Calibration interval of water meters

What is verification and why is it needed?

If the device does not pass the official test on time, its readings are considered invalid.

The procedure is a metrological process for determining the characteristics of the meter and its accuracy meeting technical requirements. If the device has successfully passed the test, a special holographic sticker is affixed to it - a verification certificate with an expiration date. And it can be used further. Or a conclusion about unsuitability is given.

Water meters are subject to two types of examinations:

• the next one, carried out after the expiration of the certificate and the verification interval of water meters;
• extraordinary, which is assigned if there is a suspicion of a malfunction or incorrect operation of water metering devices, if the seal is broken.

To verify this, the owner of a meter installed in an apartment or private house must write an application to the management company or to the service provider organization.

The procedure is performed in one of two ways. The first involves conducting a full test in a certified laboratory and is carried out in several stages:

• An authorized installer comes to the house, removes the meter and installs in its place a piece of pipe prepared in advance according to dimensions - an insert;
• the water meter is delivered to the metrology laboratory, repaired, cleaned and verified;
• the verified device is installed at the insertion site.

This method is used primarily for conducting extraordinary inspections. The owner must be at home for a specialist to have access to the installation site of the water meter.

The second option is used when the verification period is approaching the end. Monitoring the timeliness of regular verification and accounting of water meters is carried out by the metrological service of the management company or the supplier. Verification of a water meter[/anchor] is the responsibility of its owner, the consumer must independently initiate it. If the tenant refuses to do this, payment for water is charged according to the standards for each person registered at the address.

When is it carried out and how to find out the calibration interval

The calibration interval established for water meters is quite long, although much shorter than for electrical energy meters.

Typically, hot water meters are checked once every four years, but for cold water meters once every six years. This is due to the different chemical composition of the resource, which affects equipment wear. But there are hot water appliances with 5- and 6-year intervals.

The verification date and its frequency for each device (inter-verification interval) are set separately by the manufacturer when carrying out certain tests and are prescribed in the passport for the device (Article 12 of the Federal Law of June 26, 2008 No. 102-FZ).

The passport of each water meter contains the following information:

• on the compliance of the metering device with the declared parameters;
• data on the date of initial testing;
• about the verification interval established for it;
• about operating conditions.

When purchasing a water meter, it is important to pay attention to the date of initial verification. That is, if you buy a meter with an expiring date and install it, you will still have to recheck it or replace it soon.

Sometimes the date of the next verification is indicated in utility bills for water. Some management companies (not all) call residents in advance and remind them that the inspection interval is coming to an end.

In the near future (approximately 2020), the record of verification of water meters will be electronic. Such a bill was introduced in the fall of 2019 to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The inspector will make a note about the verification immediately on the Rosstandart website. You can track it online through the State Services portal at any time.

Replacement or verification?

When the time comes to check water meters, many residents decide not to check, but to change the device.

To replace a water meter, you need to buy a new meter and call a specialist from an organization that has a state license to carry out verifications. The technician will record the readings, remove the seal, and remove the old water meter. You must have documents with you confirming payment of utility bills. Otherwise, the change will be denied.

The fact of installation is recorded in a special journal. To legitimize the installation, a housing and communal services employee must seal the new device and enter data about it into the register. After this, you can pay for services according to the water meter readings.

How often the water meter needs to be changed depends on the intensity and conditions of its use - contamination of the water supply, level of chlorination. The standard service life is about 12 years. The number of water meter checks for cold water during this time will be no more than three, and for hot water – a maximum of two. While the water meter is in the metrology laboratory, fees are charged according to water consumption standards established by law.

There is no need to wait for the verification result. According to statistics, 90% of water meters are faulty and cannot be used. Experts believe that the poor quality of tap water is to blame.

Frequent causes of breakdown

A cold or hot water meter is a sensitive device, designed simply but delicately. That is why they often do not reach the required twelve-year service life. Malfunctions occur due to various factors affecting suitability. Let's look at a few:

• Age. If the flow meter is not new, it may become unusable for no apparent reason - solely due to the consequences of a long service life.
• Water supply quality. Unfortunately, in big cities it leaves much to be desired. This applies to both hot and cold. The liquid contains chlorine, small debris, heavy metal impurities and rust from the inner surface of the pipes. This can negatively affect the mechanism, shelf life and service life of the water meter.
• Rarely – boiling water. Modern devices have become more temperature resistant, and the water in the pipeline almost never reaches the temperature necessary to cause harm.
• Mechanical damage. This may be due to repairs, carelessness of children or a coincidence. However, if the device has suffered significant damage, even if it is not visible to the eye, you need to think about an emergency check of suitability.
• Neodymium magnet - which is used to stop the rotation of the impeller and use the resource in circumvention of the law. It has a very powerful magnetic field, and therefore is capable of damaging not only the water meter on which it is located, but also those located on the neighbors’ property before the expiration date.

