When Meter Adapters Meet Meter Standardization

When Meter Adapters Meet Meter Standardization

Do you remember, just a decade ago, when every cell phone type seemed to have its own charger to go with it? Many people couldn’t share chargers and a new one was required with the purchase of a new phone. Gas utilities have to deal with the same concept when it comes to switching out meters and matching meter connection sizes. However, the use of meter adapters makes the concept of gas meter standardization not just a reality, but also the most practical solution.

When standardizing to a specific meter connection size, new construction is easy as it allows freedom of installing the meter with a new meter set that has correct meter connection size. However, it’s a whole different story when working with existing meter sets in your system. You are then faced with the challenges of working with meter sets that have swivel connections that are different from the meter connection size that you are moving forward with.

When considering the number of meter connection options available on the same meter class size, you can just imagine that, over time, some utilities find themselves warehousing multiple meter connection sizes. In order to minimize the need to keep inventory of multiple versions of the same size meter, meter adapters are available to convert a meter from one connection size to another, allowing you to utilize the existing meter set. Therefore, utilities find value, savings, and convenience if they are able to standardize their buying and warehousing of only one meter connection size. See the chart to the left for A.Y. McDonald’s current conversion options and below for an example scenario that introduces the application of our meter adapters.

Scenario:
Your system has Class 250 meters where both 1A and 10LT meter connections exist. For new construction as well as meter replacement projects, your utility makes the decision to go to all 10LT meter installations. New construction is easy as you will be installing a new meter set designed for 10LT meter connections. As you replace 1A meters, you will need to update the swivel connections on your meter set to accommodate the new 10LT meter connections which may be costly, time consuming, and, in some scenarios, lead to a full meter set replacement and retrofitting.

Solution:
With the use of meter adapters, you would simply install the adapters onto your 10LT meter that would convert the meter to be able to connect to 1A meter set. This solution leads to an easy installation, cost savings by using the existing meter set, and potential price breaks or savings by purchasing a larger quantity of one size meter.

The concept of standardizing can be viewed as an overwhelming task. However, with the use of meter adapters, it is definitely a conversation any gas utility should have. If the mobile phone industry managed to standardize phone chargers to Droid and iPhones back in 2011, the gas industry can manage to find the most efficient solution to meter standardization – and that’s meter adapters.