When doing what my sister does and googling the “best apps” for meter reading (something I think is a painful waste of time) I found that the apps are best serving us when you have one that is specific to the supplier that you are affiliated with. This makes sense in terms of smoothing the process of bill paying, but if you are looking for something that will simply tell you how to read your meter (regardless of who’s powering it) then I have listed the top three of each IOS and Android so you don’t have to bother.
IOS
Description:
Apple’s iPad APP OF THE WEEK (UK and Ireland), March 2011
AppStore Rewind 2011, one of Apple’s favourite iPhone finance apps of 2011 (UK and Ireland)
Closely monitor your household energy and water usage and the chances are you will SAVE MONEY!
This useful application makes it easy to monitor your household utility meters. Once you start entering readings, your usage, costs and savings are calculated and displayed in easy to visualise graphs.
KEY FEATURES
– Monitor up to NINE separate meters, e.g. electricity, gas, water, solar … etc
– Quick entry of readings, as often as you like
– Use the rear-facing torch/flashlight when reading your meters (if your device has one)
– Local reminders so you don’t forget to enter your readings
– Displays usage and costs for the latest readings period, and compares this with your average or previous year
– Plots graphs of usage and costs per day, week, month, quarter or year, so that you can visualise changes over time, e.g. against the previous year
– Multiple colour themes (black, red, blue, green … etc)
– Import historical readings from a CSV file
– Backup your data and sync it between devices by email, AirDrop, Dropbox or iCloud
– Export your readings as a CSV file for easy import into a spreadsheet
– Universal app, works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
METERS, CURRENCY AND RATES
– User configurable units, so the app could be used for other types of measurement
– Support for meters that count up (e.g. electricity, gas, water … etc), down (e.g. oil), or where your readings ARE your usage (e.g. broadband data, rainfall, height, weight, temperature … etc)
– Uses the currency from your device’s region setting, but you can override this per meter (e.g. for holiday homes)
– Handles a wide range of rates and charges, e.g. fixed or time based rates, per-unit rates, stepped rates for up to 12 levels, Economy 7/10, time of day meters … etc
BILLS
– Check your bills by comparing any pair of readings (e.g. those submitted to your supplier)
– View your usage and costs since your last bill, as well as an estimate of when and how much your next bill will be
POWER USER FEATURES (via a ONE-TIME in-app purchase)
– Support for rate changes, if/when you switch supplier or they change your rates
– Support for replacement meters, e.g. if your readings are reset
– Automatic backups
PRO USER FEATURES (via a ONE-TIME in-app purchase)
– Removes the restriction on meter numbers, e.g. for landlords, businesses and professionals
SUPPORT
Please use the link to my support page from the AppStore page or from the app itself (or simply go to http://grahamhaley.co.uk/meters/.
Alternatively, contact me directly via my support pages and you will get a quick response.
Rating: 4.7
On IOS people seem to take more time to review. There is more of a review “culture” within apple. The top review (five stars!) reads:
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Meter Reading to Save Money
Meter reading or lack thereof can be very expensive. You could possibly save money by downloading this incredible app.
I have owned this app for over 9 years (since Jan 2010). This app is excellent. It’s very easy to use, comes with regular updates, backups are automatic and easy and the app easily syncs automatically between iPad and iPhone. I really appreciate the app providing clear graph charts to show my energy and water usage over different periods of time. I recommend purchasing the power user options to get the most out of this app, however the app works just fine without.
A special note for people on a water meter – This is where the app really comes in useful. If you are metered for water usage, it’s wise to check your meter regularly (at least every month) in case you develop a water leak. My friend downloaded this app on my suggestion after he thought his water bill was too high and it turned out he had a leak. He was spending an extra £30 a month on the water than he needed due to a leak. Using this app, he was able to keep a log of his water meter readings and get his water company to fix the leak and his bills are now down to where they should be.
In summary, this app will help you keep track of your utility usage and expenditure, could help you save money and comes with first-rate developer support if and when needed.”
This seems to be an advertisement for the app. But the one straight after says that the app is in need of a redesign as the current formatting is too complicated. If someone is getting an app to help them understand how to do a meter reading, they are probably already very confused and in need of help. Therefore, having a complicated app is the opposite of what the consumer is looking for at this moment.
