Case studies

Saving water and money with u-blox NINA-B3 and SARA-R410M

Wireless meshed water meter solutions are alive and well positioned to support growing demand for smart water readings. Read more and find out how Australian WaterSynergy Group quickly understood the benefits that wireless mesh can offer and the success it brought to their trial.

WaterSynergy Group is one of the largest integrated corporate water savings companies in Australia focusing on smart water metering and water efficiency. By leveraging innovative and sustainable IoT solutions, their services and products help water suppliers, hospitals, and universities save water and money.

Developing the SmartMESH water meter

The answer? A combination of scalable mesh IoT network software from Wirepas and robust hardware with our NINA‑B3 module enabled them to simplify the installation of water meters and also cut the total cost of ownership for customers. Many water meters are still read manually. Current efforts to connect water meters to the internet to simplify meter reading either use propriety RF protocols, or employ direct cellular connections as an alternative for more remote or isolated devices. The Wirepas Mesh software utilizes a decentralized architecture which improves robustness and efficiency throughout the network.

NINA-B3 and SARA-R410M-02B out of the box features

All in all the project was a great success! Why? Because WaterSynergy Group have a solid understanding of the water metering market and were quick to understand the benefits that wireless mesh can offer. Also, the features of the NINA-B3 and SARA-R410M-02B work out of the box and allow the developers to focus on their application rather than the details in the technology and protocols.

So what does this trial mean for Australia? It will show that wireless meshed water meter solutions are alive and well and are well positioned to support the growing demand for smart water readings. In addition, low cost of ownership, low power, and 15-year life spans are common requirements that can now all be realized through a global interoperable standard using 2.4 Ghz.

Next steps

What’s next? Field trials of the SmartMESH offering are already under way and WaterSynergy Group expects customer referrals once cost savings are realized.

Want to know more details of this project? Check out the press release. Want to talk about your smart meter challenges? Reach out to Jason Meilhon, Senior Business Development Manager at u‑blox: jason.meilhon@u-blox.com.