Paying for heating according to an individual meter will cost several times cheaper than reimbursement of the cost at some incredible rates, most of which are heat losses during the transportation of water from the CHP to the house.
For this reason, the installation of heat meters for heating is a priority task that any homeowner must solve. Moreover, this problem is very easy to solve, since the modern market for instrumentation is literally crammed with an abundance of models of heat meters.
Benefits
If you decide to resort to installing a meter, then as a result you will pay for the heating provided to you strictly at a fixed rate and only the amount that will exactly match the meter readings. At the same time, it will be possible to regulate the access of heat to a house or apartment, taking into account weather conditions. This action can be carried out both manually using a special locking device, and automatically using a special system.heat control.
Design Features
Heat meters for heating consist of the following main elements:
- computing module;
- two sensors recording temperature;
- flow sensor.
These elements are combined into a single plastic case, complete with branch pipes for subsequent connection of the meter to pipelines. To date, many heat meters for heating are equipped with autonomous power supply, which allows these devices to operate without a source of electrical energy. In other words, if your apartment or house is left without electricity for a long time, the meter will take into account the heat.
In addition, any counter must have a certificate and a passport. In the documentation, the manufacturer must indicate the date of its first test.
The principle of the heat meter for heating
This equipment is equipped with two sensors, one of which is a temperature sensor, the second is a flow sensor. The task of the first is to measure the temperature, the second sensor calculates the amount of heat consumed.
The main component of any metering device is a heat meter, which is a kind of calculator that provides calculation results. To do this, the amount of heat spent on the meter is multiplied by the temperature. The result is evidence that must be paid. This is how a heat meter works for heating.
Classification by design scheme
Currently, there is an incredible number of models of heating meters that share a similar principle of operation, the difference is only in the amount of information stored in their archives and a set of additional functions. Consider the main types of these devices.
Mechanical
Mechanical heat meters for heating account for the amount of coolant entering the system. In such equipment, an impeller is used as a reader, which is located in the meter housing. When the coolant moves through the pipelines, the impeller rotates, which transmits torque to the shaft with special drums. Numbers are applied to the surface of the drums. However, after several seasons, the impeller becomes clogged with rust and scale particles.
Electromagnetic
Heat meters for heating in an apartment of this type record the movement of the coolant in the housing when the electromagnetic field vector deviates. In general, this device is an improved version of a mechanical meter, inert to the degree and quality of coolant pollution. The accuracy of electromagnetic equipment is an order of magnitude higher than its mechanical counterpart. For this reason, these devices are gradually replacing obsolete mechanical meters.
Vortex
Vortex devices fixturbulence in the flow of a circulating fluid that washes an artificially created obstacle. These heat meters for heating in an apartment on a battery can be mounted both in a horizontal wiring near the heater and in a vertical riser. Such equipment functions with the same efficiency as household and utility meters.
Ultrasonic
Ultrasonic heat meters for heating record the speed of the flow (sound wave) that moves along a section of known length. This equipment is able to work indefinitely due to the absence of moving parts. The only drawback of an ultrasonic meter is its high sensitivity to the quality of the coolant. It reacts to scale, scale and even air bubbles. For this reason, it is recommended to install such devices in front of a replaceable filter.
What affects the accuracy of the instrument
When calculating the amount of heat consumed, the meter error depends on the errors of the temperature sensors, the flow meter and the calculator that processes the collected values.
As a rule, for apartment metering, devices are used with an allowable error in calculating the consumed heat in the range from ±6 to ±10%.
The actual error may be higher than the base, which is due to the technical characteristics of the constituent elements. The error of the heat meter increases in the following situations:
- Installation was performed in violation of the requirementsmanufacturers (as a rule, manufacturers disclaim warranty obligations if the meter was installed by an unlicensed organization).
- The coolant flow rate is significantly lower than the minimum flow rate specified in the technical specifications of the device.
- The temperature difference between the supply and return pipes is less than 3 °C.
It is also worth paying the attention of lovers of magnetic braking meters to the fact that modern equipment is protected from a magnetic field.
Installation
Any installation work of the heating system, including the installation of a heat meter, should only be carried out by specialists. To install a heating meter, you will need the following:
- Order project documentation.
- Coordinate the package of documents with the public utility and obtain permission to install the meter.
- When approved by the commission, the project is put into practice, and heat meters for heating in the apartment take their place.
- Finally, the metering device must be registered with the public utility (otherwise it is considered invalid), and only after that it should be given for use.
After the above procedures, it is necessary to call specialists who must do the following:
- Develop project.
- Perform documentation approval.
- Install the metering device.
- Register the equipment officially.
- To hand over the meter for use and transfer it to the supervisory organizationconducting.
Conclusion
Summing up all of the above, it is worth paying special attention to the fact that any metering device (individual, communal) must have a passport and a certificate that will confirm its compliance with operating standards. Also, once every four years, utility heating services must check the meters. A mark on the results of the test must be reflected in the passport of the measuring equipment.