How does the cost of automating a small municipal task compare to its return? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
The right comparison is not device price against a day’s wage, but total cost of ownership against risk avoided. The device is bought once and runs for years on solar power with routine maintenance, whereas the manual task repeats its cost daily and carries the probability of an incident costing many times the device. A practical rule: automate the task that repeats daily, carries physical risk, and requires no human judgement — this task meets all three.