A Study on Frost Protection Methods for Water Meter in Seoul Area

서울지역의 수도계량기 동파방지방안 연구

Water meter frost in winter is a nuisance to the water administration and citizen as well. It causes stop of water supply, possibility of accident due to leakage freezing, and additional official work to change frost water meters. This study was carried out to give some basic information of water meter frost condition, to verify the effect of frost protection devices such as lagging vinyl cover, electric heater, and meter pit using subterranean heat. Nearly half of the number of the water meter frost happens in old apartment house with outer corridor, and temperature of the meter box was measured in that kind of apartment house, comparing with atmosphere temperature. The capability of three kinds of lagging vinyl cover was investigated by measuring the inside temperature of the insulated box. Also the capability of existing meter pits and new meter pits using subterranean heat was compared by measuring the inside temperature of the pits. One of the result is that the inside temperature of meter pits using subterranean heat was higher than that of the existing ones, and deeper pit causes higher inside temperature in case of using subterranean heat.