Heating meter in an apartment: classification and installation

Heating bills have become more and more scary in recent years and I really want to reduce them. Perhaps, at the moment, the only way to save money is to put a heating meter in the apartment. But this is not always possible – such is the modern legislative framework.

Profitable or not

The payment for heating in recent years has become more and more, and many people are thinking about putting a heating meter in the apartment. This is possible if your house has a common house heat metering unit and the UK / TZhS / ZhEK keeps records on individual meters. The second condition is the horizontal distribution of heating in the apartment. Unfortunately, most multi-storey buildings have vertical wiring – in every or almost every room there is a riser from which radiators are powered. With this type of wiring, counters will have to be installed on each riser, and this is not cheap and this event will pay off for a long time.

If you are lucky and have horizontal wiring in your house, installing a heating meter is definitely beneficial. How much depends on how large heat losses are in your apartment. If the apartment is “internal”, has few walls facing the street and / or these walls are insulated, if there are plastic windows or wooden ones, but new and windproof, if the doors are insulated, the benefit can be very large. After installing a heat meter, it may turn out that you pay only a small part of the previous charges on a general basis.

But that’s not all: at the moment, heating payments for individual heat meters will only be charged if they are installed and put into operation in 100% of residential and non-residential premises of the house. This is real only in new buildings, which are rented immediately with metering devices. In other houses, such cases are extremely rare, which casts doubt on the feasibility of installation.

Rules for the installation and operation of heat meters in an apartment

In order to put a heat meter in the apartment for the heating season, you need to start acting ahead of time, better – before the end of the heating season. The procedure is as follows:

• You turn to the Criminal Code / HOA / ZhEK, where you are given technical conditions for connecting an individual heat energy meter. This is one sheet that indicates the network parameters in your home: temperature, pressure.
• Buy a heat meter. You need to buy it certified, in a legal campaign. You must have a sales receipt and a cash receipt, an instruction manual, a quality certificate, in which the date of the state verification must be indicated, there must also be information about who carried out the verification (name of organization).
• Next, find a design organization that has a license for this type of service. Based on the technical conditions and the available meter, they are preparing a project.
  

• With a project in hand, look for an organization that will install a heat meter for you. She must also be licensed to carry out this type of work. They must coordinate the time of work with the Criminal Code / HOA (you can check this issue). It is much easier if your work falls on a period when the coolant is lowered in the heating system – fewer problems and less money will be required.
• The installation of the meter itself is a short and simple matter. Takes no more than 2 hours. But you will have to pre-prepare the place of work: remove everything superfluous, everything that can burn – they will use welding.
• After installation, with all the documents, contact the Criminal Code / Homeowners’ association regarding the acceptance of the meter. At the agreed time, their representative comes, puts a seal, signs the commissioning certificate, one copy of which remains with you. After that, you need to conclude a contract for payment, after which it is considered that you pay for heat according to the meter.

The whole process may take two or three months or even more – therefore it is better to start acting in advance in order to be in time before the start of the heating season. In principle, in every more or less large city there are organizations that will do all this for you, but their services are far from cheap.

What is the legal basis

If you need the names of regulatory documents regulating the conditions for the provision of public services, here are the current regulations:

• May 6, 2011 N 354 “On the provision of public services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings.”
• April 16, 2013 No. 344 – some changes have been made to the current resolution.
  

The procedure for calculating payment for heat, determining tariffs – all this is determined by the regional authorities, in order to know exactly how things are in your region, you need to study the regulatory framework of your particular region. The only thing that operates throughout Russia is the need to install accounting for common house meters.

How often to take readings

In fact, this is a difficult question – there are different types of heat energy meters and the procedure for taking readings is very different for them. It is described in detail in the instruction manual, which you should have.

By the way, according to the latest decision (No. 344 of 16.04.2013/XNUMX/XNUMX), you do not have to submit testimony every month. You are obliged to do this every six months, and the organization must recalculate according to the testimony you submitted.

Verification

The primary verification of the meter for heating in the apartment takes place at the factory, which is necessarily noted in the product passport. A mark is also made on the front panel of the device. The frequency of further verifications depends on the type of meter, the verification interval is also recorded in the passport. On average, it is 3-5 years.

If your heat energy meter needs to be checked out, it is better to do it immediately after the end of the heating season, as the procedure can take several months. Before removing the meter, you need to notify the Criminal Code / Homeowners’ association, they will come and record the readings. Then you can remove the device. After verification, you put the meter in place, call the Criminal Code again, wait for them to come and seal the meter. On this verification can be considered finished. It remains only to figure out where to give the heat meter for verification. There are only three options:

1. Service center of the manufacturer of your meter.
2. A commercial organization licensed for this type of activity.
3. Subdivision of the enterprise “Rostest”.

Verification of an individual heat meter can be carried out in any of these organizations. You can first ask about the terms and prices and choose the most suitable option.

Types of apartment meters for heating

There are several types of heating meters in the apartment. Each of them has some drawbacks, there is no ideal one, but you still have to choose. Let’s take a quick look at the characteristics and features of each type:

• Mechanical or tachometric. In fact, they are very similar to ordinary water meters – an impeller is installed in the housing. According to the installation method, they are turbine and screw. They react poorly to the presence of mechanical impurities in water, so a coarse filter should be installed at the inlet. Their plus is their low price, which determines their popularity.

• Vortex. There is a small obstacle in the device, behind which the coolant is twisted into vortices. The velocity of these vortices is used to calculate the velocity of the coolant. This device is installed between the supply and return (unlike all others).
  

• Ultrasonic. They are distinguished by high accuracy, but no less high price. The amount of coolant is estimated by the speed of passage of ultrasound. They consist of two parts, which are placed on the direct and return pipeline. Measurement accuracy deteriorates in the presence of air bubbles and mechanical impurities, so the installation of a filter and an air vent in front of the device is highly desirable.
• Electromagnetic. They have more features, but are also more expensive than others. The measurement accuracy becomes lower in the presence of mechanical impurities in the coolant.

When buying a heating meter for an apartment, pay attention to the fact that it has a quality certificate, which should contain data on its verification. The date and name of the organization that carried out the verification should be indicated.

Summing up, it is worth saying that a heating meter in an apartment is beneficial if you have eliminated all possible heat leaks to the maximum.