San Francisco water meters get smart
September 21, 2010 | Length: 00:02:27
In the future, San Francisco residents will be able to monitor and track their water usage via Web software on the hour instead of monthly, which is the case now. The new automated water meters will be connected to a little gray box that houses a low radio frequency signal and collects data. SmartPlanet visits the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to see how it works.
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RE: San Francisco water meters get smart
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RE: San Francisco water meters get smart
RE: San Francisco water meters get smart
RE: San Francisco water meters get smart
for 2 years, here in Trouville (France) we have this available to monitor consumption and DETECT LEAKAGE.
There is NO cabeling, only a tiny little (3x3X6cm) box ajusted to the meter. That's all.
I monitor my consumption day after day.
Nothing new.
BTW, I tracked likage (150liters/day) du to a weak nut when they changed the meter...
Jacques
RE: San Francisco water meters get smart
The only time it would do you some good to monitor it remotely would be when the water heater starts leaking or the washing machine hose bursts, or another pipe does, and no one is home to see it in person. When that happens, you had better have someone who can shut the water off to prevent major damage to the floors, etc. We just got our gas meter replaced with a satellite read meter--no more meter readers jumping fences to go from yard to yard (in lieu of going back out to the street). Soon the electric company will have smart meters where they can shut your power off momentarily to save power to handle peak periods, will this water meter do the same? Shut your water usage down to keep you from watering your lawn on your off day (eg during odd-even rationing)?
Transcript
>> Narrator: This is how water consumption has been measured and tracked in San Francisco Homes for more than 100 years. But that's all changing thanks to the advent of new automated water meters.
>> It gives the utilities themselves and the customers the data; it empowers them to be able to see how they're using their resources.
>> Narrator: Heather Pole is a project manager for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She says both the utility and consumers will soon be able to monitor water usage via web software on the hour instead of monthly which is the case now.
>> Heather Pole: They can see if they've got high spikes which may be a leak, they can monitor high usages; they can look at their irrigation systems and understand if they've got malfunctions, and they'd be able to see what impact was on a daily usage.
>> Narrator: Here's how the technology works.
>> Water comes through--from the service line through the meter and then the meter measures that consumption of water that goes to the house. Every time the dial turns .1 cubic feet of water goes to this meter.
>> Narrator: So what's different? Attached to the water meter is this transmission device, a little gray box that houses a low radio frequency signal and collects data from the meter by the hour. The data collected is then wirelessly sent from the unit to nearby data collector boxes that are fixed on light poles and rooftops.
>> This is a regional collector. We have 77 of them scattered throughout the whole city.
>> Narrator: The same data is then boxed via another wireless signal to the main server infrastructure a few miles away. Pole believes the smarter water meters will provide more transparency to consumers who can act on the information and then be more diligent about conserving water.
>> Heather Pole: California does have water supply issues and in a dry year situation where we're in a drought and we're having water supply issues, utilities may have to start rationing water supplies to customers; and this will be a way for customers to understand how they use their water and to monitor that.
>> Narrator: For Smart Planet I'm Sidney Doss assumed spelling.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====