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.
"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.
"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."
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."
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.