Anderson tests automatic water meter reading

Dog bites to city employees aren't the only reason door-to-door water meter reading may soon be a thing of the past. The City of Anderson is looking to update its water reading technology with an automated meter-reading system.

Currently, reading the city's 3,000 installed water meters takes five workers a full day to perform, City of Anderson Department of Public Works Director Jeff Kiser said.

"For some of the meters, you have to open the cover and get down into the brush to read," Kiser said.

The city installed 24 automated water meters on a trial basis from two different companies. With the automated system, meter readings may be transmitted wirelessly up to 300 feet away to a public works employee driving past each residence.

Reading meters in Anderson requires about 100 hours of labor per month, which totals about $8,000 monthly, Kiser said. Automatic meter reading could cut that cost by 75 percent, he said.

With the saved hours, Kiser said he looks to put people to work on other projects rather than plan more lay-offs.

"Look at all the landscaping we installed over the last year. That all needs attention. There's never a lack of work. We found some graffiti that needs (to be) removed today," Kiser said Friday.

Aside from potential labor savings in the field, Kiser said the new system also saves time in the office as the readings download directly from the driver's portable receiver into the city's billing software.

Automated readers installed in the Clear Creek Community Services District in Happy Valley has provided a significant savings in labor and increased profit due to accurate readings, according to district director Char Workman-Flowers. The system will pay for itself in less than six years, she said.

The district paid about $300,000 to retrofit 2,300 meters, she said, adding that 120 hours of labor to read meters has been reduced to 40 hours.

She added that old water meters lose accuracy as each meter's impeller wears down. When that happens, the meter always reads less and less water usage.

"We started seeing an increase in revenue with the new readers," Workman-Flowers said.

When Anderson begins adding new meters, potentially in the spring of 2010, does the city expect a similar profit?

"I'm not aware of us having any worn-out meters," Kiser answered, adding that meters wouldn't exhibit excessive wear until after 20 or 30 years.

In the meantime, the city continues the trial period to ensure the technology doesn't break down during the wet winter months, Kiser said.

An added feature to the automated system includes leak detection. The system can identify a tenth of a cubic foot of continuous water usage that may come from a leaking faucet or swamp cooler, Kiser said.