A major project to fight leakage by Yorkshire Water is using HWM’s Radio-Tech SMART Log wireless datalogging automatic meter reader (AMR) to significantly reduce the time and cost taken to find and fix leaks in the network. The SMART Logs are being installed by Vernon Morris & Co. Ltd. along with its Incertameter ‘bolt-on’ in-line flow meter, enabling Yorkshire Water to split 250 of its existing DMAs* in half for more efficient water management – without the need for constructing any new, expensive metered bypasses. The initial phase includes 350 installations, with more planned to follow as the project rolls out across the network.

SMART Log wireless dataloggers from HWM Radio-Tech help Yorkshire Water fight water leakage

Dividing a water mains network into DMAs is current water loss prevention best practice. It allows water companies to examine their network in small pieces, narrowing down areas where water is being lost so that leakage teams can then pinpoint the location within that DMA. Obviously, smaller DMAs result in more detailed initial information, and proportionally less time taken to identify the exact position of the leak; in these cases time equals not only money but also water, personnel and the chances of a severe service disruption.

SMART Log and Incertameter allow for the easy and very cost-effective creation of more and smaller DMAs, and very rapid collection of data from them. SMART Log’s wireless technology means that data collection teams no longer need access to the meter itself, but instead can download the data via a secure wireless link from up to 100 meters away – even from a moving vehicle. This drastically reduces the time taken for data gathering, which, in addition to the use of smaller DMAs, results in impressive savings.

SMART Log wireless datalogging automatic meter reader (AMR) reduces time and cost of finding and fixing water leaks

In a series of blind pilot trials conducted last year to compare the before and after effects of the project, results indicated an average saving per leak of roughly 60 hours of detection time and over £1500, even without factoring in the initial saving of £5000+ per sub-metering point created. Leakage inspectors can expect to cover a DMA approximately five times faster than before, and prioritise their leak repair activities much more effectively according to the severity of a leak and its impact on the water supply.

Advanced technology not only enables this level of functional efficiency, but has resulted in an impressive battery life for the systems. Batteries last for 5 years with a 5 minute sample rate, meaning that the time and cost savings first made at the installation continue on for half a decade. The SMART Log technology has already seen extended use in Scotland and England over the last few years, both in conjunction with the Incertameter and as a standalone AMR or commercial datalogger, and has consistently proved itself a valuable tool in improving a project’s operational functionality and underlying efficiency.

*District Metered Area

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Equipment helped department exceed water loss reduction goal

Milford, OH (December 14, 2011) – Texas-based New Braunfels Utilities (NBU) used leak detection equipment from Fluid Conservation Systems (FCS) to build an efficient maintenance program for its distribution network while drastically reducing water loss. The equipment allows NBU to conduct scheduled repairs on its pipelines instead of dealing with leaks on an emergency basis.

NBU workers use an FCS TriCorr Touch correlator to locate leaks and conduct scheduled maintenance.

The NBU leak detection and valve maintenance program was established in 2009 to reduce water loss and increase system and valve reliability for NBU’s 456 miles of pipeline and 24,000 customer connections. At the end of the first year of the program, NBU calculated its average water loss at 2,000 gallons/ mile/ day.

Recognizing the need for improvement, NBU purchased FCS leak detection equipment including Xmic ground microphones, a SoundSens “i” correlating noise logger, a TriCorr Touch correlator and Permalog acoustic leak noise data loggers. The team began using the equipment to perform preventive maintenance on 750 valves per year and proactively scan the city for non-surfacing leaks. Two years later, NBU estimates its average water loss at 961 gallons/ mile/ day, less than half the loss rate during the program’s first year.

“Everyone knows that water is a precious resource and its preservation requires a ton of attention,” said NBU Operations and Maintenance Division Manager, Trino Pedraza. “We tested many products in the field and found FCS to have the highest level of reliability.”

FCS Permalog data loggers attach magnetically to pipelines and use advanced algorithms to discern the acoustic signature of leaks from background noise. SoundSens “i” and TriCorr correlators analyze data from acoustic sensors to approximate a leak’s location. The FCS Xmic electronic ground microphone amplifies noise generated by water escaping from buried supply lines under pressure, allowing users to pinpoint a leak’s location.

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Radio-Tech’s market-leading wireless energy monitoring ranges will be exhibited by HWM at upcoming shows The Energy Event, Low Carbon Expo and Energy Solutions. Visitors will be introduced to the company’s Observe™ and Economise™ systems, which are made up of products such as the award-winning Ecosense™ combined temperature and humidity sensor.

HWM exhibits Radio-Tech wireless energy monitoring systems at upcoming trade events

Radio-Tech, leader in wireless telemetry and remote monitoring systems, is now a part of Halma Water Management (HWM-Water Ltd). The two entities had previously worked together on a number of projects and products, and the new company structure will allow the Radio-Tech systems to benefit from even greater support.

