HomeMy Public PortalAbout20080128FireFly.docTybee Island has been working to improve infrastructure in a number of ways. In the water supply system, we have partnered with Datamatic, a leading supplier in the metering industry,
to bring the FireFly Automatic Meter Reading system to our water meters.
The FireFly is an add-on module that can interface with almost any existing meter, saving the City’s taxpayers from the burden of trading out all of the meters on the island to upgrade
to this new system. In addition, the FireFly’s form an RF mesh network, communicating with one another until data can be safely and securely delivered to one of several aggregation
sites on the island and reported to the Billing Specialist at City Hall in near real time. This data reporting gives up-to-date readings on demand, enabling the City to reduce the number
of employee hours dedicated to reading meters while improving the accuracy of the readings.
Because the FireFly system can monitor and compare water usage with your history of usage, the system can flag potential water leaks before they turn into major expense or cause major
damage to your home or business; the Billing Specialist will dispatch Water and Sewer Department staff immediately to correct such problems when they are discovered. This leads to additional
cost savings due to improved water conservation capabilities, and the improved records will allow the City to plan for growth and other infrastructure improvements more effectively.
The coming conversion to monthly billing will also help to achieve all of these goals and will be greatly eased with installation of the FireFly devices between now and mid-year.
You can view details of the Datamatic FireFly system at http://www.datamatic.com/firefly.html.