An agricultural market is not the kind of place you would usually expect to be experimenting with cutting-edge Internet of things (IoT) technology. But a market in Wuxi, Jiangsu province recently teamed up with Jiangnan University to transform itself into a smart hub, and it is already reaping the rewards.

Wuxi Chaoyang Agricultural Market first partnered with the university in early 2015 to introduce a modern integrated energy control system, which uses IoT technology to manage the market’s use of water, electricity and lighting.

The university installed more than 1,000 water and electricity meters in most of the booths and public areas in the market, which collect records of water and electricity consumption in each area and sends this information to a central computer system.

The system then processes this data and can use it to calculate utility fees for each zone, send SMS messages reminding people to pay their outstanding fees, and even cut off the power of those who fail to pay their fees.

Another system is also able to control the market's 280 lighting circuits and 100 electric fans, turning each circuit on or off at a specified time.

The market has also cut down on energy costs by changing the table lights to LED bulbs, and is reconstructing its pipe network in order to save water.

The injection of IoT technology has already helped the market make significant savings on manual labor costs, encouraging Chaoyang to explore possibilities to add more IoT features, such as systems to automatically read agricultural products' information, digitally monitor the surrounding area and identify vehicle's license plates.

"The application of IoT technology has made regulating the market much easier and has also had positive effects on our energy saving and environmental protection efforts," said a manager at the market.