Typically used by gas and electricity companies, smart water meters are becoming more mainstream. They work by measuring your consumption and relaying the information to the utility at shorter intervals. Regular meters are read at the beginning and end of a particular period and billed accordingly.
Many utility companies worldwide are beginning to implement them and your city or municipality may have already done it. Should you be concerned about it? Or do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages? Here are some pros and cons of the technology.
Benefits of smart water meters
It gives you a clear indication of your water usage as it relates to your daily and weekly activities. This allows you to make decisions to conserve water and lower your bill.
They can help determine if there are leaks. Knowing if your water usage has spiked doesn’t give an indication of whether you’ve taken longer showers once per day or whether a pipe is continuously leaking around the clock. Smart meters will pick up on the patterns of flow that will then help you determine whether you need to hunt for a hidden leak.
Smart water meters have the potential to lower your bill as well. For example, you can figure out just how inefficient your old washing machine is by looking at your consumption during the time you normally do laundry. This knowledge will help you assess whether purchasing a new one will offset the cost of additional water usage to run the old one. It may pay for itself in less than a year. A regular meter would not be able to give you that kind of insight.
Another way it can lower your bill is if the utility implements time of use billing which varies the cost per gallon of water depending on when you use the water.
Reasons to be concerned
If your utility implements a time of use system for billing, it can have the opposite effect of increasing your bill overall, depending on your washing, cooking, cleaning, and other living habits.
The increased cost of this technology will trickle down to the consumer, potentially increasing your own water bill. If the data from your bill allows you to conserve water, you might still lower your bill, or break even for a few years before you realize savings.
Whether or not you have a smart water meter, conserving water should be a priority for the environment and your bank account. If you’re concerned about your water consumption and want to implement water saving technology in your home, give us a call at 918 744-1000.