Semtech Corp. has announced that two Asian companies are using its long-range, low-power (LoRa) devices and its LoRa wide-area network for battery-powered smart water and electricity meters.
Sindcon IoT Technology Pte Ltd., based in Singapore, and IoT Kreasi Indonesia have leveraged the Camarillo-based company’s technology to help streamline smart utility operations in apartment buildings.
For larger buildings, manual metering can be a labor-intensive process and is prone to human error, resulting in unfair billing, according to a release from Semtech, a developer of semiconductors and Internet-of-Things (IoT) products.
Sindcon and IoT Kreasi Indonesia developed Semtech’s battery-powered smart meters utilizing LoRa wide area network (LoRaWAN) to eliminate the manual energy and water meter-reading process entirely, the company’s release stated.
“The smart meters further benefit from LoRaWAN connectivity for remote control of the water meters to open and close the water valve as needed,” the release added.
Deyu Chen, co-founder and chief executive of Sindcon, said that in designing the company’s smart meters, reliability and constant connectivity were key factors.
“The robustness of LoRaWAN helped us to achieve over 90% data success rate,” Chen said in a statement. “In addition, its low-power capabilities extend battery life to up to seven years.”
This deployment of water and electricity meters installed in tall buildings is typical of dense urban environments with over 20,000 habitants per square kilometer, proving that LoRaWAN can support high density while ensuring a remaining capacity to add other applications in the future, the Semtech release said.
The success of the smart meters has been seen in the Lloyd apartment complex in Indonesia, which that covers 27 towers, the company’s release added.
Aldi Kurniawan, chief executive and co-founder of IoT Kreasi, said that using LoRaWAN for the smart meters was a key factor in the overall success of the Lloyd deployment.
“Due to the improved billing transparency, Lloyd tenant satisfaction increased more than 50% and they are now empowered to monitor their own utilities usage daily with no surprise bill at the end,” Kurniawan said in a statement.
Marc Pégulu, vice president and general manager for Semtech’s wireless and sensing products group, said that LoRaWAN was meeting the needs of the smart-building segment.
“Alongside Semtech’s LoRa devices, the ability to enable efficient and economical use of a building’s resources, while creating a safe and comfortable environment for its tenants, highlight Semtech’s commitment toward creating a smarter planet,” Pégulu said in a statement.
In addition to smart homes and building, Semtech’s LoRa chips have been used in the agriculture, health care, retail and utilites industries, among others.
“By embracing intergrated Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions enabled by LoRa devices, (commercial real estate businesses) are able to equip properties with services that reduce maintenance and operating costs while creating value for dwelling inhabitants, and a potential revenue stream for the provided services,” the Semtech website stated.
Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance – a group for Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) applications.