Smart Metering recently completed a water metering apartment building project in Ponsonby which was fitted with B Meters GSD8 water meters. These meters were fitted with a wireless M-BUS module. The water meters were only 5 years old and in good condition. The issue was the meters were installed inside each apartment unit and in difficult to access locations. The M-BUS wireless module still requires someone to visit the apartment complex once a month and hopefully download meter reads from the wireless module. The issue has been the system has never properly worked and now the wireless modules batteries have died, rendering the complete system inoperable.
Since the actual water meter themselves were good condition and did not need replacing, Smart Metering were able to simply replace the wireless M-BUS module with the latest LoRaWAN modules, which seriously reduced installations costs to a minimum. Smart Metering installed a LoRaWAN gateway in the building complex which records daily meter reads from all the buildings water meters – so there is no need to send anyone again to the apartment complex to take water meter reads.
The LoRaWAN wireless modules have a far great battery life, that Smart Metering guarantees that we will replace if they ever fail at our cost over the course of the contract.
Smart Metering manages and pays directly the Watercare bill for the whole building and invoices directly every month the individual apartment owners for their actual water usage, simplifying the whole E2E solution.