Digital meters save money and water for Unitywater customers
Our digital metering program is enabling customers with a digital water meter to find and fix leaks on their property sooner, helping them to save money off their bills and conserve water.
Unlike mechanical meters, digital devices take a meter reading every 15 minutes and transmit this data to Unitywater each day – so we can alert customers who have a suspected leak on their property much sooner.
To date, our digital meters have identified 3,900 water leaks, saving a total of $3.8 million off customer bills and conserving 646 million litres of water. The devices are powered by a long-life battery so they will keep working during power outages. Unitywater is notified automatically if any device fails.
There are two types of digital metering devices:
1. Digital water meter – view video below
2. Digital logger on mechanical meter – view video below
Digital metering FAQs
While your existing mechanical water meter is read by a meter reader four times a year, a digital water meter captures your water meter readings frequently throughout each day (every 15 minutes), and transmits this data to Unitywater on a daily basis.
In the future, this extra data will give you a more detailed understanding of your water usage patterns and help you notice any significant or unusual changes. It will also be used to alert you to water leaks on your property (e.g. dripping taps, running toilets, broken pipes), especially concealed leaks that are hidden underground, in walls or other parts of your property.
After your digital water meter is installed, you will still be able see the water meter readings on the face of the water meter, so you can still take regular meter readings and use our handy online tool My Usage Tracker to keep an eye on your water usage between bills.
My Usage Tracker is available to online in My Account.
Digital water meters will also help us to identify leaks in our Unitywater infrastructure and improve the operational efficiency of our wider water supply network, so we can keep our customers and community safe and healthy, and keep customer bills as low as possible.
For water meter logger installation, there is no water outage
For digital water meter installation, the water is usually turned off for less than 15 minutes and we will notify you at least three days before installation.
Our contractor will also knock on your door when they arrive to see if you are home and tell when your water will be turned off. If you have any concerns, please use the contact details on the notification card or contact us.
We've rolled out 10,500 digital water meters to date and will keep you informed about the process. After your digital water meter is installed, you can still your readings on the face of the meter. You can also use our handy online Usage Tracker in My Account to monitor your water usage between bills.
No personal information is transmitted from your digital water meter. The data that is transmitted only includes the smart water meter serial number, timestamp and total amount of water used in kilolitres. Any data that Unitywater receives from a digital water meter or logger with be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Australian data security requirements.
Every batch of digital water meter devices that enters Australia is subject to very strict testing by Australian Government authorities to ensure it complies with relevant Australian Standards.
Digital water meter data is transmitted as an encrypted radio signal. The energy emitted from the device is just a tiny fraction of the energy from a normal mobile phone or a digital electricity meter - in fact, it’s only as much as one click of an automatic garage door.
Digital water meters have been in place in many locations around Australia and the world for some years, and there are no known health issues associated with their use.
If we suspect high water usage or a possible leak at your property, we will continue to alert you to this in the same way as we currently do for all our customers. Digital data enables us to alert customers sooner to help avoid higher bills, but it is the property owner’s responsibility to find and repair any leaks on their property and pay for any excess water usage caused by the leak. We recommend you follow our easy step-by-step guide to check for leaks regularly between bills.
