Plant Meter Readings

Plant Meter readings can be entered from:

• the Meters button on Plant Management
• Meter Reading Maintenance of the Plant Transactions menu
• The Meter Reading button on Plant Service Orders Maintenance

When opening the Meter Reading for a selected Plant Item, the selection will default to that Plant Item and its Default Meter (if meters are set up against a Plant Item one of the meters must be the default)

Meter reading dates: when entering a new reading, the date defaults to today's date, but will typically be changed to the date that the reading was recorded. You will be prompted to change the default date as it will be unusual to be entering a reading on the same day as it was recorded.

• Future dates are not allowed.
• There can only be one reading per date

Checking Meter Readings for reasonableness:
If the entered meter reading is less than the previous entered reading, there may be 3 reasons:

• a wrongly recorded or entered reading
• the meter has 'clocked'
• the meter has been changed for a new meter.

A warning of this is provided as, below, with 3 actions possible

• Wrongly Recorded or Entered Reading: where the entered reading is less than the previous reading, selecting this option will leave the reading recorded, but will ignore it in the calculation of the Assumed Daily Rate. The Cumulative Meter reading will be unchanged.

• Clocked Meters: the term 'Clocked' refers to a meter going past it's maximum reading and 'clocking' back to a zero reading. This obviously affects cumulative calculations, and must be taken into account.

The value at which the meter will clock is recorded on the Plant Item Meter setup for each meter. Where the entered reading is less than the previous reading, choosing the 'clocked' option will automatically calculate the value since the previous reading using the calculation:
Meter Increment = (clocked value – previous meter reading) + current reading
This value adds to the Cumulative Meter reading
The Clocked Value is recorded in 'Clock Max Reading for this meter reading entry at the bottom of the screen

• Meter Changeout: where a meter has been changed through damage, the first reading off the meter will bear no relation to the previous meter reading. There can therefore be no automatic calculation of the meter increment since the previous reading. In this case selecting the 'meter changeout' option removes this reading from Assumed Daily Rate and Cumulative Meter calculations.
  The meter increment is assumed to be the Assumed Daily Rate, and the Cumulative Meter value is incremented by Assumed Daily Rate x No of Days since the previous reading. If this is incorrect, the Meter Cumulative Life to Date value should be manually edited on the Plant Meters tab for that meter.