IL43983A - Metering apparatus - Google Patents

Description

π * ' i Ώ 1 ρ η η METERING APPARATUS Inventors: Zacharia Drucker Giora Rosenhouse Leo Schaudinis hky The invention relates to a method of automatically gathering information regarding consumption of public commodities such as gas, water, heat or electricity in large apartment houses or widely spread settlements, and of processing this information with a view to prepare invoices, statistics, total consumption and the like.

Consumption of these commodities in apartment houses or settlements is measured by suitable meters which are either concentrated on one or more floors or are individually placed next to the flat or dwelling to be supplied. If we refer to water - or gasmeters, these are usually concentrated on the ground floor near the main meter, and long steel or copper pipes are laid to the respective flats through special pipe ducts. This arrangement is suitable for buildings of about four stories, however in larger and higher buildings with 50 or more tenants this system becomes uneconomic, not only because of the expense incurred by the laying of hundreds of meters of pipes, but also by the floor area wasted for the pipe ducts. In addition gas pressure on the higher floors would be inadequate, since the gas is expanded to low pressure before being metered and fed into the pipes. This drawback can be avoided by providing concentration points on several floors from which piping runs to the flats on adjoining floors above and below.

This alleviates the difficulty somewhat, however there are still unnecessary lengths of pipes, and reading the meters requires the meter reader to visit several floors in the building.

The second method of having large-diameter mains provided with branches on every floor and with meters installed at the entrance of each flat, definitely saves space and pipes; however, it obliges the meter reader to visit each floor and to take the reading of each meter individually.

In view of the scarcity of skilled personnel and their high wages on the one hand, and of the difficulty of laying individual tubes to each flat, on the other hand, it is the aim of the present invention to provide means for transferring the individual meter readings from a large number of flats or dwellings to a central point and to record these readings photographically for future processing.

This method, according to the invention consists in electrically transmitting the electric pulses produced by a rotating or oscillating member of a fluid or electric quantity meter to an electric or electronic pulse counter;?, spatially separated from the meter. All counters receiving the pulses from meters in one building or one settlemennt are concentrated in preferably rectangular configuration on a solid board or the like, which latter is provided with means for attaching a photographid camera in front of the counters and with illuminating means for lightings up the counters during photographing the whole or part of the counter readings.

The picture of the plurality of counters is preferably processed by a computer which is programmed to issue invoices, to calculate the total consumption, to prepare statistics and the like* In a preferred embodiment of the invention the transmission of pulses is by direct current generated by a low-voltage rechargeable battery.

In the accompanying drawings which show, by way of example, one embodiment of the invention applied to the measurement of a liquid medium, Figure 1 shows a schematic arrangement of a water meter, a counter and the transmission of information from the meter to the counter, Figure 2 is a cross section through a box containing a plurality of counters, electric equipment and a device for photographic recording of the readings.

Referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, a rotational water meter A consists of a cylindrical casing 1 which contains a turbo runner 2 freely rotating in two bearings 3 and 3'. Its rate of rotation is proportional to the mean velocity of the water passing through the casing and therefore proportional to the quantity of water Its rotary movement is transmitted to the outside by a worm gear 4 the vertical shaft 5 of which passes through a shaft seal 6 in the casing, and which possesses a cam wheel 7 rigidly fastened to its upper end. The radially protruding cam 8 of the wheel closes an electric circuit at every rotation by shifting a resilient contact 9 of the switch 10. This actuates a decimal counter 11 by means of a gate circuit 12 which is fed a direct current from a rechargeable battery 13. The battery is adapted to supply direct current to all counters arranged on a common board and is recharged from a town A.C. supply through a trickle charger of known design. The counter has on its right side a plate 26 showing the location of the meter, and a reset lever 27 which may be used to reset the counter to "0" after photographing of the board.

Figure 2 shows the arrangement of a plurality of counters 11 on a rectangular board 15, including a battery 13 and a trickle charger 14. The above equipment is enclosed in a box 16 which has an open front wall 17 and a passage 18 for all cables 20 arriving from the meters as well as a cable 19 from the town supply. To the front of the open front wall a trapezoidal box 21 is attached which has a hole 22 in its narrow end wall 24 for penetration of a camera lens opposite the counters.

One or more light bulbs 25 are arranged opposite and along the counters for lighting them during the photographic exposure.

