Some householders having trouble reading water meters

Some water meters installed in parts of south Dublin are proving difficult to read for householders.

Information from Irish Water depicts meters showing a clear series of numbers, five against a black background, and the last three against a red background.

However a number of residents in south Dublin have discovered they are unable to see all or part of the last three rows of red numerals.

The last three rows represent the units, tens and hundreds of litres of water consumed by the household.

In Beaufort Downs in Rathfarnham in south County Dublin residents have discovered that part of the meter housing obscures all or part of the last three digits.

Householders said the difficulty means they can only view their water consumption in thousands of litres.

They said they can not easily judge for example the consumption of a dishwasher, or an individual bath or shower - or even to accurately access if they have a leak on their property.

"I listened to [former minister for environment ]Phil Hogan say that if a householder had a leak all they would have to do is take a reading of the meter at night and go to bed. In the morning another reading would tell if there was a leak. But my meter is only clearly showing five black numbers, meaning a leak would have to show more then 999 litres overnight before we would be able to detect it," he said.

“My neighbours meter is the same - the housing is obscuring the red digits,” he said.

Careful examination of the meter revealed a plastic lid, which when flipped up revealed most of the first red numeral, but not the tens or units. However Mr Sullivan said this was still not adequate as only part of the first red digit was visible.

“I am as against paying for something which falls free from the sky as the next man, but if I have to I will. However if it is not visible and I can’t monitor my usage, or check the figures, then I am not at all happy,” he said.

Irish Water said it was installing two types of meters, both of which were widely used internationally.

It said: “On one type of meter being installed, one of the red dials is slightly obscured by the AMR unit.”

The AMR - or automatic meter reader - is the part of the meter which sends a data signal that can be read from a passing van.

But the utility said it was still possible to get an accurate reading from the meter, by considering the black digits.

“The black dials record cubic meters. One cubic meter is equivalent to 1,000 litres and the red dials (from left to right) record hundreds [OF]litres, tens of litres and litres. On one type of meter being installed, one of the red dials is slightly obscured by the AMR unit. However, the information captured is identical in both cases.

“By reading the cubic meter reading, your reader will get an accurate reading of his water consumption,” Irish Water said.

Irish Water said the meters “comply with all the required standard including the EU Measuring Instruments Directive (EU MID 2004/22/EC)”.