Solar Tube-Well Pump Run-Time and Groundwater Level Logger for Farmers
Build a low-cost, brand-agnostic logger that retrofits onto a farm's solar water pump and records solar power, pump run-time, water pumped and the water level in the well, then shows daily water delivered and how far the water table falls and recovers. Solar pumps make pumping almost free to run, which can drain aquifers unnoticed. Farmers get fault alerts and water records; researchers and water agencies get groundwater data they rarely have.
Intermediate
A small team, or one strong student willing to learn something new.1 semester · 2 to 3 students
7 to ship
4 optional extrasSuggested stack
What you should ship
- A logger board measuring panel voltage and current, pump on and off state, flow pulses and well water level
- Firmware with local buffering on flash so no data is lost during network outages
- Uplink over LoRa to a farm gateway or over GSM, using MQTT to a server
- A dashboard of daily water pumped, energy, run hours, water level drawdown during pumping and overnight recovery
- Fault detection for dry running, blocked intake and a pump that draws power but moves no water
- Calibration of the level sensor and flow meter with a documented procedure
- A field installation on at least one real pump for several weeks with the data analysed
If you have time left
- Urdu SMS alerts for faults
- A seasonal water budget comparing water pumped with the crop's estimated need
- An anonymised map of water table trends from several installations
- Remote stop control with strict safety interlocks
The problem: free pumping, invisible groundwater
Solar water pumps have spread quickly across farms in Pakistan and the rest of South Asia, replacing diesel and grid-powered tube-wells. Once installed, the sun is free, so there is little reason to stop pumping. Farmers often do not know how much water they pumped in a day, whether the pump is performing as it should, or how far the water level in their well drops during the day and recovers at night. Across a district, nobody has good data on how solar pumping is changing the water table until wells start to fail.
Faults also go unnoticed: a pump running dry, an intake blocked with silt, or a pump drawing power while delivering almost no water.
These faults are expensive. A pump that runs dry can burn out within hours, and a blocked intake can halve the water reaching a crop in a hot week without the farmer realising. Installers hear about problems only when a farmer calls, often after the damage is done. Simple, trustworthy records would let farmers, installers and water agencies each see what they need from the same small device.
What already exists and the gap
- Premium solar pump brands offer their own monitoring, such as LORENTZ's PumpScanner and CONNECTED apps, which show water delivered and pump performance for that brand's controllers.
- Groundwater monitoring by government agencies uses a limited network of observation wells, often read manually.
- Generic energy loggers record power but not water or well level.
The gap is a low-cost, brand-agnostic retrofit that works with the many locally assembled solar pumps and inverters, records water and well level as well as energy, and produces data useful to both the farmer and anyone studying groundwater.
Inspiration
Solar pumps and South Asia's energy-groundwater nexus: exploring implications and reimagining its future (Shah, Rajan, Rai, Verma and Durga, Environmental Research Letters, 2018) examines how solar pumping changes the link between energy prices and groundwater use, and why policy needs data on pumping where groundwater is scarce. This project builds the measurement layer that such policy and farmer decisions depend on.
What you build
- A logger box mounted near the pump controller, with sensors on the solar DC supply, a pulse water meter on the delivery pipe and a pressure-based level sensor lowered into the well or a nearby observation pipe.
- Firmware that samples sensors, detects pump starts and stops, buffers readings and sends them when the network is available.
- A dashboard showing each day's water pumped, run hours, energy, and a chart of water level falling during pumping and recovering overnight.
- Alerts for faults, such as power drawn with no flow.
The technically interesting part
- Measuring water level in a well. A submersible pressure sensor gives water depth above the sensor; converting to depth below ground needs a reference measurement and handling of sensor drift. Design a calibration routine and check it against a manual dip measurement.
- Inferring pump health. Compare water delivered per unit of energy at similar sunlight levels over time; a fall indicates wear, blockage or a falling water table. Separate those causes using the level data.
- Power and resilience. The logger can draw from the solar supply during the day but must keep a clock and buffered data overnight. Design the power path and test brown-out behaviour.
- Unreliable connectivity. Rural GSM coverage varies; LoRa to a farmhouse gateway may be more reliable. Buffer data and send it in order with timestamps.
How to evaluate it
- Sensor accuracy: level readings against manual dip-meter measurements; flow against a timed bucket or tank fill test.
- Data completeness: share of readings delivered over several weeks, including outages.
- Fault detection: induce safe faults, such as partially closing a valve, and check alerts.
- Farmer feedback: does the farmer find the daily water figure and alerts useful? What would they change?
Suggested plan
- Weeks 1 to 3: visit a farm with a solar pump; choose sensors; build the circuit on a bench.
- Weeks 4 to 7: firmware with sampling, buffering and MQTT uplink.
- Weeks 8 to 10: server, database, dashboard and fault rules.
- Weeks 11 to 14: field installation and data collection.
- Week 15: analysis, report and demo.
Path to a product
Solar pump installers, agricultural extension services and water research groups are all possible buyers. A low-cost logger offered through installers as an add-on, with a data service for agencies studying groundwater, is a realistic model. The project is strong evidence for embedded and IoT roles because it includes real sensors, calibration and field data.
Scope warning
Never modify the pump's power wiring beyond clamp-on or in-line sensors rated for the voltage, and work with the installer for any connection. Remote control of the pump is a stretch goal and needs strict safety interlocks. Ask the farmer's permission before sharing any data beyond the project.
Learn what you need on Sefism
- Embedded systems and IoT roadmap: sensors, firmware and low-power design.
- ESP-IDF Programming Guide: the ESP32 framework.
- MQTT Essentials: reliable messaging from field devices.
- Grafana Documentation: building the dashboard.
- Embedded systems and IoT cheat sheet: ADCs, current loops and calibration basics.
Get help with this idea
The hard parts are reliable well level readings and a safe field installation. Tauseef can help you pick sensors, plan the calibration and find a farm or installer to work with. If you are new here, create a free account first.
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