How to pay for water using a meter: specifics of calculating water consumption + analysis of payment methods

Nowadays, most consumers of utility services are provided with metering devices, since paying for water using a meter has become much more profitable than on a general basis.

You can calculate the payment amounts yourself. To do this, you need to calculate the consumption, know the tariffs, and also understand that in addition to water supply, there are other services that are influenced by water meter readings.

Next, we will tell you how to correctly calculate and pay for water supply.

Calculation of water consumption

To accurately calculate the water consumed at a facility, meters are installed. They are placed on pipes through which both hot and cold water are supplied. As a rule, installation work is carried out by specialists from a water supply organization or management company, since the devices will need to be sealed.

Read more about how meters are installed and sealed. Further.

Periodically, representatives of organizations providing housing and communal services inspect metering devices for the integrity of seals and the absence of visual problems with the functioning of the devices. The owners of the premises are required to allow inspectors to the installation site of the meters. Also, counters must undergo mandatory verification, the terms of which are indicated in the technical documentation for the device.

Meters are installed in the area of ​​responsibility of the service user - in an apartment, private house or non-residential premises.If there are several pipes through which water is supplied, then all of them must be equipped with a metering device.

Hot and cold water meters differ in body color - red and blue, respectively. This helps avoid confusion when taking readings

The owners take readings every month at a certain time. Each water meter has a dial showing the volume of liquid passed through it.

It can provide data with different precision:

• if there are only 5 black digits on the dial, then the number shown is the number of cubic meters;
• if in addition to 5 black numbers there are 3 more red ones, then the number shown is the number of liters.

In any case, to pay for housing and communal services, the consumer needs to take readings accurate to the nearest cubic meter, so the red numbers (if they are present on the device dial) do not need to be taken into account.

The current reading of this meter is 133 liters or 0.133 m3. Presence of accuracy up to 1 liter allows you to independently check the device for the quality of measurements using containers of known cubic capacity

Since it is necessary to calculate the volume of water on the meter for a month, you need to subtract the previous ones from the current readings. And this needs to be done for each meter, then adding up the data separately for cold and hot water.

For example, if there are two cold water inlets and the meter readings for the previous month are 312 and 445 cubic meters, and for the current month - 316 and 450, then the total consumption (V) will be equal to:

V = 316 + 450 – 312 – 445 = 9 m³

In order not to make mistakes in the calculations, you can keep a special house journal in which to record the readings of water, electricity, gas and heating meters. If information on previous indications is lost, then you can find it out by contacting the organization that accepts payments.

Calculation of cost by meter

You can calculate the amount required to pay for housing and communal services related to water yourself. But to do this, you need to know the tariffs and some nuances of charges, which are then displayed in the payment slip.

Hot and cold water supply

Organizations provide water supply services to the population in accordance with established tariffs. Paying for hot water according to meter readings is much more expensive than cold water (3-8 times), since companies need to compensate for the costs of maintaining communications and heating water.

Tariffs are constantly changing and depend on the region and service provider. The exact cost of a cubic meter of hot and cold water can be found out from the organization with which the water supply agreement has been concluded, or by contacting the district housing and communal services committee or the local administration.

Tariffs are also published on the website of the administration of each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Having access to the Internet is the easiest way to get information on prices for housing and communal services

Let’s assume that the total cold water consumption for the month was 6 m3³, and hot – 4 m³. The tariff set by the administration for water supply is 22.77 rubles/m³, for hot water supply – 132.69 r/m³.

In this case, the total amount for water supply (R) will be equal to:

R = 6 * 22.77 + 4 * 132.69 = 667 rub. 38 kopecks

Sometimes, instead of the tariff for hot water supply, expressed in r/m³ indicate another parameter - the cost of heating water r/Gcal. You can independently calculate the number of gigacalories spent on heating one cubic meter of hot water only if the value is known dt – temperature difference between cold and hot water. This also includes heat loss, which an ordinary consumer cannot measure.

Therefore, an accurate calculation with such data is impossible. But approximately 0.050 - 0.065 gigacalories are spent on heating one cubic meter in central Russia. Thus, you can calculate the range of amounts to pay for water supply services.

Let, with the same cold water consumption, 6 m³ and hot 4 m³ the cost of water supply is 22.77 rubles/m³, and the price per gigacalorie is 1827 r/Gcal.

Then the amount for water supply will be within the following range [R₁, R₂]:

• R₁ = 22.77 * 6 + (22.77 + 1827 * 0.050) * 4 = 593 rub. 10 kopecks;
• R₂ = 22.77 * 6 + (22.77 + 1827 * 0.065) * 4 = 702 rub. 72 kopecks

In many houses it is much more economical to install boiler for heating hot water in a water supply system or heating circuit. In this case, the tariff will be floating. It will depend on the cost of the cold water supplied and the cost of heating it.

