Page 229 - Water Loss Control

202 Cha pte r T h i r tee n

innovative end-user capabilities collectively referred to as advanced metering infra-
structure (AMI), are being implemented at a rapidly growing pace, giving drinking
water utilities highly capable technologies to minimize apparent losses from data
transfer error and improve their operational efficiency and level of service to their
customers.

13.1.1 Manual Customer Meter Reading
Manual meter reading can work reliably, but in many communities it encounters a
number of difficulties that hamper its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Most notably
manual meter readers often find difficulty in gaining access to meters, particularly
those located inside customer buildings. A high rate of failed meter read attempts occurs
in many water utilities due to this problem. Also, manual meter reading is inherently
labor-intensive, with associated high staffing and deployment costs and issues. Because
of highly variable field logistics many customer meters cannot be read consistently. In
cold climates, water meters are typically located inside customer building premises,
often in hard-to-reach corners of basements, boiler rooms, or other subterranean areas.
See Figs. 13.1 and 13.2. It is not uncommon for property owners to store items in these
areas that block access to the meters. With growing numbers of working couples in
families, many properties have no one at home during business hours to let a meter
reader into the house. Because of security concerns, many customers are wary of allow-
ing strangers onto their premises at all. The Greater Cincinnati Water Works encoun-
tered such difficulties, which led to their decision to install an AMR system, as described
1
in a newsletter account. “Because the utility employed a door-to-door manual read
system, employees were bogged down with the management of over 30,000 house keys
entrusted to them by their customers. In addition, an increasing number of people were

FIGURE 13.1 Indoor 3-in turbine meter servicing a 100-unit apartment building in Philadelphia.
(Source: Philadelphia Water Department.)