Lighthouse texts for help to prevent sewage spills

An SMS alarm unit from Mendip Micro is monitoring the sewage system for St Mary's lighthouse, near Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, sending text messages as maintenance alarms

If the level of the system septic tank exceeds a predefined level, the unit automatically sends an SMS text message to a list of nominated maintenance personnel.

The sewage system was supplied and installed by Hutchinson, who are also responsible for its maintenance.

It serves a toilet block, cafe, shop and exhibition / meeting room, since the lighthouse is no longer operational and is now run as a visitor centre.

"We chose the Mendip Micro alarm primarily for its cost effectiveness," said Hutchinson senior service engineer, Kevin Piggford: "The SMS unit works well and has a low running cost".

The SMS alarm units are invaluable in providing advance warnings of sewage discharges, which are governed by increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

Fitting one of these alarms helps companies to comply with the regulations and can more than pay for itself by avoiding just one blocked soakaway or pollution incident.

With the appropriate low cost sensors, the simple to install units can also be used in a wide variety of other applications such as pumping stations, cold stores, greenhouses, fish farms or in security applications.

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