Project Details
- Category: Municipal
- Project Start Date:
Smart Water Meters
Cape Town Municipality issued a notice for the supply of Smart Water Meters. Donix partnered in the Research and Development for the automated supply of a constitutional free minimum supply to each household in South Africa.



The clients water meter did not have the means to control the rate of water flow automatically. The Smart Water Meter needed to allow for the manual setting of certain flow parameters, the automated control and remote opening and closing of the associated valve. Collection and storage of data needed to be provided for to allow for the subsequent billing of the water consumption.The Smart meter employs inductive pulse technology for water measurement. This device registers the pulses, which are generated by the water meter as water is flowing through the meter. The water meter is connected to an electronic reading device. Bidirectional wireless data communication provides for the consumption control, display and data storage from a remote position – up to 1km line of sight. The device also registers any tamper condition to the meter and will close the electronic valve automatically when these parameters are breached. The electronic valve receives pulses from the electronic reading device through a RF connection between the electronic reading device and the electronic valve. As the pulses which are generated are received by the electronic valve, the pre-programmed credit decreases until the credit is depleted. This will cause the electronic valve to close. The devise monitors the reading and or tamper activity to the meter every 8 seconds.
Project background summary
Brief Detail of Our Approach / Method: The solution was an electro-mechanical design that was retrofitted to their existing design. This solution satisfies local water utilities needs to manage consumer demand for water. This includes but not limited to: Control flow of water for municipalities and for the client, accurate recording of water usage, management of household usage of 6000 liters of potable water per month (as per legislation) and network connectivity to mainframe for complete management. Important Results and Findings: The implementation of this design gave the client the ability to provide additional solutions to the municipalities such as an in-premise display, local and remote monitoring.