Frequently Asked Questions
Your complete guide to water meters, billing, and management in India (2025 Edition).
1. General & Basic Questions
A water meter is a device that measures the volume of water consumed by a residential or commercial property. This data is used by utility providers like HMWSSB for accurate billing.
It ensures you are billed fairly for the water you actually use (the "user-pays" principle), helps you detect leaks, and empowers you to conserve water, which saves money and protects the environment.
A mechanical meter uses a spinning turbine (moving parts) to measure flow, which can wear out and become inaccurate. An ultrasonic meter uses sound waves (no moving parts) for a highly accurate and durable measurement.
Sub-metering is the practice of installing individual meters after the main utility meter in a multi-unit property (like an apartment building) to measure the consumption of each individual unit or flat.
By providing clear data on your consumption, a meter makes you aware of how much water you use. This awareness naturally encourages conservation habits. Smart meters can also alert you to leaks, preventing massive wastage.
Water pressure is the force that pushes water through pipes. While meters measure flow volume, smart meters can also measure flow *rate*, which can help diagnose pressure problems in a building.
In most urban areas, yes. Utility boards like HMWSSB and government bodies like the Ministry of Environment mandate meters for fair billing and resource management.
A traditional mechanical meter typically lasts 5-7 years before its accuracy degrades. A modern ultrasonic meter, with no moving parts, can last for 10-15 years.
FCRI (Fluid Control Research Institute) is a premier Indian institution that certifies the accuracy and quality of flow meters. An FCRI-approved meter meets high standards of performance and is accepted by utility boards.
A smart water grid is a concept where an entire city's water distribution network is equipped with smart meters and sensors that provide real-time data on consumption, leaks, and pressure, allowing for highly efficient city-wide water management.
2. HMWSSB Bills & Regulations
Common reasons include: 1) An old mechanical meter measuring air, 2) An undetected leak, 3) A "Faulty" or "Unmetered" status on your bill leading to penal rates, or 4) High consumption pushing you into a more expensive tariff slab.
It's a Telangana Government scheme where eligible domestic consumers with a functional, Aadhaar-linked water meter receive the first 20,000 litres (20KL) of water per month completely free.
Possible reasons are: 1) Your consumption exceeded 20KL, 2) Your meter is faulty and showing incorrect readings, 3) Your meter was not read, or 4) Your new meter details are not updated in HMWSSB's system.
"Metered" means you're billed on actual usage (ideal). "Faulty," "Repair," or "Unmetered" means you are being charged a high, fixed penal rate and are not eligible for the free water scheme.
This is a punitive charge levied on connections that persistently fail to install or repair a functional water meter, as a deterrent against unmetered consumption.
You can pay through the official HMWSSB website, or using any major UPI app (like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm) by selecting "Water" under the bill payments section.
Yes. HMWSSB allows consumers to purchase and install their own FCRI-approved water meter. After installation, you must update the new meter's details on the HMWSSB portal.
You should first report it to HMWSSB. For a faster solution, you can proactively purchase and install a new FCRI-approved meter and then update the details on the HMWSSB portal to get back on fair billing quickly.
The CAN (Customer Account Number) is your unique identification number for your HMWSSB water connection. It is printed on your water bill and is required for all payments and services.
This typically requires submitting a formal application at an HMWSSB office with proof of property ownership (sale deed), the latest bill payment receipt, and an identity proof.
3. Water Meter Technology (The Hardware)
The main types are Mechanical (single-jet, multi-jet), Ultrasonic, and Electromagnetic meters. For residential and commercial sub-metering, ultrasonic is the modern standard.
It sends high-frequency sound waves through the water. By measuring the time difference it takes for the sound to travel with and against the water's flow, it can calculate the flow rate and volume with extreme precision.
No moving parts means there is nothing to wear down, get jammed by sand or grit, or lose accuracy over time. This makes the meter far more durable and reliable than a mechanical one.
An electromagnetic meter uses magnetic fields to measure flow. It's extremely robust and ideal for industrial applications, raw water with high debris, and measuring wastewater in ETPs (Effluent Treatment Plants).
IP68 is the highest standard for water and dust proofing. It means the meter is completely dust-tight and can be continuously submerged in water without damage. This is a non-negotiable feature for a long-lasting meter.
AMR is the technology that enables a meter to automatically transmit its reading data to a central server, eliminating the need for a person to physically visit and read the meter.
LoRaWAN is a private, long-range, low-power network ideal for high-density sites like apartment campuses. GSM uses the public cellular network (like a mobile phone with a SIM card) and is ideal for scattered, independent meters.
A high-quality ultrasonic AMR meter has a battery life of 5 to 10 years, as it's designed for extreme energy efficiency.
Modern smart meters have built-in tamper alerts. They can detect if they are being removed, reversed, or if a strong magnet is placed near them, and send an alert to the system administrator.
Most individual homes and apartments in India use a 15mm (half-inch) or 20mm (three-quarter-inch) pipe, so a meter of the corresponding size is required.
4. Installation & Maintenance
A qualified and licensed plumber should perform the installation to ensure it is done correctly, without leaks, and as per the manufacturer's guidelines.
