Adaptable Device Monitors and Conserves Water

Ark Labs a tech startup in Arkansas USA is making waves in the water conservation industry with its new device that monitors the flow of water whether that be at your house, your apartment, your business.

Entrepreneur Robbie Hillis says the idea for the device came by mistake. "In 2014, my two-year-old daughter left a faucet on that ran for about 14 hours and wasted, what I estimate to be, about 3,500 gallons of water," said Hillis. He began searching for devices to stop this from happening again. "There were a couple of first-generation devices out there coming from the plumbing world, but nothing connected," said Hillis.

He founded his company, Ark Labs, and created the Ark device, which attaches to your water heater or pipes. 

"It monitors the flow of water whether that be at your house, your apartment, your business," said Hillis.

Hillis says what makes this device unique is that it can learn your water patterns and has an app to go with it. "This machine learns and can adapt. If the system says 'hey we don't think water should be running right now,' it's going to send you an alert to your smartphone," said Hillis. "From your phone you can make the determination on whether or not you should cut the water off." 

Let's say you had a leaky faucet, but didn't have time to call in a plumber to check it out immediately. If you had the Ark device, at the touch of a button you could turn it off until repairs can be made or until you needed to get some water.

"It becomes an effort where we can focus on water, understand it's importance and be more conscious of it," said Hillis.

The device will soon launch and be ready for full production. Hillis says they have been in contact with multi-billion-dollar industries about their device, and he hopes it will be in every household one day. 

Hillis also says this just shows you don't have to be in a big city to make a successful tech startup.

"We're trying to prove that you can do a tech startup in the Shoals area," said Hillis.

Hillis says Ark Labs is actually the first tech startup from Alabama to be invited to Portugal for a web summit. He will travel there in November. 

Source: Tech Alabama