Description:
With Energy Tracker, you can easily add, manage and evaluate meter readings. You can simply record your consumption of electricity, water, gas and heat.
Use the smart CSV import function for fast setup !!
How to add older meter readings is described in detail in the FAQ (general settings)!
Does your consumption increase or decrease? The app gives you the answer!
• No annoying advertising
• E-Mail Support (German / English)
• Easy to use
• iCloud & backup function
> Protect yourself against data loss
> Automatic Backup (Local & Cloud)
• CSV import function
> Recognition of date and meter readings
> Recognition of environmental data & descriptions
> Demo CSV available on the website
• Intelligent scanning – function for new meter readings
> Meter readings with the camera recognize (OCR)
• Reminder function
• New meter? – no problem!
> Supports meter exchange and much more
• Add older meter readings? – no problem!
> Possible via manual input
> Can also be implemented by using CSV import
• Combine meters in groups
• Virtual measuring device
> For high and low tariffs
> Ideal for converting m³ in kWh (gas meter)
> Determine fuel consumption (for example, from km to liter)
> Add any number of consumption factors
> Combined measuring devices (e.g., cold & hot water)
• Investigating your saving potential
> Where can you save money? – EnergyTracker knows it!
• Evaluate your consumption directly in the app
> Graphical analysis of:
• Continuous consumption
• Consumption per hour / day / week
• Consumption per month / quarter / year
• Change per week / month / quarter / year
• Trend of hours (00:00 – 23:59)
• Trend of days (Mon. – Sun.)
• Trend of months (Jan. – Dec.)
• Month comparison
• 3 – year – comparison
• Savings potential
• Current billing period
• Continuous costs
• Costs per day / week / month / quarter / year
> Rearrange, hide & rename charts
> Charts are available as full screen & exportable
> Set the interval of the evaluation
• Export your measurements with analysis as PDF or CSV file
• Style function
> Even more colors and icons available
> Individually set / import colors of the meter
• Calculate your billing period
> Easily create their own contracts!
> Repayment or additional payment?
> How much should the new monthly advance payment be?
• Write a note to each measured value
• Share this with your friends!
• Password protection
• Help / Tutorial / FAQ available
+ Support further development
Users can support the developer via InApp purchase/subscription (see general settings / Support further development). The following subscriptions are offered: Package: XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL and XXL. The subscriptions have a period of one month and charge your iTunes account after confirmation of purchase. Note that the subscription is automatically renewed if automatic renewal is not deactivated at least 24 hours before expiration. If renewed, your iTunes account will be charged within 24 hours before the end of the current period. In the account settings subscriptions can be managed by the user. Among other things, automatic renewal can be deactivated here. Energy Tracker does not offer free subscriptions.
• Social networks
> https://www.facebook.com/EnergyTrackeriOS
• Privacy Policy & Terms of Use
> https://energy-tracker.best-ios-apps.de/#bottom-d
• Website / Contact
> https://energy-tracker.best-ios-apps.de
• PS:
If you have any questions or requests feel free to contact the support. Please check beforehand, if your questions can already be solved with FAQ / Video Tutorial.
Every comment helps to improve Energy Tracker.
enjoy ..
Rating: 4.5
This app is not rated as highly as the previous one but it seems that is has an audience who is very grateful and respectful of it. The top five star review says:
“Superb App
This is a superb app, it is possible to use for free or you can support developers with paid options. It does way more than I need, there are a few things I would change and it has a means to email the Developer with suggestions.
You can put in your contract with your supplier, with rates they charge and the date from when they took over your supply.
Then you just enter readings, a job that is facilitated with rocker wheel sliders and it remembers your last reading, so you just change it a bit. You can add a note with the reading too, helpful when you want to record something like “left oven on overnight” or similar.
I like the ability to compare your usage for each month of year with previous years. This helps me focus on reducing my energy usage.
This app helped me realise that when I put my Gas Central Heating on my Fridge uses more electricity.
There are a huge amount of graphs and it predicts what your cost will be.
It is not often you come across a developer who seems to really care and wants to make Energy Tracker the best it can be.