Visitors will be able to see how the company’s wireless telemetry, sensing and datalogging expertise can help to easily measure, record and analyse the energy consumption and allocation of resources. Radio-Tech’s Observe™ range, which focuses on environmental monitoring, has been designed to meet the Energy Saving Trust’s specification as outlined in: “Evaluating energy and carbon performance in the ‘Retrofit for the Future’ demonstrator projects”. The Observe™ system makes the whole process easy and simple, and even works seamlessly across multiple sites and projects by providing a web-based interface for remote data access and analysis.

In the drive for businesses to reduce costs, wastage and environmental impact, accurate and easy monitoring of energy usage and building performance conditions is essential. The Economise™ system from HWM uses modular component sensors and remote telemetry to form a network of measurement points and parameters – from temperature and humidity levels to localised consumption of water, electricity and gas. This data is then routed through a centralised data collector, all completely wirelessly, which stores the information and acts as a secure server for data access and assisted analysis from the internet.

The use of high-quality hardware and custom-designed software means that the system does not require field programming (it automatically detects nearby devices), is remotely accessible through a variety of communication platforms, and can even be configured entirely by SMS.

HWM has over 30 years of experience in data logging and water management, and is considered one of the foremost experts in water leak detection and remote monitoring in the world. The addition of Radio-Tech’s environmental and energy focused technologies fits in well with the company’s goal of providing innovative and cost-effective solutions to help its customers use their resources more effectively and efficiently.

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Wireless telemetry specialist Radio-Tech will be showing its energy management and environmental monitoring systems at the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) Conference 2011.

economise™ enables companies to easily monitor their consumption of electricity, gas and water, allowing reductions in consumption to be made. Eco chirps (transmitters) stationed at strategic points measure a building’s energy consumption and transmit that information to Radio-Tech’s data hub, the RT:Wi5. The hub then sends the data to either Radio-Tech’s or third-party software, allowing companies to devise a monitoring and targeting plan that could potentially save thousands of pounds in the first two years of implementation.

Meanwhile, observe represents the latest innovation in wireless environmental monitoring that measures energy efficiency and building performance. Designed to meet the specification set out by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) in its document ‘Evaluating energy and carbon performance in the Retrofit for the Future demonstrator projects’, observe has been selected as the primary data collection system for both the EST’s Solid Wall Insulation field trials and the Technology Strategy Board’s ‘Retrofit for the Future’ project.

Radio-Tech’s stand will be manned by national account managers Zaid Furreedan and Phil Tomlinson.

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- Temperature and humidity sensor triumphs at Energy Solutions Expo 2010 -

Radio-Tech has won the award for best product innovation at the Innovation & Sustainability Awards, held at the Energy Solutions Expo 2010 in London. The company’s ecosense, which monitors temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels and energy usage, was victorious in a category for products that noticeably improve the workplace.

Victoria Wheeler, marketing manager, is flanked by national account managers Chris Bridge (left) and Zaid Furreedan.

Victoria Wheeler, marketing manager, flanked by national account managers Chris Bridge (left) and Zaid Furreedan.

Explaining the reasons for their decision, the judges described themselves as “particularly impressed by Radio-Tech as it seemed such a simple idea, very useful and easy to use. Those three factors were crucial; energy measurement is the starting point for carbon reduction and making the workplace more efficient – Radio-Tech does exactly that and allows FMs to make the decisions based on the measurements.”

ecosense began life as a customer design for construction and building services specialist BSRIA. BSRIA was seeking a more robust data logging system that met the requirements of various specifications, including the Energy Saving Trust’s ‘Monitoring energy and carbon performance in new homes (CE298)’.

“Radio-Tech offered equipment that could be tailored to our needs,” explained Alan Gilbert, instrument solutions rental manager at BSRIA, “which had the additional benefits of being unobtrusive, simple to install and featuring a long battery life. I am sure this award will be the first of many.”

Olivier Lebreton, senior design engineer at Radio-Tech and the man behind ecosense, added: “The most important thing from my point of view was that Radio-Tech could supply the complete solution.”

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Halma Water Management (HWM) has developed a new water leak correlator that features a class-leading sensor, a large full-colour touch screen, and integrated noise filtering, analysis and management software. The company, which incorporates Palmer Environmental Ltd., developed the first correlator over thirty years ago, and has been at the forefront of leak detection design and manufacture ever since. With significant improvements to existing components and the addition of brand new features, HWM believes the new MicroCorr Touch (TriCorr Touch in the USA) represents a real breakthrough in leak detection technology. The unit is operated by touchscreen, making it much easier to input data and maximising the visible screen area to display results more clearly than has ever been possible before.

