[The Gazette]

Utility districts consider buying 36,000-plus automated meters for Central Sumter, South Sumter and Fenney customers.

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[Sparky99]

How long does it take to break even? 20 years?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Sparky99

How long does it take to break even? 20 years?

I believe that analysis was done two years ago before the project was started. I don't recall what the answer was.

One thing to keep in mind is current meters are beginning to fail. Both of my meters failed and one (or possibly two) of a friend in the same area has also failed. There was going to be a cost to replace failed meters anyway - this takes that opportunity to bring the system up to date while reducing the manpower required for reading.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by biker1

Improvements in technology have been reducing jobs for essentially the history of mankind. As I understand it, a vehicle will still need to drive through the neighborhood to collect data instead of using a wand on each meter. This is somewhat different than the new electric meters that were installed a couple of years ago and essentially "phone home" the data.

The local utilities (basically the District) decided on AMR (truck) vs AMI (phone home) based on cost. Some on the NSCUDD board argued vigorously for AMI or even quasi-AMI but AMR was chosen.

[twoplanekid]

Can't change things now as the process of replacing meters is more than 50% completed. The NSCUDD board spent a lot of time evaluating this change to the meters a long time ago.

Have fun talking.

[biggamefish1]

These meters can also be read by satellites

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by biggamefish1

These meters can also be read by satellites

It will be far, far cheaper for the District to drive around the neighborhood once a month than to buy and launch a satellite.

[biggamefish1]

Sounds like a reasonable excuse, but the satellites are already up there and in use. I have seen this for over 30 years in other places. This is the 21st Century

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by biggamefish1

Sounds like a reasonable excuse, but the satellites are already up there and in use. I have seen this for over 30 years in other places. This is the 21st Century

Wait, the Villages owns some satellites???

If your point is that satellites can be sensitive enough to pick up the weak meter signal, sure.

If you are asserting that anyone with the money to put up a satellite has an interest in the water usage patterns of a Florida retirement community, highly unlikely.

If someone did care about my water usage, there are much cheaper and easier ways to get the data. The last thing I'm worried about is a Chinese spy reading my water meter.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

It will be far, far cheaper for the District to drive around the neighborhood once a month than to buy and launch a satellite.

Village’s don’t have too. Eldon did it for them, just got to pay Eldon small fee…

[JoMar]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Wait, the Villages owns some satellites???

If your point is that satellites can be sensitive enough to pick up the weak meter signal, sure.

If you are asserting that anyone with the money to put up a satellite has an interest in the water usage patterns of a Florida retirement community, highly unlikely.

If someone did care about my water usage, there are much cheaper and easier ways to get the data. The last thing I'm worried about is a Chinese spy reading my water meter.

The details on the satelite proposal is in the minutes online. Yes, they have an interest in the water usage patters of not only us but other communities in the Country.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by JoMar

The details on the satelite proposal is in the minutes online. Yes, they have an interest in the water usage patters of not only us but other communities in the Country.

Which board and which day? I attended the NSCUDD meetings where the new meters were discussed and I don’t remember any mention of satellites reading meters.

WHO has interest in water usage patterns that is not the utility reading the meters or the water management district that the utility already reports to?

[Bealman]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Which board and which day? I attended the NSCUDD meetings where the new meters were discussed and I don’t remember any mention of satellites reading meters.

WHO has interest in water usage patterns that is not the utility reading the meters or the water management district that the utility already reports to?

Secret squirrels.

[twoplanekid]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Which board and which day? I attended the NSCUDD meetings where the new meters were discussed and I don’t remember any mention of satellites reading meters.

WHO has interest in water usage patterns that is not the utility reading the meters or the water management district that the utility already reports to?

Having been a board member of NSCUDD during those day, these new meters can not be read by satellites. All reading of the new meters will be accomplished by driving down the street to have a device then read the meter. The new meters have limited read range.

At the November board meeting, the board did approve a contract with a firm to AI satellite pictures twice a year to locate potential water leaks in the system. This is a trial/test of their system for us for a one year period. Staff says that it may not detect home leaks. Again, only twice a year will we receive data from this firm.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by twoplanekid

Having been a board member of NSCUDD during those day, these new meters can not be read by satellites. All reading of the new meters will be accomplished by driving down the street to have a device then read the meter. The new meters have limited read range.

At the November board meeting, the board did approve a contract with a firm to AI satellite pictures twice a year to locate potential water leaks in the system. This is a trial/test of their system for us for a one year period. Staff says that it may not detect home leaks. Again, only twice a year will we receive data from this firm.

I didn't attend the meeting but I saw the presentation that was uploaded. I have doubts.
- It wasn't clear to me from the presentation what the resolution of the leak detection was which could be important in our compact area. "Somewhere in these four square blocks" still leaves quite a lot of area to inspect by hand.
- I wonder if our sandy soil will make it harder to detect anything at all
- Only two readings a year means spending a lot of money to detect that you have been losing a lot of water for six months.

With the new metering going in and the buildout of the SCADA system it would be nice to know there is some effort being put into using the sensors that are already in place to detect "missing" water.