Straight answers to what districts, growers, and partners ask most about self-powered canal flow sensing.
CanalSense is a long-range radio network for irrigation water data. A node sits directly in the flow, generates its own power from the moving water, and reports over 433 MHz LoRa to a gateway at the district's operations point, where readings land in a time-series database and a dashboard. It reaches canal sites that have no grid power and no cellular coverage.
A single rotor in the flow does two jobs at once. As water turns it, an electro-mechanical generator converts that motion into the electricity that powers the node, and the rate of that same rotation is the flow measurement. One moving part is both the power supply and the sensor, which keeps the device simple and serviceable.
No. The node runs on energy harvested from the water it measures, so nothing has to be wired to the field, charged, or swapped out. Ultra-low-power electronics in the microamp range are what make the small energy from the flow enough to measure and transmit.
Each node uses 433 MHz LoRa, a sub-gigahertz long-range radio built for distance over bandwidth, and reports to a gateway at the district's operations point. Modeling a real headgate-to-gateway hop here put the radio tens of decibels clear of what the path required, with terrain rather than the radio as the limit. Where a ridge breaks line of sight, a water-powered relay node further down the canal is in development to carry the hop.
The node reports the rotation of its in-flow rotor, converted to a flow rate, alongside its own supply voltage and internal device temperature so node health travels with the data. Readings land in a time-series database and a dashboard where staff view live data and export records for delivery accounting, compliance, and grant reporting. Volumetric totalizing and onboard storage that survives a radio gap are built and bench-proven, and are being folded into the field build.
Yes. The electronics operate in the microamp range, which is ultra-low-power by any standard definition. That budget is exactly what makes self-powering viable, since the node harvests a little energy from the flow and spends less than it harvests. Proving that margin across the full range of canal flows, from spring runoff to a late-season trickle, is active field work.
CanalSense is based in Grand Junction, Colorado, at the Business Incubator Center, and builds for irrigation canals, ditches, and laterals across the Western United States.
We scope one or more nodes to your canal and flow conditions, install them directly in the flow with no pad or conduit, and report readings to a dashboard your staff can open. We tune the deployment with you and review the results together. You can request a pilot through the site or email contact@canalsense.com.
Yes, patent protection is pending. Specifics of the rotor, sensing method, and power design are held back publicly while that protects, and we are glad to share a deeper technical review with districts, partners, and investors under NDA.
Have a canal in mind? We will scope a pilot to your site.
Request a PilotA long-range radio network for irrigation water data, covering canals, ditches, and laterals across the American West. Designed and built in Grand Junction, Colorado.