Multifamily Utility Company Help Center

My meter read does not match my invoice

When a meter read on the meter in your apartment does not match the meter read on your bill, it is likely due to the transmitter and the meter not matching exactly. 

The transmitter is a little piece of equipment that is attached to the meter that relays the movement on the meter to the data collector, and eventually in to our billing system.  The transmitter does not read the meter, but rather counts the number of times that the meter pulses, or advances. Ideally, the transmitter would match the meter. That would be the case if both the meter and transmitter were installed brand new and the meter and the transmitter both read “0”.  However, that is rarely the case. 

Most meters go through testing before they are sold and installed, so they are not normally installed with a “0” read.  However, a transmitter does get installed at “0” many times, so even though the meter is installed on its first day with a read of 100 (100 gallons went through it already at some point), the transmitter is going to read “0”. It will also happen that a transmitter will reset itself and start back at “0” at points during its life. This reset will happen usually when the battery is changed. In that case, a meter that was installed years ago might read 100000 gallons on its face, but the transmitter will read “0” to us on the day it resets. All of this is okay, and does not mean there are errors. 

Here is why: The meter face is showing us the amount of water (or gas, or electric) that has passed through it since it was “born”, the transmitter on the other hand is telling us how much water (or gas, or electric) was used since it was last reset. The best way to explain this is that the meter is your car’s main odometer – the main odometer is going to tell you how many miles your car has gone since it’s been born – it never will reset, it will always keep advancing until it is no longer driven.  The transmitter is your car’s trip odometer – this is the one that you can reset at any time to see how far you are driving for a selected period of time.  Both the main odometer and the trip odometer have different numbers and both numbers are correct.

Example: June 1 your main odometer reads 150000 miles even.   You reset your trip odometer to “0” on that same day.  You drive your car for a week and check both numbers again.  The main odometer reads 150250, the trip odometer reads 250.  You drove 250 miles. Same is true with a utility meter and transmitter. June 1 the face of the meter reads 150000 gallons.  The read we have in our meter reading system on June 1 from the transmitter is 5000.  On June 30 the meter face reads 151000 gallons and the transmitter reads 6000.  Both are telling us that 1000 gallons was used between June 1 and June 30.

Here is a picture of a typical water meter with the transmitter attached (white box):

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