I get my water at my house from three different lines, each with its own meter.
Problem is that each line has a different pressure and if I turn them on at the same time, eventually the readings on the meters will be different. So basically I am getting overcharged on one meter, while the other two barely register anything.
Is there any way to equalize the pressures between the lines so all three meters are getting charged the same?
What’s the difference what meter you draw from? If you pay more for one and less for the other 2, doesn’t it cost the same?
Is this some sort of screwie rental situation where you get stuck paying for the meter that most of the water goes through?
Also unless they are on different mains, what you probably have is a meter that has less resistance to flow then the others, or the others have more resistance due to the way the piping is.
One thing you can do is partly close the valve for the meter that has most of the water flow.
No, all meters belong to me
The problem is that the pricing isn’t linear. I don’t have the exact numbers handy but it goes something like this: For 0-25m[sup]3[/sup] the price per m[sup]3[/sup] is x, for 25-40 the price is 2x and for 40+ it is 5x.
If for example my total water for the billing period is 60m[sup]3[/sup] evenly distributed on the three meters I will pay 20x for each meter, or 60x total.
But if the 60m[sup]3[/sup] are all on one meter then the billing will be 25x + 152x + 205x = 155x
I’ve played around many times with the valves but I can’t seem to equalize the meter readings. When I think I’m close to equilibrium, I will make a tiny adjustment and everything goes off.
Your situation seems annoying as heck to manage, I don’t know what your water bill is, but is it worth this effort over just trying to set a valve so it’s fairly close to a balance and leave it?
You almost need something like a metering device so that all 3 lines are tied together through it. I don’t know if any such device exists.
You might try to hook the fast running water meter up to a specific use, perhaps a hot water tank to slow down that meter’s usage.
You don’t need to equalize the pressures, you need to equalize the flows.
I think you need some kind of positive displacement pump on each line, but instead of motors, you tie the pump shafts together so they all turn at the same rate.
If they all go to a common main, and you put the same restriction on the outlet of each meter and then tie them together, you will get nearly the same flow through each.