Title
Water Meter Recommendation
History
In 1996, the Board decided to switch from the Badger meter manufacturers to Sensus meters. The standard meter used for small residential and commercial installation is the ¾” and 1” SR and SRII meters. These brass meters use mechanical measuring chambers with electronic registers to display and transmit meter readings. Due to recent IEPA regulatory changes, brass meter manufacturers can only sell “lead free” meters. These meters are more expensive than the previously manufactured brass meters that contained lead. Meter reading technology has also changed with the introduction of the lower cost iPerl meter with composite flow tube construction, fully electronic and non-mechanical meter.
The iPerl meter, with no moving parts, uses magmeter (electromagnetic) flow metering technology to measure the flow of water. The measuring capability is as low as .03 gallons per minute (gpm) up to 55 gpm. While malfunctions can occur in any meter reading system, several self-diagnostic alarm capabilities are included that are not available in mechanical meters. These include; battery alarm, EMF failure and predictive battery life alarm. In addition to the self-diagnostic features, several other capabilities include empty pipe, low and very low battery, low battery voltage, leak detected, reverse flow, magnetic tamper, and high temperature, along with various other self-diagnostic alarms.
When used in conjunction with the recently installed FlexNetTM meter reading network and SmartPoint transmitters, the opportunity for a robust customer portal becomes available. Depending on the provider chosen to implement the portal, customers can directly access their consumption and billing information and receive alerts via multiple communication methods including email, text and phone. Customers could set their own thresholds regarding the amount of money or water they don’t want to surpass during a billing period, and be notified di...
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