In the foregoing the invention has been shown in its application to a water meter, but any other metering device may similarly be adapted for transmission of readings to a central information points. The meters suitable for this purpose may be volumetric gas or liquid meters, for gas or water supply, for measuring circulating water for central heating installations, or they may comprise electric energy meters.

The counters are preferably of the electronic decimal counter type since these are of very compact build and will take up a very small face on the board. However, any other type of electric counters may be employed, such as for instance rotary disc counters as used in electric meters.

The arrangement for placing a camera is not necessarily in the shape of a trapezoidal box, but may consist of a steel frame in front of the board, as long as it is steady enough to hold the camera in its position during exposure* The lamp bulbs shown in the drawing may be omitted and be replaced by a photographic flash attached to the camera.

On the other hand, in cases where the digitals of the counter are luminescent as in electronic calculators or counters, no outside illumination will be provided, the camera and the camera holder will be sealed against penetration of light from the outside and, by using a high-sensitive film, the exposure time can be held within permissible limits.

All reset levers of the several counters may be inter-connected by a bar or the like for resetting all counters simultaneously by one movement.

The aforedescribed arrangement is advantageous from several aspects:- It allows the taking of all readings simultaneously by one person, at one point of a building complex. The resulting photoprint can be fed to a suitably programmed computer for all required operations such as writing of invoices, calculating net load, providing records for statistics and the like. An instantaneous photographic camera giving a prin of the picture taken within a few seconds is very suitable, as it enables the official to check if it shows all readings clearly. He may then reset all counters to zero, facilitating the computer calculations for the following period, and permitting each consumer to check his consumption without the need to subtract the previous reading.

The only connection between the consumption meter at each dwelling or flat and the counter is by means of low-voltage wires which take up a minimum of space in contradistinction to water or gas tubes to be carried in voluminous conduits. This is relevant since it not only results in saving of piping and the space necessary for it, but minimizes pressure losses owing to internal friction which is practically non-existing with large diameter mains serving all floors.

With regard to electric supply it would be possible to concentrate all meters on one floor and to distribute the current to all flats by wires, however great saving can be accomplished by the present method, replacing the lines calculated to carry the current load, by thin wires designed to carry low-voltage pulses only.

In the foregoing, pulses were shown to be produced by mechanical means, i.e. by closing of an electric current, however any other known way, such as electric or magnetic inductio may be utilized to create pulses at every revolution or oscilation of a movable member of the quantity-measuring device. It is superfluous to point out that, as in any other mechanical or electrical measuring and recording apparatus, the transmission is adjusted to give an exact record of the quantity that has passed therethrough between consecutive readings.

Other alterations and modi ications may be carried out to the equipment described and shown in connection with this recording method, by a person skilled in the art without, however deviating from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended Claims.

Claims (1)

1. 43983/2 C L A I M S:- 1 · A device for simultaneously recording the readings of quantity-recording apparatus such as gas, water or electricity meters of the type adapted to produce electric pulses by the rotation or oscillation of a member driven by the medium flowing through the quantity-recording apparatus, each such apparatus being installed in proximity of the consumer's dwelling, the device being installed in a locality spatially separated from the recording apparatus and comprising a plurality of electric or electronic counters, equivalent to the number of quantity-recording apparatus installed, arranged with their faces lying substantially in the same plane in preferably compact disposition ; means for eloetrically connecting each of the quantity recording means to a corresponding counter of the device a photographic camera positioned in front of, and opposed the plurality of counters, at a distance suitable for taking a simultaneous picture of all counter readings. 2· A device as defined in claim 1 wherein illuminating means are provided for lighting the face of the counters during their photographic exposure* 3· A device as defined in Claim 1 wherein the figures appearing on the face of each counter are self-illuminating. 43983/2 A device as defined in Claim 1 wherein the photographed records of the counter readings are fed to a suitably programmed computer for the purpose of producing records, such as invoices, statistics and the like. 5. A device as defined in Claim 1 wherein each counter is provided with a reset mechanism. 6. A device as defined in Claim 5 wherein the re-set mechanisms of all counters are mechanically connected for simultaneous re-setting to zero-reading. n A device as defined in Claim 1 wherein the transmission of pulses between the measuring apparatus and the counters is by direct current generated by a low- voltage re-chargeable battery. A device as 61aim 7 wherein direct current is supplied to all measuring apparatus and counters serving one building complex from one battery adapted to be re-charged through a trickle charger* A device for simultaneously recording the readings of a plurality of quantity recording apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Development Foundation Ltd.