Why is selecting the proper water flow meter for your project important? Well, besides the cost of the device itself, the installation cost and the ongoing cost of use and maintenance, there is the hidden and often ignored cost of potential inaccuracies in measurements. Ensuring you’ve selected the device best suited for your application will also ensure the lowest cost of inaccurate readings.
In addition to good measurements for proper billing/tracking, many other benefits come from upgrading your water flow measurement systems. Some of the benefits might not be as easy to see on paper as cost savings, they’re still significant and worthy of consideration when looking at a system redesign or upgrade. Below are some examples of how better water flow measurement using a flow meter will benefit your company or organization:
In the case of a farm, where there are many different needs for water, more accurate accounting and better record keeping helps allocate the available water around the farm and saves money by not wasting.
Accurate water flow meters provide readings to aid irrigation managers with the information they need to best use the irrigation water available and maximize its application while hopefully minimizing any negative environmental impact.
When dealing with an open channel installation, putting in a permanent canal water flow meter structure will minimize the need for current metering. Without a permanent installation, current metering must be performed frequently. Especially after making changes to delivery and to correct for seasonal changes of boundary resistance (affecting the Reynolds number) caused by weed growth or changes in the shape of the channel itself caused by erosion of the bank and/or sediment deposits.
Accurate, frequent and most important, convenient water flow meter readings will improve your ability to gauge seepage losses in unlined, open channels. With the better readings will come the ability to better evaluate the cost and benefits of canal and ditch improvements and upgrades.
Installing permanent water flow meters with the capacity to broadcast their output to remote reading stations will allow for more convenient and frequent readings, and allow for more automation. Lessening the need for manual operation or readings.
