Smart water meters

2000 meters have been installed on Council tobies (the water valve that connects mains water to a property) across Hastings, Havelock North, Flaxmere, Bridge Pa and Paki Paki. This will give Council a sample of close to 10 per cent of the properties serviced by the public water supply.

Installation of the smart metres started in late November 2022, and were completed in early 2023.

Smart meters are the modern version of mechanical meters that also provide monitoring information, but which have to be manually read. The smart version allows for more accurate readings and for the information to be gathered remotely. They are able to detect abnormal flow patterns and alert the water team about potential leaks. 

To get a good understanding of water use across the entire Hastings urban water supply, locations have been randomly selected in Hastings, Havelock North, Flaxmere, Bridge Pa and Paki Paki to give us a picture of water use across all areas. In most instances multiple metres are going in the selected streets to see differences and obtain insights on issues/potential problem spots.

We have approximately 400 mechanical meters for monitoring purposes – these don’t give us the high resolution data we need to better manage our water services.

The devices are small, sit underground and are not visible to anyone.

Water usage across the district. They can help us plan future upgrades and projects, and provide the data we need to put effective water conservation measures in place.

The data will give us more accurate information on water consumption more regularly. It will help the team better understand our urban water use, identify areas with infrastructure leaks, and plan drinking water network upgrades and projects.

The meters continuously log data allowing us to retrieve the data onto a secure server as often as daily if required. The water team will review this data on a regular basis.

Once installed, staff do not need to come and look at the meters unless there are technical issues.

The meters are on the toby connecting the mains water supply to each home. They are on Council property, typically just over a property’s boundary line.

The technical team have carefully picked where these will go to give Council a good overview of water use across Hastings’ urban area. We are not able to install a smart water meter on request.

Not always; and often by the time they are obvious the pipe or fitting may have been leaking for some time. This project will help our team get a better understanding of possible water leaks and pipe issues to help target our resources in the right areas.