Water meter

With remote reading, the water meter or a connected data logger sends its readings automatically to an IoT platform. Older meters with a pulse output are retrofitted for this, while new ultrasonic meters already have a radio connection built in. The platform displays consumption, calculates flow and raises an alarm when patterns are unusual. Reading rounds and postcards to customers are no longer needed, and consumption is visible day by day instead of once a year.

The connected water meters in the solution examples transmit via NB-IoT, LTE-M or LoRaWAN. NB-IoT runs on the public cellular network and needs neither a private network nor the homeowner's Wi-Fi, which is why Heitland uses it. LoRaWAN is suitable wherever such a network exists, for example in Oberzent, where the energy supplier Entega has built one. For meters in shafts where the signal is heavily attenuated, PSsystec offers an external antenna.

Utilities replace water meters in cycles because the German Measurement and Calibration Act generally requires them to be replaced after six years. After six years, a sample inspection of the installed meters is also possible. Mechanical meters fail it so often, however, that utilities replace all of them as a precaution. According to the manufacturer, Heitland's NB-IoT ultrasonic water meter can stay in service for at least twelve years, with the battery determining the end of its service life.

A connected ultrasonic water meter provides daily consumption values and, according to Heitland, stays more accurate than conventional meters over many years. Its internal memory stores historical data that can be read out if a customer disputes a bill. End users see their data in an app and can set alarms there for frost or leaks in the household installation. In one test, such a meter sent its data every day from a two-metre-deep water tank.