If the hot or cold water meter suddenly begins to read faster, slower, or rewinds, or becomes covered with condensation on the inside, then you should immediately contact the organization that installed the device. There they will tell the resident why this happened and help with setting up a new IPU.

How often do you check the meter?

The verification period for cold and hot water meters is set by Rosstandart. The standard calibration interval for cold water meters is six years. There is a separate device for hot. By law, the hot water meter must be checked at least once every four years. The shorter period is due to two factors:

• influence of high temperatures;
• the content of suspended solids in hot water that negatively affects the operation of the device.

Sometimes the calibration interval for water meters of a particular model is less than the usual 4 and 6 years (this data is in the product passport). No manufacturer can establish an extended interval for water meters, since the frequency of verification is fixed by law. It is impossible to change it upward under any circumstances.

The verification period for a new cold or hot water meter is indicated in the product passport, which is an official document. From it you can get all the information about the device: operating conditions, when the meter needs to be checked by law, test methods. The basis is the results of metrological tests. During manufacturing, the devices undergo testing of technical parameters.

Water meters are necessarily subjected to metrological control in the factory laboratory, and a stamp is affixed to one of the pages of the passport. How can I find out the date of the next verification? This can be done by adding the verification interval to the date indicated in the document.

Calibration intervals are counted from the date of factory testing, and not from the date of commissioning of the meter. If the passport is lost or damaged, you can find out the verification period for the device on the manufacturer’s website.

Hot water meter verification period

Previously, it was believed that hot water meters required verification more often than others, because hot water provokes breakdowns in a short time. It has a destructive effect on the mechanism, which stops working correctly, reports incorrect measurements, and this inevitably affects the amount of money spent on water resource supply. Some of the thoughts about the dangers of hot water are certainly true. That is why every summer it is turned off at regular intervals for two weeks - utility workers need to check the condition of the pipes, since, unlike cold pipes, they need repair more often.

On the other hand, the water that enters the home has a lower degree than that that flows through the pipes. Especially in cold weather - part of the temperature is lost along the way. Therefore, it cannot have a real influence on the condition of water meters.

This even provoked the appearance of water appliances with a temperature sensor that monitors whether the resource supplying organization is trying to sell the resident water cooler than 40 degrees Celsius (it is considered cold). At the same time, the difference in price is more than 3 times. Therefore, problems arise with the installation of such devices and their registration - especially if the supply of hot liquid in the house is indeed accompanied by problems, interruptions and sometimes does not differ from cold. If the Criminal Code prevents the use of such a metering device, the case is subject to trial in court.

Due to the insufficiently reliable design and instability to temperature changes, the previous calibration interval for hot water meters until 2020 was 4 years versus 6 for cold ones. Now that the production of more reliable cold and hot water meters has begun, this has been canceled and the interval has the same period - 6 years.

The hot water meter is checked in the same way and using the same equipment. No special measures are usually applied.

Water meter testing algorithm

Water meters are checked in accordance with MI 1592-2015 in three ways:

• at the installation site;
• in a metrology laboratory;
• replacement.

When delivering a water meter yourself, you should consider:

• Only authorized specialists of the service provider can dismantle the device;
• an insert is temporarily installed in place of the removed water meter;
• The meter can only be checked in an accredited laboratory.

The device can also be verified at the installation site using a mobile stand. A specialist comes to your home, he should be provided with a passport for the meter, data on previous verifications.

The service is not cheap. Its advantages are as follows:

• convenience for the consumer;
• speed of execution - the process takes about 30 minutes;
• there is no need to dismantle the water meter.

Fraudsters are trying to take advantage of the popularity of the procedure. It is necessary to make sure that the specialist has an identification and certificate, and clarify information about the employee by phone.

Is it necessary to check water meters in 2020?

On September 24, 2020, amendments to the law on ensuring the uniformity of measurements come into force; this literally means that the verification of metering devices will be transferred from our shoulders to official organizations. The changes affect all measuring instruments; they will help protect us consumers from fraudsters, and will also facilitate the work of inspection bodies and participants in metrological activities. After the specialist checks the device on site, he will enter the data into the register, and the owner of the meter will be able to find data about it using the serial number and find out the date of the next verification.

From July 1, 2020, the population was relieved of the obligation to organize the verification of electricity meters, but the obligation to regularly check water meters remains. Let us recall that until the end of this year, in connection with the pandemic, the government obliged resource supply and management companies to accept readings from devices even with an expired verification period, from residents when In this case, penalties, fines and penalties cannot be collected until January 1, 2021.