Boiler rooms with modern equipment significantly save costs on hot water supply. Even taking into account the costs of their periodic maintenance

The consumer, as in the case of centralized supply, will need to take readings from meters and provide data on water consumption to the organization responsible for managing the house.

Water disposal and general house needs

In private houses and cottages, the cost of paying for cold water according to the meter is often the only housing and communal services related to water. This is not the case in apartment buildings.

All water entering the apartment leaves through the sewer. Water disposal also requires financial costs for pipeline maintenance and cleaning activities.

There is no need to install sewer meters, since the volume of drainage is totally equal to the amount of hot and cold water received.Knowing these indicators and the tariff for the service, you can calculate its cost.

Water disposal is also classified as housing and communal services, the tariffs for which are approved by government authorities. Paying for a cubic meter of sewer discharge is 2-5 times cheaper than for cold water supply

Another type of water-related cost that a property owner in an apartment building will incur is payment for the maintenance of common property (COI). Previously, this column in receipts was abbreviated as ODN (general household needs). But the meaning of these payments remains the same.

When summing up the data from individual water meters, the resulting volume of water consumed is somewhat smaller than that shown by a common house meter.

This happens for the following reasons:

• costs for washing floors in entrances, watering lawns in the local area and other needs;
• pipe leaks within the boundaries of the house;
• underestimation of water consumption or lack of data on some premises.

To compensate for these costs, water shortages are distributed among consumers in proportion to the area of ​​the premises they occupy. That is, the readings of an individual meter will not affect the volume of payments under SOI.

How to pay for water supply?

It is necessary to pay for water supply and sewerage on time. In most cases, this requires removing and transmit meter readings, wait for the receipt and pay for the services.

Data submission deadlines

Existing legislation does not contain deadlines for the transfer of data on housing and communal services that are strictly tied to the dates of the month. The “Rules for the Provision of Utility Services” indicate that these terms must be defined in the contract.

Therefore, the period for receiving information for calculating the cost of consumed resources and generating a receipt is chosen by the water supply organization or the company managing the apartment building.

Typically, the deadline for submitting data from water meters is limited to the 18th-25th of the current month. But it is better to find out information about this period from the resource supply organization

Synchronous submission of information is needed primarily for the correct calculation of indicators that will go into the “SOI” column. The deadline for submitting data for payment of utility services (including water) for December and April may be moved to earlier dates due to the New Year and May holidays.

There are many ways to provide meter readings and they depend on the company that generates the receipts.

The following types of communication are usually available and popular:

• phone call;
• SMS with a certain sequence of information;
• filling out the form online.

If a water consumer does not provide information on metering devices on time, then the average indicators for the last 6 months will be automatically calculated. If the owner does not provide data within 6 months, then he may be transferred to standardized payment, which, as a rule, significantly exceeds actual consumption.

Payment methods for water

You can pay for water supply according to meter readings via the Internet, at a bank or directly at the cash desk of a management or resource supply company.

Paying utility bills at the bank on the last day, as a rule, is accompanied by a long wait for your turn. It's better to do it earlier or choose another method

If the consumer has a bank card with the ability to make online payments, the easiest way will be to pay for housing and communal services via the Internet.

There are several sites through which you can perform this operation:

• unified information settlement center (UISC);
• state portal services (GIS housing and communal services);
• website of the bank that issued the card.

Everywhere you will need to register. You also need to know not only your address, but also your personal account number. After filling out all the data, the user will be transferred to the bank’s website, where he will need to complete the online payment procedure.

If this method is complex or unusual, and the bank branch is close, then you can go there with a receipt. You can make a payment either at the cash register (the bank may charge a commission) or at an ATM.

Sometimes, especially in small villages and towns where there is no bank, payment can be made at the post office or at the village council.

We also recommend reading our other article, where we talked about the intricacies of choosing water meters and gave a rating of the best devices according to users. More details - go to link.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

How to correctly take readings from a water meter:

One of the automatic reading systems:

Payment through a Sberbank ATM using the receipt barcode:

Calculating the volume of water consumed using these metering devices is quite simple. Knowing the tariffs for hot and cold water supply, you can calculate the amount of costs for water and sewerage. Payment for services can be made at a bank, at a resource supply organization or via the Internet. The latter method will avoid queues.

If you have questions about calculations or payment for water supply services, you can ask them in the comments section, and we will try to answer them promptly.