Flowie and Your Water Meter
Water meters are found in residential and commercial buildings that use a public water supply system. These meters are designed to keep track of how much water is consumed by a particular household or business.
Water meters are usually found in basements, near the main water line. Another common location for a residence is in the garage.
They are sophisticated pieces of equipment that vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and from municipality to municipality. They also vary depending on the size of water pipe that feeds into them and their age.
Flowie is designed to fit on any type of water meter. Place Flowie as low on the meter as you can. Here are some guidelines about where to put it:
Wrap the adjustable band snugly around your water meter. The band can fit around bumps and bulges, so just make sure the orange case, itself, is right up against the water meter. |
There are lots of different kinds of water meters, but the layout is generally the same: on the face of the meter, the water reading is displayed near the bottom, arranged similarly to the odometer in a car. Some meters are measured in gallons, rounding to the nearest full gallon, while other -- generally newer -- meters may be measured in cubic meters and include decimals.
The information below contains references to the place value of numbers. In case it's been a while since math class, here's a quick reminder of the positions or place values of numbers within the decimal system.
General rules for reading your meter:
- Note the unit of measurement listed on the face of your water meter dial (cubic meters, gallons, etc.).
- If present, use the odometer reading first. That will record the higher value water usage (the ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, etc. of consumption).
- If a permanent "0" is printed at the end of the odometer on a gallons water meter, the ones column will be represented by a sweep hand.
- Smaller portions (the tenths, hundredths, thousandths, etc. after decimals) may be indicated in the odometer, by sweep hands similar to an analog clock, or a mixture of both.
- Within the odometer,
- decimal points may be written on the face as a period or comma (as with the first and second examples below, respectively).
- They may also be distinguished by inverting or changing the colours (as seen in the second and third examples below, respectively).
- While the larger positions will click from one fully displayed number to the next, the smallest number position (usually a decimal position) will likely roll incrementally as water flows through. The smallest number displayed in that position, even if only partially shown, is what should be recorded in a reading. See examples below.
- When sweep hands are present, the odometer may display up to two decimal places, with any smaller portions indicated by the position of the hands on the dial.
Examples & Instructions
Click on the example pictures below to view a larger version.
Analog - Odometer style |
Things to note about this meter:
|
Analog - Odometer and small sweep hand |
![]()
Things to note about this meter:
|
Analog - Odometer and large sweep hand |
![]()
Things to note about this meter:
|
Analog - Odometer and large sweep hand |
![]()
Things to note about this meter:
|
Digital Reading |
Things to note about this meter:
|