Karlskrona Kommun started working with the new solution in the beginning of 2020 and today they have installed approx. 700 flowIQ® 2200 meters with integrated acoustic leak detection. According to Johan Georgsson, Customer Service Supervisor, the municipality previously only worked with bursts and big leaks on the main pipes or other visible leaks. But already now they have found several service connection leaks – some more surprising than others.
“We have found and confirmed 7 leaks so far. Most of them were in old galvanised metal pipes, that were rusty and filled with small holes, but we also found one in a plastic pipe only about 10 years old.” This last particular service connection was in an village with a number of summer apartments, and the owner suspects the leak had been there from the start due to a faulty installation. “It had been leaking 2.5 m3/hour for ten years. That adds up to roughly 219,000 m3 – and at a production cost of 4 SEK/m3, that’s 876,000 SEK in total meaning that we will save 87.600 SEK every year on that leak alone.”
Without the new meters, Johan Georgsson doubts they would have found the leak. “Service connections are the building owner’s responsibility so we wouldn’t have found it without the meter. The area is very dry, rocky and close to the coastline, so the water probably just went into the sea and never would have surfaced.”