It is installed on the main water inlet pipe to your property, after the main shut-off valve, in a location that is accessible for reading or maintenance.
It depends on the model. Many modern ultrasonic meters can be installed in any orientation (horizontal or vertical), but you must check the product's datasheet. Mechanical meters often have orientation restrictions.
Mechanical meters may require periodic cleaning of the internal strainer. Ultrasonic meters are virtually maintenance-free due to their lack of moving parts.
The installation cost can range from ₹800 to ₹2,000 per meter, depending on the complexity of the plumbing, the location, and the labour charges in your city.
Yes, the main water supply to the pipe where the meter is being installed must be shut off during the installation process.
An NRV, or check valve, is a device that ensures water can only flow in one direction. It's often installed with a meter to prevent backflow.
After installation, there should be no leaks from the connections. When you turn on a tap, the meter should start registering flow, and when all taps are off, it should be perfectly still.
Yes, but this requires a professional plumber to re-route the pipes. If it's a utility-owned meter, you must get permission from them first.
Immediately shut off the main valve before the meter and call a plumber. A leak at the meter connection can waste a significant amount of water.
5. Apartments & Gated Communities (Sub-metering)
It's the only way to achieve fair billing. It ends the system where a small, water-conscious family subsidizes the high consumption of a larger family, which is the #1 source of conflict in many communities.
By making each resident financially accountable for their usage, overall consumption in the building typically drops by 20-40%. This reduces the demand for expensive private water tankers.
Absolutely. Most sub-metering projects have a Return on Investment (ROI) or payback period of just 1 to 3 years, after which the savings on water costs are a direct financial benefit to the community.
You need to conduct a plumbing audit. The number of meters depends on how many water inlets each flat has. It can range from one to three or more per flat. You also need meters for common areas.
The RWA's role is to build resident consensus, conduct due diligence, select a qualified technology partner, and oversee the implementation process for the benefit of the entire community.
Yes. A smart sub-metering system comes with a software platform that automatically generates bills for each flat based on their metered consumption, saving the RWA hours of manual work.
Yes. This is called retrofitting. It's a very common process where meters are installed on the existing plumbing lines. Wireless AMR technologies like LoRaWAN are perfect for retrofitting as they don't require any new wiring.
Focus on the key benefits: fairness (you only pay for what you use), transparency (you can see your own usage on an app), and long-term savings (reducing tanker costs lowers everyone's maintenance bill).
A master meter is installed to measure the total water supplied to all flats. By comparing the reading of the master meter with the sum of all the individual flat meters, you can quickly identify leaks in the common supply lines.
LoRaWAN is typically the best choice for high-rise buildings and large campuses due to its excellent signal penetration through concrete and its low power consumption.
6. Borewells & Groundwater Rules
Yes. The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and State Groundwater Departments mandate the installation of a water meter on every borewell as a condition for granting or renewing a No Objection Certificate (NOC).
You will be in violation of your NOC conditions and can be subject to heavy, recurring financial penalties (Environmental Compensation) from the authorities. In severe cases, your NOC can be revoked.
This is a serious offense. You face even heavier financial penalties, legal prosecution, and the authorities have the power to physically seal your borewell permanently.
A robust, IP68-rated Ultrasonic or Electromagnetic meter is the best choice. They have no moving parts, so they are not affected by the sand and grit common in groundwater.
A domestic meter is not designed for the high flow rates, pressure surges, and debris associated with a borewell pump. It will fail quickly and give inaccurate readings.
It is a scientific survey conducted by a certified geologist to assess groundwater conditions on your property. This report is a mandatory requirement for applying for a borewell NOC.
The WALTA (Water, Land and Trees Act) is a Telangana state law that governs the protection and conservation of water resources, including the regulations for digging borewells and rainwater harvesting.
Yes, in most designated urban and semi-critical areas, you need to get an NOC from the Groundwater Department even for a domestic borewell.
Rainwater harvesting is the practice of collecting and storing rainwater. It is often a mandatory condition of a borewell NOC that you must build a recharge pit to help replenish the groundwater you are extracting.
By tracking your daily extraction, you can understand your borewell's yield and recovery rate. This data helps you create sustainable pumping schedules to prevent the well from running dry.
7. Smart Features, Data & Software
You can get total consumption volume, real-time flow rate, historical usage patterns (daily, weekly, monthly), and alerts for events like leaks, tampering, or backflow.
Most smart metering systems come with a secure web-based dashboard for managers and a mobile app for individual users or residents to view their consumption data.
A leak alert is an automatic notification (via SMS or email) generated by the system when a meter detects a small, continuous flow of water over a long period (e.g., 24 hours), which is a clear sign of a leak.
A DSS is an intelligent software platform that doesn't just show you data, but analyzes it to provide actionable insights and alerts, helping you make smarter decisions about your water management.
Yes, advanced smart metering platforms can integrate with a BMS. This allows a facility manager to see water consumption data alongside their HVAC and electricity data on a single screen for holistic building management.
Yes, reputable smart metering providers use secure, encrypted cloud platforms (like AWS or Azure) to store and protect your data, ensuring privacy and reliability.
