Christchurch Smart Water Meters

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ArnoldGoat

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#324523 22-Apr-2026 09:51

Can’t see a suitable forum for this.

Christchurch are fitting water meters in our street so they can charge for excessive use. They provide the Water Reporter website so you can check your usage after 90 days. That’s shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. I would want to see if being careful was having any effect before that. I believe the meters are read every 30 minutes, but is there any way of accessing this feed? I suspect it will be the same as electricity - you have to provide your own measuring equipment to interrogate it electronically.
They will probably play the privacy/security card, which is a bit hypocritical as the website lets you look at the consumption at any address!

freitasm

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#3482957 22-Apr-2026 09:54

ArnoldGoat:

Can’t see a suitable forum for this.

Moved to Off-topic. Geekzone is only for discussions about Geekzone itself.

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elpenguino

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#3482959 22-Apr-2026 09:59

Most utilities are cr*p at sharing information about your consumption with you.

Yes, install the monitoring device you want and you can slice and dice the information any way you want.

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Goosey

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#3482962 22-Apr-2026 10:13

Water meters in chch have existed since the early 90s.

they just did not attempt to introduce any charging until about 2 years ago and even then it’s only for excess use. The average daily allowance is very generous. It’s well documented in media as well after initially ChCh council having much feedback and they soon increased the daily allowance to the point where now nobody is complaining about excess water fees apart from those really keen to daily water gardens and actually waste some water.

smart meters are being fitted initially to properties that have never had any metering previously. As and when meters need replacing, they will be smart meters.

as with any new tech and local government….they will update the water reporter system with the data feeds…. But obviously, it’s probally not an urgent matter for them to spend time and money on to get it done quickly….

if you haven’t had an excess water charge in your quarterly rates in the last two years then obviously you are going ok…

cddt

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#3482967 22-Apr-2026 10:29

Goosey:

they just did not attempt to introduce any charging until about 2 years ago and even then it’s only for excess use. The average daily allowance is very generous. It’s well documented in media as well after initially ChCh council having much feedback and they soon increased the daily allowance to the point where now nobody is complaining about excess water fees apart from those really keen to daily water gardens and actually waste some water.

Interesting. If there is ever a shortage then introducing usage charging will be an easy solution - other councils have discovered a 25% drop in consumption immediately after usage charges were introduced.

Goosey

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#3482971 22-Apr-2026 10:42

Chch residents are a tad precious about water charging and it was a massive leap for elected members to introduce any form of charging which is why they went for the path of least public angst which was “charging for excess use”.

was the best in the world until recent times when chlorination was needed and still used (but you don’t really notice it as they reduced the dosages dramatically. The only time you get a hint of it, is when you haven’t flushed out the tap after not using it for awhile and it’s about the same time they have microdosed the local main pumping station. It’s also present as and when new subdivisions and works are ongoing….thus can be pesky in the newer areas as they complete work.

tdgeek

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#3482975 22-Apr-2026 10:58

Water Reporter is useless. My address shows readings 26 Jan 2026 20 Oct 2025 24 July 2025 and 24 Jan 2025

How am I sposed to be a good Kiwi and manage my water use off that? Last years water bill was $40 the two previous $80, so I guess I just ignore it

Give me daily or weekly and I would be more proactive and interested

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tdgeek

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#3482977 22-Apr-2026 11:00

Goosey:

Chch residents are a tad precious about water charging and it was a massive leap for elected members to introduce any form of charging which is why they went for the path of least public angst which was “charging for excess use”.

was the best in the world until recent times when chlorination was needed and still used (but you don’t really notice it as they reduced the dosages dramatically. The only time you get a hint of it, is when you haven’t flushed out the tap after not using it for awhile and it’s about the same time they have microdosed the local main pumping station. It’s also present as and when new subdivisions and works are ongoing….thus can be pesky in the newer areas as they complete work.

Tad precious? Yep. We have no water supply issues, we have plenty and its clean. Summer can and will cause water pressure issues, so put restrictions on. That wont reduce water usage (which isnt needed) but it will mitigate daily average water pressure issues

k1w1k1d

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#3483057 22-Apr-2026 13:22

I read our water meter about once every couple of weeks and enter the reading into a spreadsheet to see how much we are using. So far, we have only been charged once for over usage.

We have a four-zone garden watering system that prior to water charging used to run every night during summer, but now we only use it as required to keep the gardens alive.

"For example:
- A property's water meter was last read 95 days ago.
- Using the formula above, 900 litres multiplied by 95 gives us a limit of 85,500 litres for the period.
- The property's latest meter reading shows it has used 100,000 litres in those 95 days.
- 100,000 litres is 14,500 litres more than the limit.
- The rate is $1.47 for every 1000 litres used over the limit.
- So 14,500 extra litres is equal to 14.5 multiplied by $1.47, a total charge of $20.45."

Spyware

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#3483060 22-Apr-2026 13:30

I water the council berm and council send me the bill as I hate brown grass. With the rain the last two summers I haven't found it necessary to water to any great extent and have not been charged, $68 was the worst.

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boosacnoodle

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#3483217 22-Apr-2026 21:32

tdgeek:

Water Reporter is useless. My address shows readings 26 Jan 2026 20 Oct 2025 24 July 2025 and 24 Jan 2025

How am I sposed to be a good Kiwi and manage my water use off that? Last years water bill was $40 the two previous $80, so I guess I just ignore it

Give me daily or weekly and I would be more proactive and interested

Mine was not read for 2 years, then all of a sudden they retroactively bought all of the readings in. Must have been a glitch in the data capture.

ArnoldGoat

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#3483865 25-Apr-2026 09:28

They are doing Lyttelton now including houses with no meters. Manually reading meter will be a pain as the Toby is outside the property under a big macrocarpa hedge. Maybe I can negotiate where they put it? 900L a day seems quite generous anyway.

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Goosey

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#3483868 25-Apr-2026 09:59

ArnoldGoat:

They are doing Lyttelton now including houses with no meters. Manually reading meter will be a pain as the Toby is outside the property under a big macrocarpa hedge. Maybe I can negotiate where they put it? 900L a day seems quite generous anyway.

you can’t negotiate. It’s the point where the main supply is connected to your property. Anything inside your property is your responsibility as of the your side of the meter. Meter and other side is council responsibility.

ArnoldGoat

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#3484961 28-Apr-2026 10:55

This thread should probably be moved to the following forum, but I don't know how to request that.

Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables)

I didn't notice the related topic in there.