Many have heard me describe our onsite industry as similar to the computer industry of 30 years ago. Remember your first computer? Remember your first email? Now think how rapidly things have developed and changed in computers and email since then. Smartphones, tablets, Facebook – how exciting!

The same thing is happening in the onsite industry on many fronts, and one of those is telemetry. This technology is attaching itself to the computer rocket with surprising success. In 1912, the City of Chicago, Ill., installed a telemetry system using the city’s phone lines to transmit the performance of power generating plants to a central control station. In July 1997, the Sojourner spacecraft analyzed the makeup and temperature of the surface of Mars and transmitted it back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Similarly, the onsite industry began using phone lines to transmit the most basic data points of an onsite system. Usually, this was nothing more than notification of a high-water condition transmitted via copper wire to a phone on the other end.

As this technology became more and more affordable, we were thrown a curve ball. Copper telephone lines started to disappear in newly constructed homes. The wire on which it had become so easy to transmit conditions about the onsite system is going away. Just as demand creates supply, several manufacturers reached out to the computer industry to create an alternative to the copper wire. The wireless Internet fills this gap.

 

Why telemetry and monitoring?

The reason behind telemetry is simple: It lets you stay in a convenient location – your office with your computer, or in the field with your laptop or cellphone – while monitoring what is taking place in an inconvenient location.

One reason this technology has gained popularity is the rising complexity and cost of onsite systems. We have all heard the story about grandma’s septic tank that never needed pumping. Grandma didn’t want or need telemetry. Grandma would have been violating the most basic investment rule: Don’t spend a dollar to save a dollar.

But today’s systems require homeowners to invest so much more money that it makes sense to monitor their systems to help prevent costly failures.

With the cost and complexity of today’s systems comes the added need for operation and maintenance. As a maintenance provider, being able to monitor a system benefits the homeowner in several ways. The service provider receives and responds to alarms directly – the phone call comes from the service provider to the homeowner, not the other way around. This instills confidence in the homeowners of your ability to manage an expensive system that probably wasn’t even in their construction budget.

 

Decision-support tool

This is just the very basic use of telemetry. What if you could see patterns developing that would indicate a possible future failure? Now the call is to the homeowner before the alarm. In my neck of the woods, alarms always come at about five o’clock on Friday afternoon before a family reunion weekend.

What if you were able to notify a homeowner of an unusually large amount of water being used – something that could have a long-term effect on the soil treatment area? The alarm would not only prevent that problem but also enable the owner to rectify a leak in the home.

Creating a mindset with the customer that you as a service provider are on top of things is a great benefit and sales tool when trying to convince people to buy your service. But there is another benefit, and it falls to the service provider: The more you know about a system while sitting at your office, the less money you will spend servicing that system. The severity of an alarm should dictate your response time. There is no need to send a technician out on overtime for a problem that could wait for straight time. Telemetry can help you make those decisions.

I know what you are thinking even as you read this: Who is going to pay for the telemetry system? Did you know there are manufacturers who already provide some types of remote monitoring at little or no cost?

Telemetry technology is coming at us fast. Just search around the Internet and check out all the manufacturers now taking advantage of monitoring and telemetry in the onsite wastewater industry. You might be surprised. But the most exciting part is what is just around the corner. What could it be? Let your imagination wander and understand that these may not be dreams of what might come, but rather prototypes already being tested.