无线水表即将向纽约报到

2010-02-03中央社 記者 楊一峰 特拉維夫

无线水表即向纽约报到

为了节省水资源，纽约市长彭博宣布，将在2011年之前在全市装设826,000台无线水表，依照现行的做法，水费的征收是由环境保护署 (Department of Environmental Protection, DEP) 估计用户的用水量，每三个月收取一次，而这套无线水表系统，每六个小时就会将数据传送到屋顶上的接收器，DEP则依此每月向用户收取水费，(而且还是用网络寄送账单，够环保吧！)预计整套水表无线化系统将耗资美金2.5亿元，目前已经在布鲁克林、曼哈顿以及皇后区开始装设(免安装费)，一旦拓展到全市，纽约将会是全世界使用无线水表的最大都市，而依照纽约时报(New York Times)的估计，这套系统将能降低5%~10%的用水量，每年最多能省下美金9,000万元。
无线水表，除了替水公司省下大笔抄表劳务与风险成本外，该系统有提早警示的功能，能让你家在漏水时及早发现，间接替国家节省珍贵水资源。

资料来源：纽约时报，请参见原文

City Turns to Wireless for Water Bills，March 24, 2009, 4:37 pm，By DAVID W. CHEN

For years, New York City failed to collect tens of millions of dollars in overdue water bills because of a shoddy record-keeping system that even city officials acknowledge was antiquated and obsolete. Sometimes, meters that were installed were never read. And in some cases, buildings that had been demolished were still receiving bills. But that is about to change.
On Tuesday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that the city had started installing an automated water meter system that is intended to make the quarterly water bill a thing of the past, and not something to fear.
Gone will be the practice of relying on Con Edison workers to estimate water bills every three months. Instead, homeowners and small businesses will find that the new system, powered by wireless technology, will offer data on exact use on a monthly basis, and the data will be available on the Internet.
“No more, no less, and no surprises,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at the Brooklyn Brewery, one of the first companies to install the system.
The endeavor represents the latest example of Mr. Bloomberg’s effort to try to apply technological advances to city bureaucracy, in the hope of improving efficiency and performance.
The city saves money, shedding a meter-reading contract that costs $3.6 million a year. The city’s water-bill collection rate is expected to improve, too, to an estimated 98 percent from the current 88 percent.
And residents could save a lot of money, too, thanks to an early-warning ability to identify leaks that need repair, and take steps earlier to conserve water. Indeed, the city estimates that residents and businesses could save up to $90 million annually, if they cut back on their water use by 5 percent to 10 percent.
The system will cost $250 million, and the process of installation (free for property owners, by the way) has already begun in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, said Steven W. Lawitts, the acting commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. Once the system is fully installed by 2011, New York will be the largest city in the world to use such wireless water metering, according to the mayor’s office.

资料来源：
1. http://www.iii.org.tw/Service/3_1_4_c.aspx?id=21
2. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/city-turns-to-wireless-for-water-bills/?scp=1&sq=City%20Turns%20to%20Wireless%20for%20Water%20Bills&st=cse