Home » Departments » Customer & Utility Services » General Information » How Meters Are Read

Reading Water Meters is Easy, Right? Reading a water meter looks pretty easy. You could probably read your water meter in just a few minutes. But how about over 80,000 water meters?! All 80,000 plus water meters in Plano are read every month. The city is divided into 20 geographic cycles for meter reading purposes. Your water meter is read about the same date each month for billing give or take a day or two, depending on weekends and holidays. If something is blocking access to the water meter box, repeat visits are made to obtain a meter reading or the customer is contacted prior to billing. Meters are normally read between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (Saturday occasionally). They are identified by a shirt with the City logo on it. How Do They Collect All Those Meter Readings? For over 20 years now, the meter readers have used hand-held computers to capture meter readings. When the meter reader enters the reading, the computer quickly calculates the amount of water used and compares it with water usage for the previous month. If the current water usage exceeds the previous water usage by more than expected, the computer alerts the meter reader, who must then re-read the meter and re-enter the meter reading. This is this first audit of the meter reading. In 2001, the City began installing transponders on water meters that "read" the water meter and transfer the reading electronically to a laptop computer in a passing vehicle. What Does a Meter Reading Look Like? The City uses several brands of water meters. All have a meter register that looks very much like the odometer in your car, and have six or seven digits to read. The meter readings are read in tens, hundreds or thousands of gallons. The billing system is programmed to take these meter readings and calculate the correct water usage in thousands of gallons.