Did you know that a measuring device is directly responsible for increasing revenues of utility companies (who supply us water and gas) without the companies spending anything in terms of capex (capital expenditure)? The measuring equipment is called an ultrasonic flow meter. These measuring devices accurately measure the amount of flow of liquids or gas and thus directly affect the billing of consumers. Earlier the mechanical meters used by the utilities logged the data and the amount of liquids and gas the consumers used. Due to wear and tear the mechanical wheels would record erroneous data (generally on the lesser side).
Ultrasonic flow meters have no moving parts. There is no question of performance degradation. The electronics in ultrasonic flow meter has two transducers that are housed in a protective housing. The housing is introduced into the pipe where the fluid or gas is flowing. Acoustic reflectors in the pipe direct the ultrasonic signal from one transducer to the other. The principle used here is called TOF (time of flight). The measurement is accurate and the time taken to travel is equated to the quantity of flow by measuring the average velocity along the path of the emitted beam of the ultrasonic pulses.
Modern buildings are now being outfitted with non-intrusive and easily installed clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters to measure hot water and chilled water usage. These are increasingly used in LEEDs (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings which is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide. Green building intelligence interface is the mantra adopted by estate developers.
