A smart meter.
DIGITAL water meters continue to prove their worth as a water saving tool across the region, with technology helping numerous caravan parks save water and money.
“Smart meters” installed by the city council have detected leaks in 10 MidCoast caravan parks this year, resulting in an estimated savings of 26 million liters of water.
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Council Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services, Rob Scott, said the savings were substantial and showed that technology was proving to be a valuable way for large customers to reduce water usage and ensure their systems are as efficient as possible.
“Unfortunately, many of our caravan parks have old plumbing and are on sandy bottom, which makes it very difficult to detect leaks because the water doesn’t surface,” said Scott.
“Thanks to the smart meters, we are now able to notify the parks as soon as we see abnormal use, which helps them find and fix the leaks before they become too costly and wasteful.”
Sandbar and Bushland Holiday Park in Smiths Lake is a park that has benefited from the technology less than a month after installing a smart meter.
Park manager Evan Hunter said he was able to fix a 20 liters per minute leak that otherwise might have gone unnoticed.
He was thrilled with the savings the park was able to make by having access to up-to-date information on water usage.
“Having this information at your fingertips is very convenient,” said Mr. Hunter.
“We may see savings of about $ 50,000 a year.
“The bottom line is a lot of money.”
Smart meters were identified as an effective tool for reducing water consumption in the Council’s recent strategy for integrated water cycle management, Our Water, Our Future. “
They were installed at the locations of selected bulk consumers at no cost to the customer in order to reduce water loss and give customers better control over their water consumption.
Testing of the technology will also begin soon on Stroud Road, with smart meters to be installed in every residential and commercial building in the village.
This will allow the council to assess the effectiveness of the technology within the home before potentially rolling it out to additional communities across the region.
You can find more information at www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/smart-meter-trial.
