TABLE I
According to Websters, a blog post is an entry or article that is written on a blog. It can include content in the form of text, photos, infographics, videos, or deep-fakes. Chez Dirt Lease, a post is an insightful one-to-two thousand word essay that views consciousness, history, sex and the rest of the world through the lens of the manufactured housing industry. Under that definition, the present content is not a post. Instead, it is a public service announcement.
Table I, above, is a screen shot of the Waterscope dashboard for my park in northern New York today. Waterscope is the online portal for customers of Metron Farnier, a water meter supplier. In that park, each individual home’s water usage is measured by a water meter placed on the riser pipe that feeds the home, and the park’s aggregate water usage is measured by a master meter that is installed at the place where the town water main feeds the park’s water main. I pay the town for aggregate water use, and bill residents for their water usage. That means that, if any water leaks into the ground somewhere between the master meter and the homes, I am stuck with the cost.
Pre Metron-Farnier, it was difficult to know when a park had an underground water leak. If it was a large leak in a pipe that was near the surface, we might see water gushing out. But usually we didn’t know that there was a leak until the water bill came from the town. The lag between the time when water started spurting into the ground and the time when we knew that that was happening cost money.
In Table 1, the green area represents individual usage, and the blue area represents the volume of water that passes through the master meter. Master meter usage is always bigger than aggregate individual usage (there are always some leaks), but the difference is small and there is a general correlation between the two lines. Then, during the night of 3/25-3/26, the volume of water passing through the master meter went vertical, while individual usage dropped off. Clearly, some fitting blew out and started gushing water.
Knowing that you have a problem is not the same as fixing it. But knowing that you have a problem almost in real time is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for fixing it.
Metron Farnier meters are not perfect. They are not cheap. They are temperamental – their paddles get clogged. They do not always transmit. Sometimes they run backwards. But they pay for themselves during the moments of terror that punctuate the months of boredom.