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9/29/04 Town Upgrading to Radio-Read Water Meters While it isn’t rocket science, the way the Town reads water meters is going high-tech. Town employees recently took their first reading of a portion of new and upgraded Town water meters by radio frequency using a laptop computer as they drove around neighborhoods in a Town of Holly Springs vehicle. “During September, we read 62 meters in about five minutes. Without the radio-read meters, it would have taken at least an hour to an hour and a half to read those same meters,” said Wayne Wilhelm, Cross-Connection Coordinator with the Holly Springs Public Works Department. “The radio-read meters save time and resources, and you can’t beat them on accuracy.” Because of the new technology, Holly Springs will not have to hire additional employees to read new meters in one of the fastest growing towns in the state. With the system the Town currently uses, reading 1,000 meters takes days as an employee circulates throughout the Town by foot. If those meters were radio-read meters, the same job could be completed in a couple hours. The radio-read technology also reduces human error as the meter readings are sent electronically from the water meter to computer software. Radio-read meters prevent meter tampering by alerting the Town of any irregular meter behavior. In addition, the meters are able to detect water leaks during the month, allowing the Town or the property owner to correct the problem before unnecessary water usage is added to the utility bill. The radio-read software also is able to generate reports on a variety of data. Readings can be acquired in any weather, even if inches of snow are piled on top of the meter. Radio-read meters are not new technology, having been on the market for several years. However, they are becoming increasingly affordable. Each radio-read meter costs $160. A regular meter costs $85. The cost of updating a regular meter to a radio-read meter is $110. While the cost for the new technology isn’t cheap, it is more cost effective to install radio-read meters than it would be to hire additional employees, Wilhelm said. Seven cities in North Carolina use the technology, and about 5,000 meters are being read throughout the state by radio frequency. About the same amount of radio-read meters are being used in South Carolina. In all, the technology’s failure rate between the two states is less than.05%. The Town of Apex is currently using some radio-read meters, and the Town of Morrisville has expressed interest in visiting Holly Springs to examine the technology. When the Holly Springs water system was initially installed, employees collected water meter readings with a pencil and paper. About a decade ago, employees began entering water meter readings into handheld computers. Then, the Town went to the touch-read system where a wand is used to physically touch the meter and electronically receive the reading. Radio-read meters are the next step in the technological evolution. “In the future, there’s the possibility that we would have a system where we would not have to go out into the Town to get readings at all,” Wilhelm said. “Wireless technology could allow the readings to go directly into Town offices.” The radio-read meters would work with the wireless network meter-reading system. For more information about water meters, contact the Town of Holly Springs Public Works Department at (919) 552-5920.
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Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us |
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The new meters (pictured at right) are called radio-read meters, and they send out signals that are picked up by a laptop computer from as far as 1,000 feet away. The readings are then downloaded into the Holly Springs Finance Department software program that manages utility bills. 
In Holly Springs, the high-tech meters are on some homes in the Autumn Park, Newberry Park, Sunset Oaks and Wyncrest subdivisions. While the Town is installing radio-read meters on all new water service connections in Town, the approximately 6,000 older meters throughout Town will be converted or replaced with the radio-read meters within the next five to ten years. So far, about 100 of the older meters have been converted to the new technology, using a small add-on device (pictured at right).