Yes, the software platform allows you to easily export billing data, typically in Excel or CSV format, for your accounting or records.
Yes, most providers offer a mobile app that is available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
A water balance sheet is a concept used in a professional water audit where all the incoming water (assets) is reconciled against all the outgoing water (consumption, discharge, and losses), helping to identify and reduce unaccounted-for water.
Yes, the billing platform can be configured to automatically generate and email monthly bills to all residents or tenants based on their metered usage and the pre-set tariff rates.
8. Commercial & Industrial Applications
It's the only fair way to bill diverse tenants. A food court restaurant uses vastly more water than a clothing boutique. Sub-metering ends disputes and ensures each tenant pays their actual share.
By installing sub-meters on high-consumption zones like the laundry, kitchen, and each guest floor, a hotel can pinpoint wastage, optimize processes, and detect leaks, leading to significant cost savings.
The Pollution Control Board (PCB) mandates the installation of accurate meters on the inlet and outlet of an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to monitor and report the exact volume of wastewater being treated and discharged, ensuring compliance.
A water audit is a systematic survey of a facility's entire water system to identify inefficiencies and find opportunities for conservation and cost savings. It is a crucial tool for large water consumers.
As part of its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) push, SEBI's Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework requires top listed companies to transparently disclose their water consumption, making water management a matter of investor concern.
By helping you reduce water consumption, you reduce the need for energy-intensive pumping and wastewater treatment. If you rely on tankers, reducing your water demand by 30% also reduces the carbon emissions from the diesel tanker fleet by 30%.
A company is "water positive" when it helps replenish and recharge more freshwater back into the ecosystem (through rainwater harvesting, watershed projects, etc.) than it withdraws for its operations. Accurate metering is the first step to achieving this.
Yes, there are specific models of ultrasonic meters designed to accurately measure the flow of hot water, which are essential for industries, hotels, and hospitals.
Rugged, portable water meters are used to monitor the high volume of water used in construction activities like concrete mixing and dust suppression, helping to control costs and manage resources on site.
Data centers use enormous amounts of water for their cooling towers. Precise metering is essential for optimizing cooling efficiency, which directly impacts the facility's PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and operational costs.
9. Troubleshooting Common Problems
If it's a mechanical meter, a whining or clicking noise could indicate worn-out internal parts. If it's a new noise, it's best to have it inspected by a plumber. Ultrasonic meters are silent.
This usually indicates a dead battery or an electronic failure. The meter will need to be replaced.
This can be caused by backflow or pressure issues in the plumbing. High-quality smart meters are bi-directional and will record this accurately, but it may indicate a larger plumbing problem that needs attention.
First, perform a leak test: shut off all water outlets in your home and check if the meter is still moving. If it is, you have a leak. If not, the issue could be an inaccurate mechanical meter measuring air.
This means the seal on the meter has failed, and moisture has gotten inside. This can obscure the reading and will eventually lead to the failure of the device. It needs to be replaced.
This usually means you are a higher-than-average water consumer. The sub-meter is now showing your actual, true consumption, which was previously being subsidized by your more conservative neighbours.
Generally, no. Water meters are precision, factory-sealed units. A plumber can replace a broken meter, but they cannot repair the internal mechanism.
This means there is an issue with the AMR signal between your meter and the central gateway (in a LoRaWAN system) or the cell tower (in a GSM system). The meter itself might be fine, but the communication module needs to be checked.
This is when the internal turbine of a mechanical meter gets jammed by debris or fails, causing it to stop registering flow completely, even when water is being used.
A simple way is to take a reading, fill a container of a known volume (like a 20-litre bucket) several times, and then take a final reading. The metered consumption should be very close to the total volume you filled.
10. Purchasing, Support & Our Services
You can purchase a wide range of FCRI-approved, IP68-rated ultrasonic and mechanical meters directly from specialists like us at watermeters.io.
Yes, we provide end-to-end solutions, including professional installation services for all the meters we sell, ensuring a hassle-free experience for our clients.
Our smart meters come with a manufacturer's warranty, typically ranging from 1 to 5 years depending on the model, covering any manufacturing defects.
The cost for a high-quality ultrasonic meter, including installation, typically ranges from ₹7,000 to ₹9,000, which is a long-term investment in accuracy and peace of mind.
Yes, this is our specialty. We provide complete, end-to-end sub-metering solutions for large residential communities, including hardware, LoRaWAN network setup, and billing software.
The best way is to call our apartment solutions team. We provide a free, no-obligation site survey and a detailed proposal with a customized ROI calculation for your community.
Yes, our advisory team can guide you on the regulations and metering requirements for obtaining and maintaining your borewell NOC from the Groundwater Department.
The first step is an initial consultation to understand your needs. You can call us to discuss your project, whether it's for a single home, a large industry, or an entire apartment complex.
We provide comprehensive after-sales support, including technical assistance, troubleshooting, and ongoing support for our software platforms to ensure your system runs smoothly.
For any sales, technical queries, or project consultations, you can call our expert team at 9000347979 or visit our website at https://watermeters.io to learn more.
Can't find your answer?
Our expert team is here to help. Contact us for any specific queries about your project or our products.
Contact Support