Water smart reader

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Hi all - I have found this under the sink in my new home..not quite sure how it works as it’s turned off at the display any ideas please
 

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Can you find something like this on the wall outside your house?

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I don't think this is "smart" in the sense that we mean it today with electric & gas meters. Its an older system that allowed the water meter reader to read the meter from outside your house.
 
I don't think this is "smart" in the sense that we mean it today with electric & gas meters. Its an older system that allowed the water meter reader to read the meter from outside your house.
Indeed. I have a similar system, albeit mine's a bit daft - the previous version had a 'repeater' on an outside wall, so that the meter could be read without access to the house, but they changed it to one they could 'read' without having to walk up my drive, since they could do it from their van, parked just outside :)

However, the display ought to be working - which it appears that it isn't.

Kind Regards, John
 
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Thanks for all the replies I have found out that I need to check the reading in the outside pavement, where there’s an access point. Thanks all anyway
 
Beware. Thames Water and other water companies are rolling out so-called smart water meters. Many complaints have followed!
Mileage varies. When I had a (never "smart") water meter fitted, a good few years ago, my bills reduced dramatically, and have remained that way throughout, including following the 'meter change' I recently described.

Kind Regards, John
 
Yes me too. Cost is now about half the old water rate. But Thames Water’s recently announced smart meter roll out is supposed to remove the need for meter readers.
The effect for many who have had them (TW are saying it’s mandatory) are higher bills and, we suspect, the ability for them to restrict supply at peak times.
 
Yes me too. Cost is now about half the old water rate. But Thames Water’s recently announced smart meter roll out is supposed to remove the need for meter readers.
As I said, that's what they told me when they 'upgraded' my meter (to a 'non-smart' one) - but, as I said, they still need a meter reader to drive up to the end of my drive :)
The effect for many who have had them (TW are saying it’s mandatory) are higher bills and, we suspect, the ability for them to restrict supply at peak times.
I don't know anything about 'smart' water meters, but I would have doubted that they would have enough electrical power available to be able to operate any shut-off or flow-reduction mechanism. Also, as with the worries about remote cut-off of electricity (which suppliers seem to have said that won't do), they could well be hesitant to run the legal risks associated wit the floods that could arise if/when they remotely switched a water supply back on!

Kind Regards, John
 
I don't know anything about 'smart' water meters, but I would have doubted that they would have enough electrical power available to be able to operate any shut-off or flow-reduction mechanism.

I cannot see it either, the meters are too small to accommodate a valve inside them and they would need to either power a solenoid all the tie when on, or all the time when off. The battery or supercapacitor would not have te power to run a solenoid for long. I'm guessing the water flow is needed to help keep it charged.
 
I would not be surprised to find a micro hydro-electric generator in the water meter.
Nor would I but, as I implied, these things tend to be so small that the battery being charged could not be very big - and, of course, once they had 'shut off' the flow, there would be no more generation.

Kind Regards, John
 
They could use a latching soleniod valve like the battery powered cistermiser urinal valves do. A short pulse to open, another short pulse to close, during steady state no power is consumed. Using this method, the cistermisers run for around six months on 4 AAA batteries with upto 12 open/closes per day.
 
or even hydralic power ??
you only need a perhaps 2mm hole to a diaphragm to use the water pressure to do all the work all be it over several mins so only a micro valve used that will be easilly moved as its so small ??
 
or even hydralic power ?? you only need a perhaps 2mm hole to a diaphragm to use the water pressure to do all the work all be it over several mins so only a micro valve used that will be easilly moved as its so small ??
An interesting thought, but I suspect that it would be less than trivial, and potentially fairly complicated. I haven't thought about this too deeply but, at first thought, I suspect that the most simple/'obvious' approaches (e.g. some of those involving diaphragms) might be inapplicable because, with the method employed, a given water pressure could not be used to 'shut off' water at the same pressure. However, as I said, I'd need to think more deeply, and what I've just written might be all wrong!

Kind Regards, John
 

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