Water Quality Monitoring and Reporting System for Aquaculture with Solar Energy Harvesting

A Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) system with solar energy harvesting for long term uninterrupted monitoring is proposed. The device consists of a solar panel charging a lithium battery with a solar charge controller. The system uses solar energy whenever there is sufficient sunlight, and the lithium battery stores the energy for future use such as overcast, rain, and night. The solar charge controller ensures the lithium battery has a long life with an appropriate charging method, which shortens the frequency of the battery charge-discharge cycle. This system can be implemented with small power equipment which is especially suitable for outdoor-based wireless sensor nodes in the Internet of Things (IoT). The ultimate aim of this research is to develop a perpetually powered water quality monitoring system for aquaculture minimizing the periodical maintenance for battery replacement or recharging. The energy harvesting system designed for this research has been experimentally verified and can increase the lifetime of this WQM system.