Halma Water Management has launched the new MicroCorr Touch touchscreen water leak correlator

Leak correlation is used to find the exact location of a leak on a pipe. Highly-sensitive acoustic sensors are placed at intervals on the pipe, and listen to the sound made by the leak. The data is transmitted wirelessly to a handheld ‘base unit’, which processes the information to identify the leak sound, and then applies mathematical algorithms to to pinpoint the leak position.

The Touch features a newly-developed sensor designed to be at least twice as sensitive as anything else available on the market today. This enables it to perform well even in traditionally difficult conditions, such as on plastic and large diameter pipes. It is also the first standalone correlator to feature a high visibility full colour VGA touch screen to greatly improve data entry and the quality of data presentation. The intuitive user interface eases and simplifies leak-finding without compromising on functionality or precision, and enables the unit to be operated with the minimum number of key presses. The large screen, with Tuffscreen anti-glare screen protection, clearly displays correlation results and supportive information even in bright sunshine, effectively combining outstanding performance with excellent ease of use.

MicroCorr Touch - the new touchscreen correlator for pinpointing water leaks from HWM

The system is equipped with an innovative tri-filter correlation option which can simultaneously perform three correlations at different filter settings. This is particularly useful when the pipe material is uncertain. When the best filter is seen, the correlation switches to focus on this. The outstation is compact with high quality long range radio transmission; it also features a magnet to secure onto metallic street furniture. The purpose designed robust case not only carries and protects all components but charges them via mains or vehicle supply. The charge level for all items can be shown at the touch of a button.

Using the company’s extensive experience of correlator technology, HWM believes that it has created an easy to use system that delivers the best all round performance available today at a highly competitive price.

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General Environmental Services Ltd (GES Water and GES Technology) has signed a distribution agreement with Radio-Tech to provide its clients with aquavision, Radio-Tech’s wireless legionella* management system.

Mark David (left), Sales Director at GES and Kevin Bloodworth, Director of GES Technology stands with Radio-Tech’s Account Manager Craig Anderson (Right)

Mark David (left), Sales Director at GES and Kevin Bloodworth, Director of GES Technology stands with Radio-Tech’s Account Manager Craig Anderson (Right)

GES supplies customers with water treatment and hygiene programmes and legionella monitoring forms a core part of its business. Kevin Bloodworth, Director of GES Technology is responsible for driving innovation and looked at several methods of improving legionella control. He commented:

“We found that Radio-Tech’s product was by far the best product on the market. aquavision goes above and beyond the minimum standard of legionella monitoring set out in HSE’s ACoP L8 guidelines. Clients get a better overview of the system and it enables them to identify problems that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see, so it’s a great investigative tool.”

aquavision works by wirelessly monitoring water temperatures at multiple sites from any internet enabled location. It is a fully automated system that has been developed to assist water treatment companies, facility management and property management companies to comply with current guidelines and legislation.

Kevin noted that Radio-Tech’s product enabled GES to give clients an all-round better service: “With aquavision, the process is automated so clients don’t have to remember to manually check temperatures every month, or make sure the contractor has been in to do it. It also helps us cut down on the number of vans we send out thereby improving our costs and environmental footprint”, Kevin said, adding, “We can also offer aquavision to clients on a lease basis which provides a much-improved and cost-effective solution to customers.”

Using aquavision to wirelessly monitor water temperatures is less invasive than the traditional method of manually checking and automatically flushing outlets on each floor of a building.

Kevin continued: “aquavision has other advantages; sometimes there are security or privacy issues at certain properties, or the need to be discreet. For example, care homes often don’t want strangers intruding in resident’s personal living space every month, which can be very disruptive. aquavision eliminates this issue by remotely and wirelessly monitoring water temperatures regularly without the need to enter private property.”

Craig Anderson, Sales Manager at Radio-Tech commented on the new partnership deal with GES: “Their wealth of knowledge and experience in the water industry combined with our technical and design abilities make this an ideal partnership.”

*Legionella – L.pneumophila, a bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease.

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Wireless telemetry specialist Radio-Tech will be showing its energy management and environmental monitoring systems at The Energy Event 2010.

economise™ enables companies to easily monitor their consumption of electricity, gas and water, allowing reductions in consumption to be made. Eco chirps (transmitters) stationed at strategic points measure a building’s energy consumption and transmit that information to Radio-Tech’s data hub, the RT:Wi5. The hub then sends the data to either Radio-Tech’s or third-party software, allowing companies to devise a monitoring and targeting plan that could potentially save thousands of pounds.

economise

Meanwhile, Radio-Tech’s wireless environmental monitoring system measures energy efficiency and building performance and is specifically designed to meet standards specified by the Energy Savings Trust (EST). Sensors positioned throughout a property measure variables such as temperature, humidity, CO2, electricity, gas and water consumption. This data is transmitted to a central hub at five minute intervals which is collected by Radio-Tech or client hosted servers for analysis. Such environmental data can provide valuable information about building performance that can affect how low impact buildings are constructed in the future. Radio-Tech’s products have already been selected as the primary data collection system for both the EST’s Solid Wall Insulation field trials and the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) ‘Retrofit for the Future’ project.

