In contrast to the problems of energy saving, which in recent years have been given a lot of effort and money, such an important resource as water has received much less attention. In fact, the shortage of drinking water started to be discussed only a year ago, when the drought affected most European countries. Many large sources of fresh water have become shallow, such as, for example, the Po River in Italy. The level of the Rhine River in Germany has dropped so much that navigation is no longer possible there.
Unfortunately, this situation could happen again this year. Countries such as Italy, Greece, France have already started working out various mechanisms, including legislative ones, in order to focus much more attention on the problems associated with the lack of fresh water.
Today we will talk about what solutions in the field of water consumption efficiency are developed and produced by ADD Grup.
In order to deal with a problem, you need to understand its essence. How to measure the efficiency of water consumption? First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to its consumption and its losses, which arise as a result of supply from the water services company to the end consumer.
In Moldova about 50% (!!!) of the supplied water is currently being lost. These include technical losses associated with low-quality pipes and other obsolete equipment, and commercial losses due to illegal connections, water theft and non-payment by consumers.
One of the main causes of water loss is the lack of real data on its consumption. In order to understand the real situation in the field of consumption of this vital resource, first of all, water meters are needed. And not just mechanical meters, which today are in our apartments and houses and to which no one has access. This should be a modern electronic ultrasonic meter, the operation of which cannot be influenced in any way by external means (for example, slowing down its functioning with a magnet).
It is important that this is a meter that has the feature to transmit water readings remotely, that is, without the consumer being forced to record data manually and transfer them to the water services company.
Starting from February 2022, ADD Grup has certified the Addra ultrasonic meter under the MID directive. From now on, the company can sell it in all countries that recognize this directive, including the Republic of Moldova.
In order to measure the flow of water, the Addra meter uses ultrasound. It has LoRa and Wireless M-Bus communication technologies, which allow integrating this meter into submetering system and receiving data at a certain frequency.
In the development of communications, ADD Grup decided to go even further. The presence and functionality of such a meter is only the first step towards solving the problem of water consumption efficiency. It is not enough just to know how much water is consumed and how much is lost in the process of supplying it to the consumer.
It is also very important to be able to control the process of this consumption.
To do this, ADD Grup has developed a shut off valve that makes it possible to turn off or limit the flow of water. This valve works in tandem directly with the meter and enables to deal with non-payers. In some countries, a complete disconnection from services is not possible. In this case, the valve allows you to give a limited amount of water per day or limit the flow itself (by 50% or 90%). This leaves the consumer the opportunity to have the minimum required amount of water for drinking and domestic needs, but will restrict filling pools or watering lawns.
It should be noted that during periods of drought, non-payers cease to be the most acute problem, and a general water shortage starts to be an issue. Wealthy landlords do not pay attention to tariffs and use water uncontrollably. It also requires restrictions, including at the legislative level.
This solution – a water meter with a shut off valve – allows you to solve the main problem – to provide the minimum required amount of water to all consumers. Also, the solution developed by ADD Grup allows solving the problem of preventing leaks, breakthroughs and flooding. There are cases when people go on vacation or on a business trip, and a tap or pipe breaks in their houses. This can damage the property of both the consumer and of all residents who live in the neighborhood.
The Addra system allows you to quickly respond and prevent such situations. The smart meter detects the presence of a leak and instructs the valve to close the water flow.
Returning to the topic of energy efficiency, it is worth noting that electricity is the main component of the cost of supplying water. Pumps, filtration systems and much more consume a lot of electricity. And in the case of technical losses, a lot of energy, as you understand, is wasted.
The task of ADD Grup is to make the process of water supply efficient. This is the only way we can save water and reduce electric power consumption.
