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IoT Platform for Domestic Water Efficiency

The Challenge

A leading Spanish sustainability company commercialises an innovative device that prevents water waste while waiting for hot water to arrive, saving an average of 10,000 litres per person per year.

Despite the success of its hardware, the company faced a digitalisation challenge: its devices collected key data on water usage and network status, but this was managed manually or locally. To support their international expansion (Europe, Latin America, USA), they needed to evolve towards a smart, connected version of their product. The objective was to give users full visibility over their savings and enable remote management — all on a scalable and secure infrastructure.

The Solution

GALEO has designed and developed the PDA Data Platform, an end-to-end IoT solution that connects the physical device with the cloud and the end user.

The solution covers the full lifecycle of both the data and the device:

  1. Hybrid Connectivity and Provisioning: A dual pairing system was implemented. The mobile app uses Bluetooth for initial configuration and local provisioning, facilitating secure device connection to the cloud via MQTT over AWS IoT Core.
  2. Remote Management and Updates: Users can remotely configure operating schedules and target temperatures. The platform also supports over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates, ensuring the entire device fleet remains always up to date.
  3. Savings Calculation Engine: The core of the solution processes telemetry to calculate tangible, real-time sustainability KPIs: litres of water saved, thermal energy not wasted, and — crucially — the equivalent economic saving, dynamically adjusted according to the water and energy prices in the user’s country.
  4. Real-Time Analytics: Integration with Tinybird for massive ingestion and ultra-fast time-series querying, allowing the app to display consumption and savings graphs with zero latency.
IoT Platform for Domestic Water Efficiency,

Business Impact

The project has transformed an energy-efficient appliance into a smart, connected device.

  • Impact Visibility: End users can now view their return on investment in real time directly from their mobile, seeing accumulated savings in euros, litres, and energy.
  • International Scalability: The architecture is ready for global deployment, managing regional configurations (such as energy prices and VAT) for markets including Spain, France, and Mexico.
  • Robust Security: Implementation of an advanced security model with unique X.509 certificates per device and user authentication via Amazon Cognito, guaranteeing the privacy of household data.

Architecture & Technology

The solution is built on a 100% serverless architecture on AWS, optimised for low maintenance and high scalability.

  • Core IoT: AWS IoT Core (MQTT, Shadows, Rules), AWS IoT Device Management.
  • Backend & Compute: AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway.
  • Data & Analytics: Amazon Kinesis Firehose, Tinybird (Analytics), Amazon DynamoDB.
  • Security & Identity: Amazon Cognito, AWS Secrets Manager, X.509 Certificates.
  • App: Mobile application for control and visualisation via REST API.

Customer Review

“Turning the device into a connected one has completed the circle of our value proposition. Real-time data ingestion allows users to visualise the exact money and litres they are saving directly from their mobile — all underpinned by a 100% serverless platform that is ideal for our international expansion.”