140,000 meters to be changed in The Villages
 

Per the other news source….


140,000 meters to be changed out in $30 million modernization effort.

More than 140,000 meters will be changed out over the next four years as part of a $30 million modernization effort in The Villages.

“There are a significant amount of efficiencies to be gained, in addition to improved accuracy,” said Assistant District Manager Brittany Wilson.

Homeowners will receive advance notification prior to the change out of the meters, one for water and the other for irrigation. Resident don’t have to be home and seasonal residents won’t be inconvenienced. There will be a disruption in power.

Earlier this year, the North Sumter County Utility Dependent District voted to proceed with the automatic meter reading technology in a dramatic technological leap forward in the reading of water meters in the bulk of The Villages.
NSCUDD will be working with longtime partner Jacobs in the implementation of the technology.

For years, meter readers have driven around in the familiar blue Jacobs golf carts using wand-touch technology to manually read meters at each and every home. The new drive-by technology will use a panel on a vehicle that would travel through neighborhoods and automatically read meters.

“It’s significantly more advanced than what we are using today. It’s 85 percent faster,” said Assistant District Manager Bruce Brown.

South of State Road 44, the Developer has already invested in automatic meter reading technology that is compatible with the system chosen by NSCUDD.

We had this up north in a 65 year old house. We bought new here in 2021 and I was surprised that the Villages did not have it on new builds.

Why will there be a disruption in power? Are the meters to be connected to my electricity supply? I assumed that they would be battery-powered.

" The new drive-by technology will use a panel on a vehicle that would travel through neighborhoods and automatically read meters."

As I am on the NSCUDD board, I would mention that staff and the board are looking at the best way to read the new meters. To help lower costs and reduce street traffic, the readers might be placed in Jacob trash trucks or community watch vehicles to automatically read the meters as they travel our streets.

And, it's my understanding that the batteries in the new meters will last as long as the meter for both to be replaced at the same time.

Same here. Our TV home was also built in 2021. I found it strange to be seeing the meter reader people in golf carts running around when our "up north" home had our meter replaced well over 10 years ago with one that can be read remotely by the utility.

The one good thing I remember when they replaced ours was that we were only out of power for less than 5 mins, so the disruption was very minimal.

Again, why would anyone lose power when replacing a water meter that is not connected to any power at all ?

Sorry I misread. I assumed that it meant the electrical meters.

Still seems like an antiquated solution to have the meters read by vehicles driving nearby. Cellular technology is just so much simpler and surely cheaper long term.

IMO this will be one of the slimiest yuckiest cruddyist smelliest dirtyist jobs . I have needed to go into our irrigation and water meter boxes the last few years.

They are filled with water after rains. There is grass and weeds all around the access cover.
Who knows what crawly creepy things live in there.

The deinstall/install process of the meters will not be a fun job by any means.

Yes, I was shocked to see the meter reader on a golf cart recently after moving here. I would have thought this had been modernized by now.

So will are water be cheaper now or more expensive to pay for the installation.

[QUOTE=FloridaGuy66;2368682]Sorry I misread. I assumed that it meant the electrical meters.

Still seems like an antiquated solution to have the meters read by vehicles driving nearby. Cellular technology is just so much simpler and surely cheaper long term.[/QUOTE

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This thread is all about the WATER meters....yes, there is a separate discussion about the upgrade of the electric meters to Wi-Fi?

Cellular technology would need LOTS of power. The technology they are using, not so much. You just need to be close to the meter to catch the signal.
Think Bluetooth vs cellular.

Yes.

From the OPs post, it sounds like they have decided on an AMR based system instead of an AMI based system. If this is indeed true, any thoughts on why they chose AMR? If cost was the primary issue driving the decision, any idea how much of a difference there was?

So they are replacing one antiquated method for another which in itself is already out of date. What a waste of money.
Have they never heard of remote reading via cellular? It’s been around for over 20 years!
I couldn’t believe it when I first moved to TV and got a notice in the mail that I had to dig a space around my meter in my front yard to enable the meter to be read- I thought it was a joke so I ignored it. Sure enough one day they came around and dug up my meter creating a big mess and now I have weeds growing all around it! It’s the 21st century, move with the times !

Sounds like you volunteered to foot the bill. Technology, usually is not cheap.

No more meter readers. Another job lost to technology

Indeed it is but the initial post included the phrase "There will be a disruption in power" and I just wondered why this would be the case.

A disruption in power causes clocks to need to be reprogrammed, which is an inconvenience.

I have provided a link to the study that staff provided the board and the audio of the board meeting is easy to find.

all below found in the NSCUDD April 8th agenda packet online at districtgov.org

Public Portal • CivicClerk

Public Portal • CivicClerk

I really wanted to go with a AMI system but staff recommended AMR.

We are/I am talking about water and not electric meters:angel:

Thanks for the links, I will take a look.

I do not claim to be an expert but as I started reading I did not realize the post was water. Our home is 11 years old and our electric meter was just replaced. The one we had require a meter reader. This one looks the same but they can read it remotely.I have no idea the cost of the meter or installation. Same as the water meters we all know the cost will NOT go down.
I expect looking at the new electric meter they planon paying someone to go around and check that it is working.

You said they can read it remotely, then you expect they will plan on paying someone to go around to check that it is working......is that making sure you cover both sides in case you are incorroect on one of those statements :)

An electric meter is powered by batteries???

Mine was changed out months ago

I will say it again. I was talking about water meters. :smiley::smiley:

AMI technology would require electric utility power to be pulled to the water boxes (?)

Are you saying that the new electricity meters will need a water supply?

No electric utility power to the new AMR water meters that have a internal battery would be needed to make them AMI friendly. These new water meters are AMI compatible.