On 5/30/2011 9:13 AM, Smitty Two wrote:
In , wrote:

Yet again, I conjecture the "normal" readings are estimated and the
large ones are an annual "cactchup" to match reality when the meter is
actually physically read again.

The "level pay plans" that I've heard of and participated in do indeed
have an annual adjustment month, but they don't vary month to month
other than that.

The one the church here is on is computer-generated and isn't perfectly
level; the algorithm adjusts for factors such as weather based on a
(very) crude model that uses previous years' records for an adjustment
factor to try to preclude the catch-up from being too far out. Hence,
the monthlies aren't identical. OTOH, the residential level-pay plans
from the same utility in town don't have the adjustment; they are flat.

OP did say that a meter reader visits monthly. My guess on the four
identical months is that a meter reading error (of a magnitude
sufficient enough to trigger a red flag) was made, so they used an
average.

Well, while OP said that early on, it wasn't clear to me that that might
have been his impression as opposed to an actual observation that indeed
a real meter reader did physically read the meter each and every month.
So, I was surmising there could be a difference between actual and
what OP thought was actual.

His later posting indicates the guy actually shows up; it's still
indeterminate what he actually does since we don't have his actions on
youtube to see that he only walks in, scribbles down some random set of
numbers and leaves...


HG, to paraphrase John Lennon, "we'd all like to see the bills."

Indeed.

Still the very large outliers while others are more or less consistent
just reeks of manual correction somewhere. Or, there is a phantom load
that is in use on occasion that OP doesn't know about. It isn't meter
creep or somesuch causing that discrepancy that is so great.

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