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I also run Not Advancing reports about once a month to see if' meters have stopped working. <br />This is mostly for the large meters that can get rocks or other debris lodged in them and stop <br />working. They continue to transmit readings but the readings do not advance since the inside of <br />the meter has stopped. We have found a few stopped meters over the course of the 16 months <br />and had them repaired. <br />A No Read report tells us if a meter hasn't transmitted a reading in more than 24 hours. This <br />tells us if a radio has stopped working or if it is in a bad part of a building and cannot transmit a <br />reading. <br />Meter Accuracy <br />The issue of meter accuracy is important in utility billing as both water and sewer billings <br />depend on the accuracy of the meters. A city aspires to bill for all of the water that is used in its <br />system in a given quarter. There is always going to be some loss due to water main breaks, <br />unauthorized hydrant usage, slow leaks under the ground, and /or other issues. Ideally a city is <br />able to account for all but 10% — 12% of its water used each quarter. The Utility Bill clerk <br />compiles a water usage report after each quarter to see how the City is doing on unaccounted <br />water. Below is a table showing unaccounted water each quarter from 2008 through the first <br />quarter of 2013. <br />Accounting for water is far from an exact science so you tend to see numbers all over the board. <br />However, if you look at it in a more general way you can see that 2012 and the first quarter of <br />2013 are consistently lower than the previous years with the old meters. While it can't be <br />entirely explained by the new meters it appears to be having a positive effect on our unaccounted <br />for water. <br />In looking at large meters (2 " -6 "), it is clear that we are billing more gallons than we were with <br />the old meters. I have attached a spreadsheet that shows the number of gallons billed per meter <br />in the first quarter of 2011 and the number of gallons billed per meter in the first quarter of 2013. <br />There are a few large jumps that 1 believe can be entirely explained by the new meters. The best <br />example is the 6" meter at the North Star Mobile Horne Park. The old meter was a 1977 model <br />and wasn't a compound meter. The old meters have proven to be not as good at picking up low <br />flows so there was likely a lot of water flowing through unmetered because the meter wasn't <br />built to pick them up like the new meters can. The new meter is a compound meter, which <br />measures low flows in a different chamber than high flows to get more accurate readings on both <br />ends. There is a significant difference in what we are billing now compared to what we were <br />billing with the old meter. In the ease of the first quarter the difference was 2.5 million gallons. <br />3 <br />First Quarter <br />Second Quarter <br />Third Quarter <br />Fourth Quarter <br />2008 <br />13% <br />16% <br />9% <br />4% <br />2009 <br />12% <br />17% <br />6% <br />0% <br />2010 <br />6% <br />8% <br />4% <br />14% <br />2011 <br />12% <br />3% <br />4% <br />0% <br />2012 <br />0% <br />2% <br />3% <br />4% <br />2013 <br />3% <br />NA <br />NA <br />NA <br />Accounting for water is far from an exact science so you tend to see numbers all over the board. <br />However, if you look at it in a more general way you can see that 2012 and the first quarter of <br />2013 are consistently lower than the previous years with the old meters. While it can't be <br />entirely explained by the new meters it appears to be having a positive effect on our unaccounted <br />for water. <br />In looking at large meters (2 " -6 "), it is clear that we are billing more gallons than we were with <br />the old meters. I have attached a spreadsheet that shows the number of gallons billed per meter <br />in the first quarter of 2011 and the number of gallons billed per meter in the first quarter of 2013. <br />There are a few large jumps that 1 believe can be entirely explained by the new meters. The best <br />example is the 6" meter at the North Star Mobile Horne Park. The old meter was a 1977 model <br />and wasn't a compound meter. The old meters have proven to be not as good at picking up low <br />flows so there was likely a lot of water flowing through unmetered because the meter wasn't <br />built to pick them up like the new meters can. The new meter is a compound meter, which <br />measures low flows in a different chamber than high flows to get more accurate readings on both <br />ends. There is a significant difference in what we are billing now compared to what we were <br />billing with the old meter. In the ease of the first quarter the difference was 2.5 million gallons. <br />3 <br />