TIPS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WATER DATA
If you are like over 58 per cent of Canadian households, you have a water meter installed at your property. It's probably somewhere in your basement and a water bill arrives every month or two which you routinely pay. Your water meter probably isn't exactly top of mind, as long as your water keeps flowing, and you don't have any issues.
The increased use of water meters in municipalities across Canada has corresponded with a decrease in average water use by household. 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. The majority of water meters report water use on a similar scale and we have set the calibration on your Flowie water sensor accordingly.
However, some water meters report water use a bit differently. This means that in some cases, the water use and costs reported on your Alert Labs dashboard may differ from your actual water use by a factor up to two.
A simple solution to get the most out of your data is to manually calibrate your Flowie.
It’s like setting the screen size and resolution on your computer monitor – usually the factory settings are fine but sometimes you need to adjust them to get the best possible picture.
Calibration is very easy to do and you’ll learn more about your water meter along the way. All you need to do is take few pictures of your water meter and enter the readings on the Alert Labs dashboard. We’ll do the rest.
The first step is to locate the face of the water meter and take a picture of the numbers on it.
You may have done this already as part of the sensor registration process for your Flowie. Then, wait one week and take another picture to get a second reading of your water meter. Make sure that you have included the correct pipe size on the sensor details page.
In many cases, your water meter looks like an odometer with some extra hands or dials on it. The numbers you care about the most are on the main odometer and the dials represent smaller increments. If there is a decimal point take note of the numbers on the right too.
You may have a relatively new digital water meter or an even an older model that pre-dates the internet. Click here to see a few other examples of water meters and how to read them.
The next steps to calibrate your Flowie are:
- Sign in to the Alert Labs Dashboard from alertlabs.com
- Click on the Menu button.
- On the drop-down menu, click My Sensors and find your Flowie water sensor.
- Select Manual under the Calibration Factor.
- Click Add Calibration Point and fill in the date and time, and reading from your first water meter picture.
- Add a second Calibration Point based upon your second picture.
- Another option is to enter the water use data from two separate water bills.
Based on the two readings, your Flowie will be calibrated to provide even more precise data on water use and corresponding costs.
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