New water meter installation is currently underway in Portage la Prairie residences. Neptune water meter installer Pellegrino Castaldo was on the job yesterday, and describes the new units.

Solar panel above LCD digital readout for light activation by flashlight"These are the new e-coder water meters that we're installing in Portage right now. It's a digital meter, and it's also metric cube meter. It's light-activated. In order to get a reading you just have to shine a light on it, and up pops your readings on the meter."

Castaldo notes there's a new feature on the meters.

New meters (bottom right) are same size as older style meters (top left)"This meter's also equipped with a leak detector. So, if you do have a leak in the house, again you have to shine your light on it to activate it. And once you see that symbol of a faucet with a little drip on it, that means there is a leak in the house. And it's something that you should check out."

Leak notification pictured as faucet with drip

He outlines the most common sources of leaks. "The first thing I would check would be your toilet, because that's usually where your leaks come from most of the time. If not, check all your faucets and taps in the house. If there is water going through there, that means there's water going down the drain, and you're paying for that. And you don't want to spend money on water that you're not using."

R900 unit converts meter readings to radio signals transmitted to towers throughout city to be processed at City Hall for processing bills

 

(L-R) R900 radio transmitter for water meters, beside older touch-pad remote An R900 radio transmitter is mounted on the outside of you home, replacing either the A.R.B. plug-in unit or a touch pad remote, depending on which unit your home previously had. This will no longer see the need for a meter reader worker to come to your home and physically walk up to the unit to take a reading.

 

The receiver for the R900 radio transmitter on tower adjacent to Portage Fire Department