National Grid - wireless gas meter reading?
How can I physically determine if my National Grid gas meter is set up for wireless meter reading? Does anyone know what to look for? Also, if we do have one, how do they read it – inside the house, outside the house, or just driving by? Here’s the story: About a year ago I…
How can I physically determine if my National Grid gas meter is set up for wireless meter reading? Does anyone know what to look for? Also, if we do have one, how do they read it – inside the house, outside the house, or just driving by?
Here’s the story: About a year ago I took over handling the gas meter readings in our Brooklyn two-family home. (The family member who had handled it for decades was no longer able to.) No one’s around during the days/times National Grid is supposed to come around to take the reading, so the readings on our bills have either been ‘customer’ (where we phone it in) or ‘estimated’ (when we didn’t get around to phoning it in.)
Suddenly we received a bill with an ‘actual’ reading that was way the hell off. National Grid to their credit corrected the error, but the customer service rep said their must be a problem with our wireless gas meter (either it needs calibration or the battery died.) She insisted their records showed we had one.
The number of times I looked at the meter I didn’t see any plastic boxes or wires coming off it. Just an old-school Rockwell International gas meter with mechanical numeric readout.
I had remotely read con ed meters installed last year. They told me they weren’t installing them in my area yet but essentially did it to shut me up because their meter reader was never ringing my bell because he didn’t want to walk up the stoop (he actually told me that), I wasn’t able to navigate the steps to the cellar, I was getting crazy bills and I filed a complaint about it all with the PSC.
Someone told me there are remote readers for electric but they’re costly to install. My gas reader was done gratis.
OP: Frankly, it strikes me as Kafkaesque to celebrate what you don’t have, and the need to call in meter readings.
Bkrules2: Con Ed does not yet have AMRs. I posted this link previously for National Grid AMRs: http://bit.ly/gaESxg
If the link doesn’t open to Brooklyn info, you’ll have to scroll through the pull-down menus to reach the page. Alternatively, call NG at 718-643-4050.
How can you get national grid to install these for gas and coned to install one of these for electric? We have the same problem, nobody’s around when they come to read the meter, and it’s a huge pain to have these estimated bills that I have no idea whether they’re correct or not.
As bobjohn said: the reading device is embedded into the meter. you won’t see any wires or anything. they read it driving by. battery might be dead. you can forget about it and keep submitting readings manually or set up an appointment and have the battery replaced… and not have to take readings again!
Cheers to everyone for their replies! I double-checked the meters last night and, based on that and views of ‘automated meter reading’ devices online, these meters are definitely not AMR meters. They’re Rockwell Int’l RT-200 diaphragm gas meters, much like the type shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gas_meter.JPG
Hopefully the situation in my OP was a one-off and I won’t be forced into the Kafka- Monty Python- Brazil-esque situation of having Nat’l Grid to come out to “fix the AMR meter” just to prove I don’t actually have one.
I have the same as Vinca & the reading is done as a drive by.
On our house, in addition to whatever devices are attached to the meters in the cellar, you’ll also see a taupe or gray box with white writing attached to the facade of the building. Without going downstairs to measure, I’d guesstimate the dimensions at approx. 5x7x1-1/2.
wireless reading device is imbeded into the transparent plastic box with the four digit readout. It looks pretty much as the readout without wireless device. The only difference is the wireless a bit taller. I do not think that you can spot the difference.
If there is discrepancy between bill and actual usage – compare the meter reading on the bill v. what the actual meter shows.