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**zimmer62** · January 9, 2004, 02:37 PM

My meter is located inside the house, it also has some contacts on it, similar to the ones you described, however there are wires hooked up to them, and they are hooked up to a sensor on the outside of my house, I assume this is for the water company to read the meter without comming inside. I did a little research on this over a year ago, so I'm not sure if I remember 100% but there was some way of wirelessly reading that from that sensor but it involved equipment that was way out of my pricerange.

I'm hoping for your sake that it is not the same as mine. There is another conversation going on about water metering, they use a rainguage counter to read the counts, you could try seeing with a continunity checker if either of those lines are pulsing a closed contact when you run the water.

Just a thought. Joe

**MReid** · January 12, 2004, 08:54 AM

Thanks zimmer62,
I thought there was something to the terminals. If the water company can read your meter via the sensor outside, then the terminals are supplying the sensor either with the ticks as water is used or a digital readout of the meter. To read the ticks a voltage would have to be applied to the terminals. Is your outdoor sensor self contained or must it plug in somewhere inside?

**zimmer62** · January 13, 2004, 06:02 AM

I took another look at my meter, and I hooked my multimeter up to it, I was unable to figure anything out about mine. There is a little black circular sensor mounted on the outside of my house, that allows a wireless device to read the meter, it uses some sort of induction, as they need to hold their reader near the sensor to get the reading. I've fequently seen a person walking around my neighborhood with some sort of portable device that they hold near these sensors. I have been looking at a few other options for reading my water usage. Check out this other forum http://ubb.homeseer.com/6/ubb.x?a=tp...104#1546041104

**wpiman** · January 13, 2004, 06:23 AM

My water company recently put in an RF meter in my basement so they can simply send a truck around once a month. No getting out.

Now- we just need to be able to interpret the RF and we should be all set

**MReid** · January 13, 2004, 08:06 AM

I saw the other thread on building a sensor into the water line. That made me start thinking about how I could do it. That thread is over 3 months old though. I may post a quick question over there to see if it wakes up.

zimmer,
So you checked the voltages at the terminals and did not see anything? It has to be getting something from the puck outside your house. Unless it is only energized when they read it. But it would still need some power within the meter to count and hold the meter reading. I would try to test mine but it would look bad to have wires running out of the hole and across the ground to the house.

Thanks for your help,
Mike Reid

YM · January 13, 2004, 10:13 AM

I dug up this info doing a search on "E.R.T." (thats the saucer like module outside your home)

Do not Unplug this module. It will report that the unit has been tampered with

And power is provided by the unit (it contains lithium batt. that can last up to 20 yrs.)

for more info:

http://www.herseymeters.com/prod_amr_pit_ert.html

**zimmer62** · January 13, 2004, 10:55 AM

Mine is definatly not a saucer, mine is a little black circle about the size of a quarter mounted to my siding about waist high.

**b_weijenberg** · January 14, 2004, 09:45 AM

I found this link in Google:
http://www.itron.com/publications/pub0063002.pdf

Probably this will help you to find more about meter reading.

regards, bert

**jlikonen** · January 14, 2004, 12:09 PM

Hi guys,

I think it could be a Rheed relay which doesn't give any voltage. It is a switch which is either open or closed. You can easily measure with a multimeter if the contact closes when water is used. Depending on your meter one pulse corresponds to certain amount of water. In my case one pulse is 10 liters. You need a pulse counter to monitor the water consumption.

I think Schlumberger is same as Neptune and I found a Neptune T-10 meter (see http://www.neptunetg.com/emplibrary/PST10SMALL.pdf).

Jari

[This message was edited by Jari on Wed, 14 January 2004 at 02:23 PM.]

**zimmer62** · April 20, 2004, 01:28 PM

Okay... with my basement all ripped up and I'm ready to redo all of the supply plumbing for my house, now would be a good time to add a watermeter that is homeseer compatible just on the other side of the real water meter..

What is the best source for one of these... and should I try and figureout a way to monitor the hot water too?

also cost would be a concern...

Anyone?

**firtha** · April 20, 2004, 03:40 PM

Have a look at Ed Cheung's web site

http://www.edcheung.com/automa/water.htm

**Michael McSharry** · April 20, 2004, 04:02 PM

I put in a meter with a 1" flow and a digital counter for $150. The meter was from a company in NJ. I connected the counter to an AAG 1-wire counting module which I think was another $50. Rupp posted the link to the meter on this site somewhere. The 3/4" flow was cheaper.

**zimmer62** · April 21, 2004, 10:56 AM

Michael, was this the meter? http://www.jerman.com/dljmeter.html

also, why did you go with a 1" flow, is your supply pluming that large comming into the house? Mine is only 3/4" does this meter restrict the flow at all?

Joe

**Michael McSharry** · April 21, 2004, 11:58 AM

Yes this is the company.

I have a 1.25 inch inflow from the well so the 1.0 inch was a compromise. For the short distance through the meter not much capacity was lost. The 3/4" meter is perfect for 3/4" plumbing. No restrictions are introduced.

If you happen to be using mcsTemperature then you are all setup for 1-wire monitoring of water flow. The dial of the meter can be manually viewed, but when monitored with HS there really is not need to.

I was surprised at the amount of water I use on a daily basis. Until I installed the meter I had no indication of the volume being pumped. There is a huge aquifer underground so I have no concerns about running out of water.

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