The measurement of the quantity of water consumed by the customers of Someș Water Company is carried out by means of connection meters.
The connection meter is the water consumption meter installed in the building’s connection box (usually located at the property boundary) and is the last component of the public water distribution network. The connection meters are under the management of the water operator and any intervention by customers or third parties is prohibited.
Meter reading
Someș Water Company reads the connection meters as follows:
- Monthly in urban areas;
- Every 2-3 months in rural areas. In the months when the meter is not read, water consumption is estimated based on historical consumption, and then regularisation is carried out when the meter is read.
Types of meters
Mechanical meters and electromagnetic meters are used to measure water consumption. In the case of mechanical meters, they are read by accessing the connection box and reading the digits on the meter dial.
Electromagnetic meters can be read without accessing the service entrance by transmitting the index automatically to a terminal. In addition to facilitating index reading, this type of meter also has the advantage of storing information on the evolution of water consumption at the location where it is installed.
Mechanical counter
Electromagnetic counter
Metrological verification prior to expiry at the express request of customers
According to the legal provisions in force, the meters are due for metrological inspection every 7 years. Someș Water Company replaces these meters and submits them to metrological verification in accredited metrology laboratories.
If the customer has suspicions about the accuracy of the connection meter readings, he may expressly request metrological verification before the legal deadline laid down by the regulations in force (7 years). In this case, cf. Article 2.6.5 of the 1993 Framework Regulation on the metering of water and heat for the population, public institutions and economic agents, approved by MLPAT Order No 29/1993, “In the case of checks made at the subscriber’s request, the subscriber will have to bear the costs of the check if the equipment is found to be recording correctly or if it is recording in favour of the subscriber. If the machine is found to be malfunctioning or registering in favour of the distributor, the costs will be borne by the distributor.“
Consumption differences
Most of the time, differences between the connection meter and the sum of the apartment meters can result mainly from one or a combination of the following factors, without being limiting:
- Lower accuracy class of apartment meters compared to the connection meter. CASSA’s water meters are usually class C (highest) accurate, while most apartment meters are class A (lowest) or at most B accurate. This means that the CASSA water meter records most of the amount of water flowing to the user, while apartment meters, which are of lower accuracy, can allow, for example, even thin streams of water to flow through a leaky tap without being recorded. Same with a toilet bowl;
- Apartment meter types are not of the same type (firm) as each other and are not of the same type as the connection meter;
- Many cases in practice show that water losses on indoor installations can, cumulatively, be significant, without being registered by apartment meters. They can be caused by damage to the indoor distribution system or leaking installations. For example, a single 2 mm diameter water leak on a single leaky tap or toilet bowl – not recorded by the meter – can result in a loss of up to 18 cubic metres (!) per month. For comparison, the average person theoretically consumes only approx. 3-4 cubic metres of cold water in a month.
- Failure to strictly observe the mounting position of apartment meters indicated by the manufacturer (as a rule, horizontally with the screen upwards for Class B and vertically for Class A). A meter installed even slightly skewed leads to further alteration of the accuracy of consumption recording by falling into lower accuracy classes. The slightest deviation in the mounting position causes this flow rate to increase significantly, meaning that a much larger amount of water has to pass through the meter before it starts to register. This means quantities of water that are not recorded on individual meters but, by cumulation, are recorded by the connection meter.
- The calendar gap between the CASSA connection meter reading date and the apartment meter reading date.
- Abusive consumption by some tenants who deliberately alter their own water meter records. Among the most common practices in this respect are filling the toilet bowl or tank with a trickle of water that is not registered by the apartment meter and then using it for various household purposes; blocking the apartment meter by various methods or even reversing its mounting position, etc. However, all these abusive consumptions are registered, by summation, on the connection meter, the only result being the additional amplification of the differences (already existing due to the non-sealing of the interior installations) between the sum of the apartment meters and the C.A.S.S.A. meter.
Losses on indoor installations