Radio water meters: Get started in digital water management!
One of the most urgent tasks for water suppliers is the worldwide switch to digital measurement via radio, as concerns grow around the issues of sustainability and climate change.
The international Water Strategy sets the course for a new understanding of how to use our water resources sustainably. Radio water meters, combined with modern radio technologies such as LoRaWAN® or Wireless M-Bus, provide water suppliers and municipal utilities with the right tools to implement the Water Strategy’s goals – with digital measuring technology and transparent data management. The ‘water transition’ will succeed with digital solutions.
Digitisation can make water consumption, malfunctions, network losses due to leakages, and water quality transparent and make any water losses measurable. A LoRaWAN® radio system can transmit the data of thousands of meters and sensors in the shortest possible time and over long distances while saving costs and energy.
Many water suppliers and municipal utilities use the technology for numerous tasks: to read water meters and other measuring instruments at short intervals, or to keep track of ground water levels, monitor water quality or monitor wastewater treatment plant and rainwater reservoir system parts with smart sensors.
Radio water meters offer many advantages
Radio water meters make consumption measuring efficient.
Meter readings are still often taken directly on site or through self-reading, for example with meter cards, which the consumer fills out and sends back to the supplier by post. Entering the reading via a web browser is another popular alternative. Often these ways of transmitting data are prone to errors, and the data quality often proves inadequate. To support water suppliers in their transition to logging data via radio transmission, ZENNER’s portfolio includes modern radio water meters for all drinking water distribution tasks as well as radio systems for wireless M-Bus and LoRaWAN®.
Radio water meters save time, costs and CO2.
Radio water meters offer many advantages for reading consumption data and help save time and money. Appointments with building owners or trips to individual measuring points for meter readings are almost completely eliminated. The automated reading also offers further advantages: estimates, for example in the case of consumers who are repeatedly absent, are no longer necessary. The water meters thus enable efficient and comprehensive remote reading of measured values. This saves economic resources while protecting the environment. As properties no longer have to be visited at all or only in exceptional cases, this significantly reduces CO2 emissions. A LoRaWAN® network makes the reading almost climate neutral.
Predict the future!
In the future, there will be many opportunities to use the extensive data from smart radio water meters efficiently. By combining it with data from other areas, smart solutions can be developed that control processes automatically or – in conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI) applications – allow analyses and forecasts. The integration of weather data makes it possible, for example, to make forecasts and plan drinking water requirements for the coming days.
Data when it is needed
For water suppliers, radio water meters are worthwhile because they can read meters periodically at short intervals – monthly (for example for large customers), daily or even hourly. Radio systems allow a completely automated reading. In addition, for example, all LoRaWAN®-enabled meters in the water network can be read on a fixed date and water suppliers can thus carry out a nationwide reference date reading.
Radio water meters put an end to long climbs
LoRaWAN® also saves financial resources with completely automated radio water meter readings. The manual reading of shaft meters in particular regularly poses major challenges for water suppliers. Current health and safety guidelines state that two people must always read the shaft meters together and secure the open shaft so that no third parties can be harmed. The more frequently the meters are read out, for example for large industrial customers, the greater the labour costs. This task can be solved efficiently with LoRaWAN®-enabled radio water meters.
Radio water meters offer smart added value.
When it comes to LoRaWAN® wireless systems in particular, transmitting data from thousands of meters and sensors in the shortest possible time and over long distances while saving costs and energy is not the end of what they can achieve. The water industry and municipal utilities can also use the technology for many tasks, for example to read radio water meters and other measuring instruments at short intervals or to use smart sensors to track groundwater levels, monitor water quality or monitor sewage treatment plant and rainwater reservoir system parts.
Read radio water meters remotely
ZENNER provides you with support during all aspects of planning, installation and operation of remote reading systems.
In addition to wired M-Bus solutions, we provide two innovative alternatives for the wireless remote reading of your water meters with wireless M-bus radio system and the stationary LoRaWAN® radio system, which offer considerable benefits compared to manual reading, including:
- Reading without needing access to the property
- Simple and secure transmission of meter data
- Avoidance of reading errors
- Optimum data quality and continuous availability of data
- Shorter reading and billing intervals
- Simple reading of difficult to access measurement points
- Smart functions such as pipe burst or leak detection
Top quality is our benchmark
Certified quality
ZENNER International GmbH & Co. KG is certified in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001 and DIN E EN ISO 14001.
All ZENNER meters comply with the construction and connection dimensions of DIN ISO 4064, DIN EN 1434 and other national and international standards and directives as well as Germany’s current regulation for drinking water (Trinkwasserverordnung – TrinkwV).
MID-compliant
Before we ship our water and heat meters, we calibrate them in our state-approved testing sites for measuring instruments for water and thermal energy to declare them compliant with MID (European Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/EC). We have been successfully using the approval and procedures for the declaration of conformity in accordance with MID since 2006.