What's available in residential/commercial class flow meters??

[seasar]

I'm trying to get a handle on what's available with flow instrumentation with data acquisition on the residential/commercial level. Specifically for gas, water and electricity. I'm plenty familiar with industrial spec instruments that tie into PLC's but I'm volunteering to assist with an energy assessment/benchmarking study of usage on the small scale.

I need gas, water and electric meters with associated data acquisition that stand alone. In this range cheaper is better.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

 

[gerhardl]

You do not state where you are located, but try to have a look at the different european manufacturors for the more demanding and more diversified market than for instance the US market.

You will find a number of comercially available solutions within the parameters you are giving.

 

[jmw]

Just do a search under utility metering or automatic meter reading.
Companies such as Actaris and the like all offer "meter" for all utilities and a full service solution which often as not these days includes meter reading services. There is little for you to do because it has all been packaged together for the utility companies by the suppliers.

Meter reading capability offers a variety of remote reading systems.

Any mainstream utility meter supplier can probably offer you the product you want straight of the shelves. Just choose the one that suits you best.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[seasar]

I should have been more specific....

These instruments (natural gas flow, water, elec) and associated data collection system will be installed in a restaraunt to conduct a pilot/baseline energy usage audit.

Obviously there are no existing intruments/PLCs/computers so the system will be new and will standalone. Imagine a gas flow meter on the supply line to a group of gas grills...water meter on the makeup to a hot water heater/etc.

 

[gerhardl]

...interesting thought, but a couple of 'non technical' questions comes to mind, as the purpose of a restaurant and the 'sellable' product is a maximized experience of food, comfort, service and hygiene, you need stastically to keep the 'experience' as a constant, while you measure, minimize and experiment with water, gas etc.

It is of course not impossible to log something about the data you mention, and even see trends, but the largest variable in a restaurant, and the absolute largest contribution to the total result is the income side: the popularity as a result of the 'total experience'.

Then back to the economical/technical cost engineering side:
for a cost analysis of any producing unit it is very easy to sub-optimalize by selecting an analysis of the cost side alone, forgetting the cost/benefit side and the total target for the factory/producing unit: the brutto income maximation, even if some of the costs would increase, if the net increases more.

... and by the way, you should still be able to use commercial available standard meters, some have electronically readable logs, but it will not be that cheap..

 

[jmw]

Er, won't the utility companies supplying the restaurant have o have meters installed and won't they co-operate by allowing you to log data in parallel with them?
They might just have meter readers and they will only read once every billing period but you could interrogate for whatever interval you want.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com