Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday announced the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s pilot program with Flume, a smart water-monitoring device that tracks at-home water use and can detect leaks and create a water-budget for customers.
The program enables LADWP customers living in single-family residences to purchase the device for $24, instead of the normal $199 retail price tag.
Wi-fi enabled, Flume attaches to a customer’s water meter and delivers down-to-the-minute water usage to a downloaded app available on smartphones, tablets or a website browser, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
At the press conference, Garcetti said that since he was elected mayor in 2013, Angelenos have saved more than 256 billion gallons of water.
“If that’s tough for you to understand and to picture, imagine 900 Los Angeles Coliseums filled to the brim with water. That’s how much we’ve saved,” Garcetti said. “And this new smart water device monitoring program will allow us to continue saving water.”
To be eligible for the program, LADWP customers need to live in a single-family residence and buy the device directly from the Flume website.
Through the pilot program, the initial cost of the water monitoring device is $49. A $25 deposit is automatically refunded once a customer installs the Flume, bringing the cost down to $24.
