Transparency in consumption

The IJsselzicht residential centre in Doesburg has been transformed from a care home to a modern senior housing complex with 70 self-contained apartments. A crucial part of this work by Woonservice IJsselland housing corporation was the installation of smart heat and water meters from Kamstrup.

At IJsselzicht, housing and care were already separated and residents already had an individual lease with the corporation. The heat consumption was previously measured using mechanical meters; tap water was not measured at all. The Heat Act prompted the use of ultrasonic meters that can be read remotely.

"To improve our efficiency and service, we have replaced our mechanical meters with smart ultrasonic heat meters from Kamstrup," explains Rik ter Welle, Property Manager at IJsselland. "And we have installed individual water meters. We have chosen ultrasonic meters to be better equipped for the future They have a longer service life than the old ones; we expect more than fifteen years. Purely an economic consideration."

The meter data is sent every hour via a Concentrator. This system from Kamstrup has a long range: Only one receiver is needed to read all the meters in the entire complex.

Ter Welle, explains: "Analogue has become digital. This means that a physical meter reading where someone has to go to each apartment to read the meters when it’s time for the annual billing, is no longer necessary. And regarding the water: The data from the main meter was previously divided between residents. Nowadays that is no longer acceptable: We are now able to charge for the actual consumption per resident for water as well."

Woonservice IJsselland can see meter data in real time from the office. without having to deal with manual meter reading. Remote reading happens automatically with the READy Manager computer program.

Clement van Uum, Finance Officer at IJsselland, emphasises that the service and speed of the corporation have increased dramatically.

"It is important that the residents pay for what they actually use. We can now produce all bills with only a few click If residents have questions about their bill, we can answer them immediately, unlike in the past. This also applies, for example, when someone moves: We read the meter and charge accordingly. It is the same for the annual billing. No more months of waiting, instead the bill arrives at the beginning of the year," says Van Uum.

With the smart metering solutions from Kamstrup, clients have easy access to all their data, including a number of tools to enable them to plan and work proactively.

Van Uum, explains: "Kamstrup enables us to provide the apartments with energy and water in an intelligent way, continuously collect meter data and manage energy and water consumption more efficiently. In short, optimum transparency that not only improves the efficiency of our own processes, but also the provision of consumption information to our customers."