With the development of science and technology and the continuous progress of society, the traditional water industry has been influenced by the strong momentum of the Internet of Things, coupled with its own many difficult and painful issues. In the process of smart transformation, the water industry has attracted attention from multiple parties. Among them, IoT water meters, as the sensing end of smart water management, are becoming increasingly widely used in smart meter reading by water companies.

On November 7, the owner of Mount Taishan Garden (Telecom Community) in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province found that there was no need for manual meter reading at home after inquiring about the water use. It is reported that this community is located in Zhuzhou City and is equipped with IoT remote water meters.

Compared to traditional water meters, IoT remote water meters use narrowband IoT technology, which enables remote data transmission without the need for manual meter reading, reducing errors in manual meter reading and improving data accuracy. In addition, IoT water meters have a high collection frequency and can reflect the real-time water usage situation in users' homes.

With the development of Internet of Things technology and water meter technology, as well as the vigorous implementation of smart city construction, more and more water meter companies are beginning to participate in the construction of smart water management. At present, China's smart water meter industry is developing rapidly, and the new generation of IoT and NB IoT smart water meters will achieve mass production to meet market demand.

In April 2017, the first batch of 400 NB IoT optoelectronic IoT water meters from Mikawa Smart went out of the production line. In the next 2 years, Mikawa Smart will invest 150-200 million yuan to build a fully intelligent robot factory with an annual output of 3 million NB IoT smart water meters.

With the resolute attitude of the country and various provinces and cities towards actively adjusting the energy consumption structure, vigorously promoting clean energy, improving and enhancing environmental quality, and the successive introduction of policies such as "one household, one meter", "tiered billing", and "coal to gas", intelligent meter reading applications will usher in a broader development space, and the market size of IoT water meters will steadily increase.

The Outline of the 13th Five Year Plan for the Development of China's Water Meter Industry points out that during the 13th Five Year Plan period, the sales revenue of intelligent water meters (including intelligent application systems) should account for 40% of all water meter sales. With the improvement of policies, the market size of smart water meters will steadily increase, with an expected growth rate of 28%. By 2020, the penetration rate of smart water meters will approach 45%, with an annual shipment volume of 45 million units.