Israeli Innovations: Keeping tabs on your tap

Israeli company Arad is about to launch what it claims to be the world’s first smartphone app that allows users to get a very detailed overview of their water consumption.

By ADAM GONN
The app will be free for consumers to download (photo credit: courtesy)
The app will be free for consumers to download
(photo credit: courtesy)
How many times have you opened your water bill and said there’s no way that I used that much water last month? Well, if you live in Israel or one of 50 other countries in which the local water utility company uses technology developed by Israel-based Arad Technologies, which develops water-measurement devices, you are in luck. Arad is about to launch what it claims to be the world’s first smartphone app that allows users to get a very detailed overview of their water consumption.
Tal Tzur, vice president of Software & IT at Arad Technologies, tells The Jerusalem Report how consumers will benefit from using the app.
“Let’s assume that you are a consumer in a city whose utility company works with us and is collecting data; so if you installed this app, you’d get extensive information about your water usage – for example, how much you consumed this month, how much water you can consume before you are going to go to a higher tariff, what we predict will be your total consumption by the end of the month,” Tzur says.
He notes that much of the same information is already available on a website set up by Arad, but the app will be much more user friendly, or “neat,” as Tzur puts it.
“You can decide that if you go on a holiday between certain dates, you will not allow your water consumption during this time to be over a certain amount, and if it exceeds the set amount, Arad will send you a text message to let you know,” Tzur says.
Arad is working in Israel with more than 700 water utility companies, ranging from ones on small kibbutzim to others in cities, such as Modi’in, Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva, Kfar Saba and Safed – basically all the larger cities except the big three, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, since none of the water companies in these cities uses an automatic meter reading (AMR) system to measure consumer’s usage.
An AMR system, which is Arad’s core business, generates a map or overview of the water usage in the city by collecting flow information sent from wireless meter readers across the city, hence allowing the utility company to receive instant notification if there is a leak in a certain area or any other unusual activity.
The constant flow of information allows for more effective management of the water grid, according to Arad.
Tzur says that the reason that none of the major cities uses Arad’s technology is the huge investment involved in switching to an AMR system. He adds, however, that Gihon, the water utility company in Jerusalem, is planning to publish a tender in 2014 and Arad will be participating. With regard to Haifa and Tel Aviv, Tzur says that “they aren’t in the game yet.”
In addition to Israel, Arad is active in more than 50 countries, including the United States, where the company operates under the brand name, Master Meter.Tzur says that if a user has a house or apartment in two cities that are using Arad’s technology, it is possible to keep track of both places at the same time via the app. All the user needs to do, he says, is to enter the account number for each property.
The app will be free for consumers to download, and will be available both for iPhone and android devices; but the utility companies will pay a small fee to Arad for the application, which collects its data from water measuring systems developed by the company.