How to stop paying for air

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Richyricho

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Hi all.

We have daily water shedding and my water bill has been through the roof since this started.

Is there some sort of smart device that can detect that the water is off, and then automatically shut a valve, and when it feel that the water is back, re open the valve?

My main incoming pipe splits, 1 to the house, the other to the Jojo tank. So unless the Jojo tank is full, the valve is open, allowing the air to flow freely into the Jojo.

I have looked at a WiFi smart valve, but this will still require manual opening and closing and knowing when the water is on or off, which is completely impossible.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Richyricho said:
Hi all.

We have daily water shedding and my water bill has been through the roof since this started.

Is there some sort of smart device that can detect that the water is off, and then automatically shut a valve, and when it feel that the water is back, re open the valve?

My main incoming pipe splits, 1 to the house, the other to the Jojo tank. So unless the Jojo tank is full, the valve is open, allowing the air to flow freely into the Jojo.

I have looked at a WiFi smart valve, but this will still require manual opening and closing and knowing when the water is on or off, which is completely impossible.

Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

Check this out
 
Most water meters are designed with the assumption that there will always be water pressure and that typically African problems do not exist in the field.

This is a difficult problem to solve, as you would need to remove the air in front of the meter and most councils or munis will not entertain anything connected on the supply side of the meter.
 
joker08 said:
Are we saying air flowing through the pipes is the reason for the excessive bills ?
Click to expand...
Correct.

Someone in our area group sent a video of the meter running full blast, not a single drop of water in the house.
I went out to check mine, and it was doing exactly the same.

I am around 6kl over my normal usage this month.
 
PaulGherkin said:
Most water meters are designed with the assumption that there will always be water pressure and that typically African problems do not exist in the field.

This is a difficult problem to solve, as you would need to remove the air in front of the meter and most councils or munis will not entertain anything connected on the supply side of the meter.
Click to expand...
These damn african problems 😂
Surely someone must have come up with some sort of solution, South Africans are ingenious with solutions to these trivial issues
 
spiff said:
Check this out
Click to expand...
Thanks, I've had a look at this, seems good. I'm going to check with them if it is able to sense low to no pressure, and if it does, if it can send an alert. And then also sense when the pressure returns, and also send an alert.
If it can do this, I could automate a smart valve to open or shut.
 
Your main problem is you need to let the air out.
The design of water meters currently makes them susceptible to registering air, because they're designed in ways that makes any fluid (air is also a fluid if you want to get scientific) do work to turn something that can be measured or counted.
Getting the air out requires a bypass valve. Easy to do but, as I said, it has to be done on the meter inlet side, which I am sure is not going to sit well with most local councils as they will claim you're trying to bypass the meter.

Unfortunately you can't fix stupid so easily when the ANC is involved.
 
Richyricho said:
Thanks, I've had a look at this, seems good. I'm going to check with them if it is able to sense low to no pressure, and if it does, if it can send an alert. And then also sense when the pressure returns, and also send an alert.
If it can do this, I could automate a smart valve to open or shut.
Click to expand...
You can add pressure sensors
 
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