Staff members of the Town of Sundre gas department have completed placing automatic meter readers and bypasses on all of the gas and water meters in town.
The project, which began in March of 2010, was officially completed by Monday of last week. Town staff members celebrated the finish at the town shop over lunch on Thursday.
The cost of the project was approximately $200,000 and is one of the only capital projects that was completed solely by town staff, without contracting it out.
A total of 1,285 automatic meter readers were installed on gas meters and about 1,150 were installed on water meters. About 1,150 residential houses were affected in town.
There have been no failures so far, according to Jim Hall, gas manager with the town.
“The project was done so that we could access our meter reads for our billing every month without having to go into people's yards,” explained Hall at the luncheon. “Physically you had to go up to the meters, you had to enter people's gates and go into their yards.”
He said this usually isn't a problem, except there are a number of people that move into town from a city who lock their gates. There was also the odd run-in with a not-so-friendly dog.
“The meter readers couldn't get those reads very easily, so then you're estimating or having to spend extra money to go and find out what those reads are,” he said.
As for the water meters, they had to be physically read as well because they're inside houses so that they don't freeze over the winter.
“It was kind of labour intensive for that part, but it was more of a safety issue in gaining those reads,” he said, adding that the automatic meter readers only need to be read once a month.
“The device just basically sits there until we go by once a month and hit a little button and there's a computer in behind that wakes up like a garage door when you hit the button. It blurts out the four- digit number of the usage,” he explained.
Bypasses were also placed on all of the meters in town, as part of the project. Measurement Canada mandates that the town pull gas meters out every six years and have them sent away for recertification, he said.
“Well, that entails taking them out, shutting the gas off, putting a new one on and then lighting it up and people have to be home,” he explained. “So with these bypasses, in a sequence, we can just turn those while the gas is running and then the furnaces will continue to run.”
“Even if they're not home, we can change the meter out without gas blowing and put the meter back in and then switch them back, so it runs through the meter,” he added. “So nobody has to be home, we don't have to relight and we can do a lot of meters in a day.”
He said on average four meters could be changed in one day before, but now, with the bypasses on the meters, about 20-30 meters can be changed in one day.
Four meter readers completed the more than three-year job and some of them are now retiring or already have other jobs lined up. Hall said it was challenging to find loyal meter readers because many people aren't interested in working in minus 30 conditions. One of the meter readers will stay on and pick up the automatic meter readers once a month.
As part of the project, 6,000 pounds of aluminium and steel was recycled at a local scrap dealer, he said.
“This is huge for the town,” said Ron Baker, the town's director of operational services, of the project.
