The water meter in the house today is not a novelty. More and more homeowners are acquiring this useful device to help control and save water. But if you have recently installed the device, then, of course, the first thing you ask yourself is: "How to read the water meter?". Let's analyze this problem.
Where can I find the counter?
Before you take the readings of the water meter in the apartment, you need to figure out its location. Everything is simple here: the device is installed directly on the water pipe. So, you need to look for it in the toilet room, bathroom or kitchen.
There are usually two counters: one for cold water and the other for hot water. In some apartments, two devices are placed on the cold water pipe. Neat homeowners sometimes hide plumbing behind special panels. In this case, a free-opening door leads to the devices.
Whatis on the scoreboard?
How to take readings of water meters, what numbers to take into account? The device is a flow meter with a counting mechanism. The counter in it starts to spin only during the passage of water through it. The mechanism at this time counts the volume of liquid flowing through the water meter.
On the counter panel, we will be interested in a panel with numbers. It has eight digits:
- The first five characters are black. This is the number of cubic meters of water you have wasted, cold or hot.
- The last three characters are red. A smaller value is liters of fluid used.
How to read water meters correctly?
Let's proceed directly to the process of interest to us. How to take a water meter reading:
- Determine which water meter controls the flow of hot and which cold water. This is easy to do by the color of the device case. The blue panel will be at the cold water meter, and the red one at the hot water meter. But it happens that the plumber installing the water meter confuses the colors. Or, for example, only one blue or one red water meters were on sale. You can check the correctness here as follows: turn on the cold water - the "carousel" on the device that controls it will spin. In the same way, we check the hot one if there are more than two water meters.
- How to read the water meter? We need to take into account only the black numbers showing the wasted cubic meters. How about withred? They are of interest to us only if they show a value greater than 500. In this case, one is added to the black indicator for rounding.
On some water meters all numbers are black. In this case, we simply ignore the last three. If you have a foreign-made counter in front of you, then it can contain only five digits. All of them should be recorded by you.
Calculation example: first month
It is easiest to disassemble the reading of a water meter using a specific example. First month - March:
- How to read the cold water meter? Let's see the values on the blue water meter: black numbers - 00004, red numbers - 382. The number 382 is less than 500, so we do not take it into account. We fix the black number - 4 cubic meters of water wasted.
- How to read the hot water meter? On the red water meter, the following values: black numbers - 00002, red numbers - 834. The last number is more than 500, so we round 834 liters to 1 m3. The black numbers show that we have wasted 2 cubic meters of hot water. With rounding 2 + 1=3. We fix that we have wasted 3 cubic meters of hot water.
- We advise you to record your readings in a special notebook, notes on your smartphone - they will be needed for calculations for the next month.
- We transfer from a notebook to a receipt that we spent 4 cubic meters of cold and 3 cubic meters of hot water in March.
Calculation example: second month
Now let's see howtake readings next month. For our example, this is April:
- Let's turn to the indicators of the cold water meter. Black numbers - 00008, red - 674. So, the water meter shows that in two months we used 9 m3 of water (674 liters, since this is more than 500, we round up to one cubic meters).
- Now let's see how much we spent in March - 4 cubic meters. Simple arithmetic calculations: 9 - 4=5. It turns out that in April we pay 5 cubic meters of cold water at the established rate.
- Now the hot water meter. Black numbers - 00006, red - 430. In two months we spent 6 cubic meters.
- 3m3 hot water used in March. Hence 6 - 3=3. In April, 3 cubic meters were also used.
- In a notebook or notes we reflect the indicators for April - 9 and 6 m3 cold and hot water, respectively. In the receipt indicate the expenses for the current month. That is 5 cubic meters of cold and 3 cubic meters of hot water.
Deposition
We figured out how to read the water meter. It is also important to submit them to the appropriate organization on time - before the 26th day of each month. Usually, for these purposes, a receipt and a coupon for it are filled out:
- Write down the full name of the owner of the apartment, address, number of residents and mandatory payment period.
- In the field Cold water (cold water) the values on the water meter for the past and present month are indicated. In our example, these are 00004 and 00009.
- The sameinformation is written in the column DHW (hot water). In our example - 00003 and 00006.
- In the "Consumption" field, you indicate how much cold and hot water you spent per month. For our example, these are 5 and 3 cubic meters, respectively.
- The column "Drainage" is the sum of hot water and cold water. For our example: 5 + 3=8 cubic meters.
- For the "Amount" field, you need to multiply the "Consumption" of cold and hot water by the established tariff, and then add these products.
Receipts are kept by the owner of the house, and the tear-off coupon is placed in a special box, container placed near the entrance door or in another place established by the management company. Somewhere it is possible to transfer testimony virtually - through the "Gosuslug".
If you cannot submit a coupon with information on meters in time, then you need to notify the company involved in this accounting. You should calculate the average readings for the current month, based on your water meter data for the previous three months. And by the next payment (when you are already able to take meter readings), it is possible to apply for a recalculation.
Checking water meters
The correct operation of these devices must be checked periodically. This is done by a special metrological service. Cold water meters are checked strictly every 6 years, hot - once every 4 years. The procedure is available both at home and in the verification service. Without it, after the specified period, the testimony of yourwater meters will not be taken into account by the management company.
If it seemed to you that the counter began to work incorrectly, then you can check it yourself:
- Record the exact readings of the eight digits on the meter.
- Fully fill a 20 liter canister with cold or hot water five times (depending on the water meter you are testing).
- In fact, you used exactly 100 liters of water.
- Check how much the water meter shows. If the indicators have shifted to numbers that are far from 100 liters upwards, then it makes sense to check the operation, the tightness of all plumbing, and possibly replace the device.
Alternative counters
Time does not stand still. The tachymetric water meters that we reviewed are being replaced by impulsive devices. They allow you to remotely reflect your water consumption. For example, on a special scoreboard installed in the entrance, or immediately in the general system of the office of the controlling company. With such meters, the homeowner no longer needs to take readings on his own.
Already relevant are such water meters that independently send readings to your computer and smartphone via Wi-Fi. But they are still distinguished by tangible high cost.
Now you know how to correctly record and indicate the meter readings on the receipt. Perhaps in the near future, technology will free us from these actions.
