This is not properly supported for adequate controlling system. Besides this, liquid level control systems are widely used for monitoring of liquid levels, reservoirs, silos, and dams etc. Usually, this kind of systems provides visual multilevel as well as continuous level indication. Audio visual alarms at desired levels and automatic control of pumps based on user’s requirements can be included in this management system [3]. Proper monitoring is needed to ensure water sustainability is actually being reached, with disbursement linked to sensing and automation. Such programmatic approach entails microcontroller based automated water level sensing and controlling [4].
In the drinking water purification and filtration industry, there is little or no use of automated water pump and flushing control systems. These automation were invented to overcome the manual operations such as follows;
• Many water tanks and valves to be controlled and monitored hence the need for many operators.
• Pumps are started and stopped manually: This may causes overheating of pumps due to the neglect of not stopping them when the water is filled.
• water flushing from the tank is done manually.
• It is time consuming and waste generation is very high. The generated waste water results from tank overflows or spillages, broken pipelines and pump damages.
The technique used in this work involves auto On/Off water pump system with a timed flushing mechanism using microcontroller.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
This device came to mitigate problems such as poor water allocation, inefficient use, lack of adequate water and the rate of intake of contaminated water. An automatic pump control system is designed to monitor liquid level in an overhead tank and at the same time automatically controls the ON/OFF of the water pump. This device helps the user to be aware of the water level in the tank through an LCD. The device flushes out the water that is inside the tank according to the number of days the users wants. It is very useful because the user need not worry about the water content during the peak hours of the day. It not only helps in the daily chores but also prevents water wastage. It reduces human labour, saves time and also keeps the user updated regarding the water content.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The main aim of this project is to design and construct an automatic water pump controller with water flushing system. The objectives of the project are as follows:
I. To develop water pump control and timed flushing prototype.
II. To control water level in the tank.
III. To make the most commercial and reliable water level controller using as less resources as possible.
IV. To incorporate an interactive medium between the end user and the machine.
V. To prevent over labour of the pumping machine and prevent it from getting bad
VI. To avoid wastage of water.
VII. To reduce the level of intake of contaminated water.

1.4 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
The scope of this project covers developing a user friendly integrated system for automatic water pump and flushing control purpose. It will help the user to pump water from source e.g. borehole into the water tank or flush water from the tank using the automatic pumping system. It has a sensor (ultrasonic sensor) that will be detect the water level, and it will generate a signal to control by the microcontroller. The microcontroller will process the data signal and control the motor pump to allow the amount of water that will be flow into the tank. The processed data from microcontroller will be sent to liquid crystal display this will display the water level on the tank.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT
Various type of water pumping system that available in market nowadays, but this system alone with the traditional system can’t overcome the intrusion problem. To make this system more efficient and useful, it should be upgraded to be more efficient. This project is designed with the water level monitoring and control system to make the users easy to monitor the level of water on the tank and automatic ON/OFF water pump. The advantage of automatic water pump controller help to ascertain, control the level of water in overhead tanks, prevent wastage, prevents overflow, dry running of your water pump, and thus saves water, electricity and manpower according to Falahati, M. (2018).

1.7 APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
Water level controller is an application which detects the level water then triggers the pump and vice versa. They are useful devices and play an important role in various industries such as automobile, irrigation, and also at homes, or wherever water is pump either underground or overhead.

1.8 METHODOLOGY
To achieve the aim and objectives of this work, the following are the steps involved:
i. Study of the previous work on the project so as to improve it efficiency.
ii. Draw a block diagram.
iii. Test for continuity of components and devices,
iv. Design was carried out.
v. Studying of various component used in circuit.
vi. Construct the circuit.
vii. Finally, the whole device was cased and final test was carried out.

1.9 PROJECT ORGANISATION
The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work, chapter two presents the literature review of the study, chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.