New Remote Water Meter Readers Being Installed Throughout Edina
New Remote Water Meter Readers Being Installed Throughout Edina
By Echo Menges
Members of the City of Edina’s work crew have been busy replacing and modifying water meters throughout the city. The cities new “radio read” system is designed to read water meters electronically via a radio signal. Once the new system is installed there will no longer be a need for city employees to enter each home or business to read every individual water meter every month. Water meter readings will soon be as easy as driving down the street and collecting the monthly readings by remote.
Each new water meter modification is equipped with a device that attaches to the top of the existing water meter and a transmitter, which is connected by a long wire. The transmitters are battery powered with batteries that should last up to ten years before they’ll have to be replaced.
In total the new “radio read” system should cost the city about $90,000. The new system will save money by decreasing the amount of time it takes city employees to read water meters every month, which will be reduced from several employees reading meters for several days to one employee reading meters for a few hours freeing them to work on other projects. It will also allow the City Bill Collector/Collector to download the meter readings to her computer in a matter of seconds rather than the old routine, which is for her to wait for each individual reading and imput them into her computer by hand.
Over half of the water meters in Edina have already been fitted with the new “radio read” modifications, some of which have been so old they’ve had to be completely replaced. The system is already being used. Nearly every water meter in Edina will be modified or replaced by the end of this month.
