Monitoring water consumption creates security and overview

At the same time, reliable consumption data has created a solid basis for billing of the residentsand ensured a better overview of costs thanks to monitoring and quick detection of leaks, among other things.

In the Swedish municipality of Sollentuna is the Vinhandlaren community association, comprising 90 residences. Like many other condominium and community associations, Vinhandlaren has until now used mechanical water meters to measure water consumption in each residence. But the association also has two communal areas – an ice hockey rink and a launderette – that also consume water. As this has never been measured,consumption has been divided equally among all residents. The idea was that this will still continue. However, the association could see that there was no link between the association's water bill from the water utility and the measurements showed by the residents' mechanical meters. It was time for a change!

Part of the explanation for this lack of consistency was that, over time, the mechanical meters were affected by wear and tear and became less accurate. The residents were therefore looking for a modern and future-proof solution. They wanted to make sure that the consumption data provided by the meters was correct.

Among others, this should ensure a better insight into how actual consumption is divided between the residents, while also ensuring that they are billed for the water they actually consume. With these considerations in mind, the community association decided to invest in new, intelligent water meters from Kamstrup.

The intelligent MULTICAL® 21 meters were installed and combined with the READy remote reading system for reading the meters. Jörgen Kleveborn, a board member of the Vinhandlaren community association, soon became enthusiastic about this solution:

Paying for actual consumption
The new solution also brings added value for the residents, as they no longer need to read their meters themselves. This is now done automatically with READy. The fact that the data is accurate means that the residents now only pay for their own actual consumption, which give them control over the size of their water bill, by possibly changing their consumption.

“In the beginning, some households felt that they were paying a little more than they did before,” says Jörgen Kleveborn. “But that was only because they had previously paid too little in relation to their actual consumption, while others had paid too much.”

No more water waste and subsequent payments
The intelligent meters from Kamstrup provide effective leak detection as large changes in consumption levels are quickly identified and limited. 

The residents of the Vinhandlaren community association experienced this as soon as the meters were installed. Two meters immediately triggered an alarm in READy and two leaks were quickly located.

The Vinhandlaren community association has also previously faced challenges regarding leaks. An unsealed valve to the hot water tank resulted in a subsequent payment of around DKK 16,000. The new system will prevent such incidents in the future, as it is much easier to monitor water consumption and quickly identify abnormally high consumption of various types. The investment in intelligent water meters means that both Jörgen and the residents of the Vinhandlaren community association can sleep well at night.