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 installed the device recently, then, of course, first of all ask yourself the question: "How to take readings of a water meter ?". Let's analyze this problem.
Where to 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 in the kitchen.
There are usually two counters: one for cold water, and the other for hot water. In some apartments, two appliances are placed on a cold water pipe. Accurate homeowners sometimes hide plumbing behind special panels. In this case, a door that opens freely leads to the devices.
What is on the counter?
How to take readings of water meters, what figures to take into account? The device is a flow meter with a counting mechanism. The counter in it starts spinning only during the passage of water through it. The mechanism at this time counts the volumes of liquid spilled through the water meter.
On the counter panel, we will be interested in the 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 consumed.
How to take readings of water meters?
We proceed directly to the process of interest to us. How to take a water meter:
- Decide which water meter controls the flow of hot, and which - cold water. This is easy to do by the color of the device. The blue panel will be at the counter of cold water, and the red - at the counter of hot water. But it happens that a plumber who installs a water meter confuses colors. Or, for example, only one blue or one red water meter was on sale. You can check the correctness like this: turn on 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 take a water meter? We need to take into account only the black numbers showing the wasted cubic meters. But what about the red ones? 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 do not take into account the last three. If in front of you is a counter of foreign production, then it can contain only five digits. All of them should be recorded by you.
Calculation example: first month
It is easiest to make out the readings of a water meter using a specific example. The first month is March:
- How to take a cold water meter? On the blue water meter, let's see the values: 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 was spent.
- How to take a hot water meter? The values on the red water meter are: black numbers - 00002, red numbers - 834. The last number is more than 500, so we round 834 liters to 1 m 3 . Black numbers show that we squandered 2 cubic meters of hot water. With rounding 2 + 1 = 3. We fix that we squandered 3 cubic meters of hot water.
- We advise you to record 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 squandered in March 4 cubic meters of cold and 3 cubic meters of hot water.
Calculation example: second month
Now let's see how to take readings next month. For our example, this is April:
- We turn to the indicators of the cold water meter. Black numbers - 00008, red - 674. It means that the water meter shows that in two months we spent 9 m 3 of water (674 liters, because it is more than 500, we round up to one cubic meter).
- 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 tariff.
- Now a hot water meter. Black numbers - 00006, red - 430. For two months we spent 6 cubic meters.
- In March 3 m 3 of hot water was consumed. Hence, 6 - 3 = 3. In April, 3 cubic meters were also consumed.
- In a notebook or notes we reflect the indicators for April - 9 and 6 m 3 of cold and hot water, respectively. In the receipt we indicate the expenses for the current month. That is 5 cubic meters of cold and 3 cubic meters of hot water.
Testimony
We figured out how to take a water meter. It is also important to submit them in time to the appropriate organization - before the 26th day of each month. Usually for these purposes a receipt is filled out and a coupon for it:
- Register the full name of the owner of the apartment, address, number of residents and a mandatory payment period.
- In the HVS (cold water) field, the values on the water meter for the last and present month are indicated. In our example, these are 00004 and 00009.
- The same information is recorded in the DHW column (hot water). In our example, 00003 and 00006.
- In the field "Consumption" you indicate how much spent hot and cold water 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.
The receipts are kept by the owner of the house, and the tear-off coupon is placed in a special box, a container placed near the entrance door or in another place designated by the management company. Somewhere, it is possible to transmit testimony virtually - through the "State Services".
If you cannot submit the coupon with information on the counters on time, then you need to notify the company involved in this accounting. You should calculate the average readings for the current month, the basis for which will be your data on water meters for the previous three months. And for the next payment (when you are already able to take readings on the counters) it is possible to apply for 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 readings of your water meters by the management company will not be taken into account.
If it seemed to you that the counter began to work incorrectly, then you can perform the check yourself:
- Record the exact readings of the eight digits on the instrument.
- Fill the 20-liter canister five times fully with cold or hot water (depending on the meter you are checking).
- In fact, you used up 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 in a big way, it makes sense to check the work, the tightness of all plumbing, and, possibly, replace the device.
Alternative counters
Time does not stand still. Impulsive instruments come to replace the tachymetric water meters that we examined. They allow you to remotely reflect your water flow. For example, on a special board installed at the entrance, or immediately in the general office system of the controlling company. With such counters, the homeowner no longer needs to engage in self-collection of evidence.
Such water meters are already relevant that they send readings to your computer and smartphone via wi-fi. But so far they are distinguished by tangible high cost.
Now you know how to fix and indicate meter readings in a receipt. Perhaps in the near future, technology will free us from these actions.