Even if you have perfectly serviceable meters in your apartment, they can be recognized as faulty in an instant if they do not pass the next verification. Until the imminent changes, residential property owners must, at their own expense, ensure that their meter readings are accurate to resource providers; long-awaited changes in this matter took place in July of this year. Energy companies will be required to replace failed electricity meters for citizens with so-called smart meters that will automatically transmit readings.

For now, many are concerned about a much more pressing question: what to do if the meter verification period has expired, but the problem is solved in a standard way, and a specialist was not called. In the current conditions of self-isolation, the government has lifted until the end of the year the ban on accepting meter readings that have not passed the next verification. It was announced that citizens now should not worry about the expired calibration interval of their meters; resource providers and management organizations must still take readings and take them into account when calculating rent.

However, practice has shown that not everything is so simple; some utility organizations began to divide meters that have not passed verification into two categories: those whose verification period expired before April 6, 2020 and those after this date on April 6 of the twentieth year. This is the day when that same government Decree number 424 came into force, so the management organization resource suppliers began to accept meter readings without verification, but only if it expired after April 6, and for those whose verification interval ended earlier, they left the previous procedure.

In the first three months, fees are calculated based on average readings, and then according to the standard and taking into account the penalty coefficient, it turns out that those who did not have time to order a meter verification earlier can no longer carry it out and are forced to significantly overpay, but you should not agree with the management company, if she claims that you are not covered by the moratorium on checking meters.

Rosstandart, which is responsible for the verification of household metering devices, published on its website on April 30 an official clarification for citizens, which states that owners of residential premises can continue to transmit readings of their meters without verification until January 1, 2021, and management and resource supply organizations are obliged take readings from all meters, including those with an expired calibration interval, starting from April 6 until December 31 of the twentieth year.

According to Rosstandart, the readings of all meters should be taken into account, regardless of when their verification period expired, including before Resolution 424 came into force, that is, until April 6, there will be no further recalculation of the readings of temporarily unverified meters.

In other words, the new verification rules are interpreted in favor of citizens and the refusal of the management company after April 6 to take into account the readings of a meter that should have been verified in February of the twentieth year is illegal. You can also refer to the letter of Rosstandart and Rosakkreditatsiya dated April 21, 2020, where organizations accredited to verify meters are required to notify citizens that verification is not mandatory until January 1, 2021. If you were refused to accept meter readings with an expired verification period after April 6, you can send an electronic complaint to the housing department. inspection or the prosecutor's office. Rosstandart also noted that utility scammers have now become more active on behalf of unknown companies that offer meter verification services, insisting that it must be carried out before the end of this year.

You should not believe this; verification can only be carried out by specially accredited organizations; their register is posted on the official website of the Russian Accreditation Agency.

https://www.advokatorium.com/index.php/ru/news/nuzhno-li-delat-poverku-schetchikov-vody-v-2020-godu

If you miss verification

If verification is delayed, water use fees are calculated not according to the meter readings, but based on the average volumes for the last six months. Then you will have to pay according to the consumption rate in proportion to the number of registered residents.

The Federal Law on Metering Devices can be downloaded HERE.

The criteria for determining the amount of payments for overdue water meter verification differ in different regions. The average value can be taken based on the results of not six, but three months. The water consumption standards for each registered person also differ.

It is not the housing and communal services services that should keep track of when the next inspection is due, but the tenant himself.
Management companies only keep records of existing meters and register new meters. Useful article? Rate and share with friends!

What to do if the service period has ended

The service life ends in two ways: as planned or ahead of schedule due to a detected breakdown. The planned end occurs after twelve years. In case of premature failure, you should prepare for replacement. Repair of cold or hot water meters is almost never carried out.

The technical passport warns about the end of its service life. It contains information about the date of initial verification and recommended timing for further verification. After the factory diagnostics, the first calibration period for the hot or cold water meter begins. For this reason, you should buy “younger” water meters so that they do not have time to sit in the store for a long time. The more years spent in the warehouse, the sooner the need for first maintenance will occur.

For whatever reason, the service life of water meters in an apartment , you should immediately contact the company that installed the previous water meters or any other. You cannot delay the procedure, since postponing it for a long time risks paying according to the standards.

You should not attempt installation yourself. The average citizen does not have:

1. Special tools;
2. Required experience;
3. Knowledge of the specifics of working with different types of water meters and pipes;
4. Knowledge of GOST standards.

Therefore, work done with your own hands, if the circumstances are unsuccessful, will result in costs for repairing the water supply system and, possibly, even the purchase of a new meter. In addition, you will first have to purchase tools.