FOCUS Physical water infrastructure
Leak detection tech develops alongside smart water meters Taggle Systems has rolled out its smart meters across Australia. This has resulted in other enterprises utilising the information to improve their business practices and even start a new business; such is the case for Global Leak Solutions. A TRICKLE OF water doesn’t look like much. However, 10 litres per hour can add up to over 30 kegs of beer a week. That could be an extra $54 on top of your average quarterly bill. A broken toilet leaks about 700 litres daily, costing an additional $630 a year. Most people can find that themselves. However, small hidden leaks have typically been very hard to locate. Taggle has found that about 10 per cent of households have a leak of this smaller scale. A town of 50,000 homes would leak more water than 2.5 Sydney Harbours. Fixing those leaks can save over $3 million in a year. Stopping even tiny leaks, especially in times of drought, is vital for water security. Taggle’s smart water meters can
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sense these tiny leaks. For most leak detection companies, this is too small for their technology, so they concentrate on leaks of over 100 litres per hour. That is not the case for Matt Selby, the founder of Global Leak Solutions. Who is Global Leak Solutions? Global Leak Solutions is a water leak detection training and equipment manufacturer. It sells high-quality equipment, including its designed and patented leak detection product. It also offers training at its Brisbane water leak detection training facility. Selby’s training and equipment give future leak detection specialists the confidence to locate water leaks from day one. He has been a licenced plumber for nearly two decades, understanding the
INSIDE WATER January/February 2023
Matt Selby from Global Leak Solutions
technology and the industry. On top of its own designed and manufactured equipment, Global Leak Solutions is also a Sewerin distributor. Sewerin is an internationally successful and trusted German company that makes highend equipment for detecting leaks. How did Global Leak Solutions and Taggle come together? Selby was a plumbing contractor from Mackay in central Queensland. His speciality was in new homes and maintenance plumbing. “Around 2014, my phone exploded with calls wanting me to locate water leaks on properties. I had no idea at the time why there was such an influx of water leaks,” said Selby. “I soon found out that most homeowners were getting notified of leaks from the Mackay Regional Council through an online portal called MyH2O.” MyH2O is the Taggle customer portal for residents of Mackay to review their water use. It allows customers to identify leaks and manage their water consumption while determining when excessive water use occurs. Customers could also set up SMS and email alerts when water leaks occur on their property. “As more and more leak detection service requests came in, I wanted to learn more about the smart meters and leak notifications,” he said. “With that in mind, I met with the Mackay Water Services team, who explained the setup that Taggle had implemented.” Selby got to understand how Taggle’s Aqualus software and customer portal worked. His perspective allowed him to become a quasi-external tester. He also saw an opportunity to refine and simplify conventional leak detection processes.