Radio-Tech welcomes all visitors to stand 128.

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Wireless telemetry specialist Radio-Tech has developed a new and innovative wireless environmental monitoring system that measures energy efficiency and building performance and is specifically designed to meet standards specified by the Energy Savings Trust* (EST). Radio-Tech’s products have already been selected as the primary data collection system for both the EST’s Solid Wall Insulation field trials and the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) ‘Retrofit for the Future’ project.

Radio-Tech products comply with Energy Saving Trust Standards

Radio-Tech’s products measure building data through a range of wireless sensors positioned throughout a property. As the entire system is totally wireless it requires no field programming and can be installed with minimal disruption to occupants. Sensors monitor variables such as internal and external temperature and humidity, surface temperature, carbon dioxide levels, window and door openings, electricity, gas and water consumption. Through partnerships with industry-leading specialists, Radio-Tech can also offer heat flux, light and electrical power sensing equipment.

Sensors collect data from a range of sources and, using 434 MHz RF, report this information back at 5 minute intervals to a single, central Wi5 Data Hub. The Wi5 Data Hub can be located anywhere in the property and with a memory of 2GB can manage data from hundreds of sensors. Once data has been received, the Wi5 transmits this information back to Radio-Tech or client hosted servers for analysis; this can be uploaded periodically or as often as every minute. Collecting such environmental data can provide valuable information about building construction and performance that can affect the future of low impact building development in the UK.

The Government-backed TSB is currently spearheading an R&D project that will help evaluate building performance in an attempt to generate future low impact buildings with a reduced carbon footprint. Case study buildings will be evaluated to understand how building design and construction relates to energy and performance and the TSB has funding worth £8m available to businesses involved in the construction of these ‘green’ buildings. Environmental monitoring is an important part of future planning in the building and design sector and Radio-Tech products meet the criteria outlined by the Energy Savings Trust. Radio-Tech works in partnership with leading UK service providers to offer turn-key solutions that include calibration, installation and data collection. For more information about Radio-Tech’s new environmental monitoring range, please visit the company website at www.radio-tech.co.uk or call +44 (0)1279 635849.

*‘Evaluating Energy and Carbon Performance in the Retrofit for the Future Demonstrator Projects’ document found at www.innovateuk.org/_assets/pdf/competition-documents/est evaluating energy and carbon performance v1 0.pdf

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- £100m earmarked for acquisitions -

Halma p.l.c. (www.halma.com), the leading global safety, health and sensor technology group and parent company of Halma Water Management, has announced record results with profits up 9% to £86m and revenue rising by 1% to £459m. The UK-based group has posted strong financials to raise shareholder dividends by 7%, the thirty-first consecutive year of increases greater than 5%. The company plans to augment its organic growth efforts through acquisition of complementary technology companies, as it has done for many years.

Halma’s subsidiaries operate in three main market sectors: Health and Analysis, Infrastructure Sensors, and Industrial Safety, creating shareholder value with consistent organic growth and sound acquisitions. Halma companies operate as independent entities under the day-to-day direction of their local management, while reaping the capital and network benefits of a larger multi-national parent.

The company is seeking successful and profitable companies that are closely allied to any of its current market sectors, although Photonics, Water, Fluid Technology and Health Optics are a particular focus. It has £100m earmarked for acquisitions.

“In recent months we have increased our acquisition search activity,” said Allan Stamper, Chief Executive of the Water & Asset Monitoring Division. “Our experience has been that vendors of good quality businesses are now keener to talk but that many remain cautious about whether to sell now or to wait, in the hope that markets will recover in the medium term. Our task is to convince them that they will achieve even greater success by being part of Halma and to structure deals accordingly. We continue to search for businesses in all of our existing market sectors and in all geographic regions.”

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Halma is a holding company of approximately 35 worldwide subsidiaries that develop and manufacture products that protect lives and improve quality of life for people worldwide. The company’s business groups focus on industrial safety, health and analysis and infrastructure sensors.

To present potential acquisitions opportunities, please contact:

Allan Stamper – Chief Executive, Water & Asset Monitoring Division
Email: allan.stamper@halma.com
Tel:  +44 (0)1494 721111
Fax:  +44 (0)1494 728032

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