Yes! There are several ways to read a water meter remotely...
The first, is to add a digital display.
Your water meter must have a pulse output. Pulses can be read in one pulse per gallon, one pulse per 10 gallons, or one pulse per 100 gallons. Flows.com offers many different meters that pulse output can be added including the
WM-PC Series, WM-NLC Series, and D10 Series. It involves a simple 2 wire connection, thermostat wire can be run from your meter to an easily accessible remote location (up to 200 feet away from your meter), no more running to the dark dingy basement to read you water meter!
The KAL-D06 digital display runs on a lithium battery that can last 10 years. The simple design and cost efficiency of these digital displays makes this a great option for remote water meter reading.
Not only is having the ability to read remotely an advantage but with a digital display getting your reading is a breeze. Instead of having to read multiple dials on the meter face and string the digits together, you can simply look at your the one complete number on the digital display and you’re done! The digital display also comes with a reset button that will eliminate the need to subtract the last reading from the current one to get your total. This reset button can easily be disabled by removing a small jumper on the side of the display.
Flows.com offers a variety of digital display options for remote water meter reading.
The KAL-D06-DUAL has two LDC displays and can be used for two separate meters or for one meter to count a lifetime total and a resettable total side by side. To see a video describing this product click here.
The KAL-D06-MULTI is a lockable weatherproof box that can hold 10 of the KAL-D06 digital displays. Much like the DUAL, you can choose to wire the digital displays to 10 different meters for individual readings or have 5 pairs of displays to show side by side a lifetime total and resettable total for 5 different meters.
The second option for remote water meter reading is the Bluebot Clamp-on Ultrasonic Water Meter.
This is a simple clamp on meter that works on copper, PEX, or PVC pipes from 1/2" to 2". The meter is connected to the cloud via WiFi and the water usage data can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Easy to install - no plumbing needed.
The third option for remote reading is the StreamLabs Clamp On Smart Home Water Meter.
This unit clamps on to the exterior of your ¾-inch or 1-inch pipe (Copper, PEX and CPVC) It works along with a free app that can be downloaded to your phone or tablet. The app shows you water usage for day, week, month and year. This connects to a power outlet and works off your home WiFi. Having all this information right at your fingertips eliminates the worry of expensive water bills, you can check your usage at any time.
What if you have more than just a few meters that need to be read remotely?
We have a system that can help you with that!
The second, more advanced option is the
Next Century Wireless Submetering system, our most popular choice for reading multiple meters remotely. It comes standard with meters by next century, but is also available with a number of water meters from Assured Automation including the WM-PC Series, WM-NLC Series, and D10 Series. A mix of all of these types of meters can all be used on the same system. A transceiver connects to the meters pulse output wire and sends the signal to the gateway which then communicates with the cloud. There are two different gateways available, Lite (up to 50 meters) and Commercial (up to 2,000 meters). The information collected can be accessed via web browser or a mobile app you can download. You can monitor up to 2000 meters with the Next Century system. It can be connected to existing WiFi at the site or if WiFi or ethernet cannot be supplied you can pay a yearly fee to have cellar connection. If needed repeaters can be installed with the system to boost signal strength and expand the range of communication.
You can set up alerts to come via email or text for:
- Low Battery
- Tamper Detection
- Leak Detection
- Freeze Detection
Having the ability to have all this information right on your phone or your desktop makes this a great system for almost any water sub-metering situation!
As you can see there are many options for reading your water meter(s) remotely, so please reach out to us at Flows.com for more information on each of these options and let us help you implement the remote meter reading solution that’s best for you and your application.