The Phyn Smart Water Assistant Offers Deep Insights Into Your Home’s Water System
Credit to Author: Kyle Field| Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2019 17:15:40 +0000
Published on September 5th, 2019 | by Kyle Field
September 5th, 2019 by Kyle Field
The new Phyn Smart Water Assistant believes it can identify water leaks in the home with only a single connection to the water system. The new smart meter can be added to the home with a simple DIY installation under a single sink in the home, from which it is able to identify trends in the home’s water usage including water leaks and water consumption tracking.
Once connected to the home water system and a power outlet, the smart device can be connected up to wifi and it’s off to the races. The longer the system is connected to the home, the better it gets at identifying usage anomalies and outliers indicative of a potential water leak.
The Phyn Smart Water Assistant installed under a sink. Image courtesy: Phyn
“At Phyn, we’re passionate about protecting homes from leak damage and providing tools to enable conservation. The Phyn Smart Water Assistant represents an innovative breakthrough that is designed, packaged, and priced to help homeowners understand, appreciate and control their water better, smarter,” said Ryan Kim, CEO of Phyn. “The Smart Water Assistant pairs sophisticated industry leading sensor and AI technology with a consumer friendly design that allows for self installation, making enhanced everyday experiences with water accessible to everyone.”
According to the US EPA, “The average household’s leaks can account for nearly 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year and ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day.” We lived this out firsthand after moving into our current rental, discovering a few weeks into the adventure that it had a water leak in a supply line running through the foundation of the home.
The Phyn Smart Water Assistant claims to be able to identify a leak within seconds, providing the owner with push notifications of the issue much faster than would otherwise be possible. This not only has the potential to save water, it has the potential to help owners avoid costly home repairs due to water damage.
Image courtesy: Phyn
As the device gathers more data, homeowners are able to look at not only real-time water usage, but daily and monthly water usage trends, even comparing usage to similar households. The gamification of water usage is a very real possibility with the Phyn Smart Water Assistant, so get out those low flow shower heads and high efficiency toilets folks, because it’s game time.
What really hurts my head in an awesome way is that it not only looks at and trends whole home water usage, which is impressive by itself, but it is able to really get into the details of the home’s usage. From the water connections under a single sink in the home, it is able to provide, “granular, fixture-by-fixture details of how much water showers, sinks, washing machines, irrigation systems, and more are using.”
The unit includes freeze warnings that leverage Phyn’s patented pressure sensing (aka modern magic) to detect ice crystals forming in pipes before they fully freeze. Using this granular, forward looking data, he system is able to alert homeowners of the imminent risk of freezing pipes before any damage has occurred.
For even deeper insights into the home water system, the device comes with a special Plumbing Check diagnostic mode. Just flip off the water at the main and run the check. With no extra “noise” in the system, the device looks for anomalies like bad seals (leaky toilet, I’m looking at you) or pinhole leaks in the home’s water lines. It’s a good way to get some extra piece of mind and maybe even avoid some larger headaches down the road.
As with all the smart home things we’re filling our homes with these days, the Phyn Smart Water Meter is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and features a range of If-This-Then-That (IFTTT) app integrations for homeowners to tap into. It is available for pre-purchase right now on BestBuy.com, Phyn.com and Belkin.com, with availability in store at the end of September 2019.
Source: Phyn
Kyle Field I’m a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. TSLA investor.