In accordance with the law “On Energy Saving”, each homeowner is required to install metering devices for all types of energy resources. And if energy consumption has long been paid for by electricity meters, the mass installation of devices for metering hot and cold water consumption has begun relatively recently. The first question that a homeowner may have after installing two meters is: "How to read water meters correctly?"
Hot or cold: how to distinguish counters
The supply of hot water to the apartment is more expensive. Due to the difference in payment, the readings of the hot water meter and the cold meter are read separately. The homeowner who first installed water meters or who purchases housing with installed meters, first of all needs to determine which of the devices records the flow of cold and which is hot water. You can do this in the following ways:
- Most counters are immediately painted in colors that traditionally mean cold and hot water - blue and red.
- According to the standard wiring of water pipes in apartments, a pipe for supplying hot water is located above, and below - for cold. Thus, the hot water meter is installed above.
- To understand which instrument to take the readings of the hot water meter from, just open the hot water - the desired meter will become warm in a few minutes.
- The way in which it is possible to immediately determine the counter of cold water supply: see which pipe of the water distribution the toilet is connected to (it always connects to cold water).
- Just open the cold water and see on which meter the readings are changing.
The value of the numbers on the counter
Surely, many homeowners even when buying a meter take notice that there are two types of numbers on the dial of the meter: black (five of them) and red (last three digits). The main thing you need to know about when taking readings of a water meter, what numbers on the dial should be indicated in the statement.
Monthly consumption of cold and hot water is taken into account in cubic meters. Accordingly, payment for consumed water will be calculated in accordance with this indicator. Cubic meters of water on the instrument’s dial are the first 5 digits of black. They are entered in the account book or receipt to calculate the payment.
The red numbers are the fractions of cubes (liters) spent during the reporting period. In the statement (account book) this indicator is not indicated.
How to read the meter correctly
Now, having examined the meaning of the numbers on the instrument panel, we will consider step by step how to take the readings of the water meter. The numbers in black are written in order, from first to last, on a separate sheet of paper or notepad. In this case, you need to pay attention to the readings of red numbers. If more than 500 liters are used up, then the last digit of cubic meters is rounded up.
The readings for the previous month are taken. The resulting number will be the number of cubic meters of water for which payment is made.
The number of cubic meters is multiplied by the tariff for paying for water supply, we get the amount payable, which is entered in the receipt or account book.
How does this happen in practice? Example of recording meter readings for a month
The easiest way in practice is to consider how to correctly take the readings of water meters, taking for example the new, newly installed hot and cold water meters.
So, at the time of connection, the readings of both counters: 00,000,000.
After a month, the readings on the scoreboard of the counting mechanism changed in this way:
- Hot water: 00016 546.
- Cold water: 00018 234.
Thus, 16 cubic meters of hot water were consumed per month, which, in accordance with the “red” figures, that is, liters, are rounded up to 17 cubic meters. Cold water consumption over the same period was 18 cubic meters.
Total: 17 meters cubic hot water and 18 cubic meters are entered into the payment book. meters of cold, based on the readings recorded in a month, a hot meter and a cold water meter. How to take readings next month? When the meters read: hot water - 00029 125, cold water - 00032 623 the obtained value of cold water is rounded to 33 cubic meters. m, and the previous meter readings are subtracted from this number: 33 - 18 = 15. Thus, 15 cubic meters must be paid for the reporting period. m of cold water. In a similar way, the consumption of hot water is calculated: 29 - 17 = 12 cubic meters. m
How to fill out a receipt correctly
To reliably provide information on the consumption of a water resource, it is not enough to know how to take a water meter, you need to correctly fill in all the lines in the receipt. If the data entered on the receipt does not match, errors or unreadable entries are found, the submitted information is invalid, and the monthly payment is calculated based on average readings.
The values are entered into the receipt in legible handwriting, in strict accordance with the columns of the table. Information on the consumption of hot (hot water) and cold water (cold water) is entered according to a single principle.
Important! In the settlement receipt, the meter readings are indicated in full, all five digits along with zeros.
The “Current” column contains the counter data received at the moment. The “Previous” indicates the meter readings received for the previous month. The number of cubic meters consumed per month, the difference of the first two columns, is entered in the line “Consumption”.
In the line “Wastewater” are entered the flow of hot water and cold water in cubic meters, the sum of these indications is indicated in the column “Total”.
How not to overpay for water
Knowing how to take the readings of the water meter, you can control its monthly consumption, and also notice in time if the water consumption, and hence the cost of payment, increased for no apparent reason.
One of the most common reasons that you can overpay for unused water is leaks in the pipeline. Moreover, it is possible to detect the presence of malfunctions just with the help of a water meter. You can do this as follows: close all the taps in the apartment and record the readings on the counter dial for an hour. Before taking the water meter for the first time, you need to make sure that the toilet bowl is fully typed and all the mixers are closed. If the readings of the scoreboard of the counting mechanism have changed in an hour, it means that the water tightness is broken and repair is required.
Another cause of meter malfunctioning is blockages in pipes that occur over time due to hard water. Due to the difficult passage of water, the pressure in the pipe rises, and, as a result, the meter display spins faster. In this case, you should also take care of timely repair or replacement of the problematic section of the pipe.
You can check the operation of the meters yourself. Having fixed the meter reading, you need to take a measuring canister with a volume of 10-20 liters and use it to draw 100 liters of water. The meter reading should increase by exactly 100 liters. If the difference in readings exceeds this amount, this is an occasion to contact a specialist to check the pipeline and the meter itself.