A big THANK YOU to developer, keep doing what you are doing and I will email you a few things to add or improve.
Developer Response,
Thank you for the perfect description of your experience with Energy Tracker. It’s good to hear that Energy Tracker fulfils your wishes. Have fun and write me if you have any questions. Cheers ✌️”
Its nice that the supplier takes the time to respond to their reviews, although in my opinion there is not a lot of humility in the response. Not that that has any infringement on the app.
Meter Record – a data recording application for meter readings!
Developed to record data collected from flow meters, Meter Record aims to streamline the recording and reporting process.
Reduce the amount of paperwork in the field!
Record
Record project, meter details and meter readings – including instantaneous and cumulative values.
Save
Data are saved in a database, so the data persist even if the app is closed.
Review
Check data using clearly laid out views.
Amend
Found a typo? No problem, amend records before you distribute them.
Send
Export data in comma delineated text (CSV) format via e-mail ready for use in spreadsheet software.
Rating:
This app doesn’t have a rating or description. Suspicious?
Android
Description:
Control your expenses and avoid waste by reading your meters with this app.
Thereby, you will always be aware of your consumption and your daily average. You will also be noticed in case of abnormal consumption, thus detecting possible leaks.
This application also allows to:
– manage several meters and group of meters
– scan a barcode or a serial number to identify a meter using the camera’s device
– view weekly, monthly or yearly total and average consumption
– make online backups
– export to excel
– import data from excel
Rating: 4.3
According to the comments, it is impossible to add multiple meter readings in one day which some find frustrating. Additionally, some troubleshooting is required, although that could be said for any app and is possibly impossible to avoid.
Description:
Meter Reading is an application that can automatically read numbers of household utilities (gas mechanical, gas digital and water meters) considering only the integer part of the number, thus ignoring the floating part typically the red one. Our algorithm can read meters ranging from mechanical gas meters, water meters and even digital gas meters. The algorithm, to have high performance, employs specific high-end hardware based on graphical computation (GPU processing). Using our App is very simple: take a photo containing a meter and send it to the server that will provide you with the digital representation of the number. The full pipeline works on GPU and takes 0.2 seconds to perform the reading process. The number of readings available for this demo is limited to 50. Reached this limit, you can contact developers to continue using the service. For our purposes, we focused only on household utility meters, however, this pipeline is easily adaptable to very different contexts.
Rating: 3.4
The comments on this apps site seem more virulent and in-depth. There is a lot more engagement on their review page than the previous app, and none of the comments has replies from the creator, unlike the first app on this list.
One comment with eighty-three likes reads “Not very accurate reading. Took quite some time to process reading. Have to take pictures with the phone upside down to process read. Great idea for app. Needs some fine-tuning. Also, if the customer has a maximum demand or time of use meter, the app is not giving the reads for those cycles.”. This suggests that this app might be popular but it is not particularly efficient, not the one to pick if you are short on time or panicking. Most people who are downloading an app to help them read a meter might be in a state of panic (it’s not something most of us know about but we do feel ashamed not to). So if that is you, maybe this isn’t the app for you.
Description:
Meter monitoring supports the recording and logging of meter readings of different meters. Meter master data with initial count can be created for water, electricity, gas or hours of operation and many other types of counters. Subsequently, the recording of the counter reading with reading time (date + time) is possible at any time intervals.
When replacing a counter, a new meter version can be created with a new initial count. This enables continuous overview of consumption for a particular measuring point.
You can back up your data to the documents folder or to the cloud and restore from there.
You can save a list of readings as a CSV file for further evaluations. Existing meter readings from previously used apps or from Excel can be imported via CSV file.
Consumption statistics can be saved as PDF.
Trial Version Limitations:
With the free trial version up to 10 meter readings can be added, and the backup function is not available.
Rating: 3.5
The rate of engagement in these comments is low, suggesting that there is not a vast community surrounding it. The supplier has only replied to one of the comments, which suggests their marketing team isn’t very prevalent, or at least they don’t value the commenting system in terms of rating.
One commenter takes the time to compliment the app with “The app worked great and very easy. My only problem is the unusable excel expiry file. It’s only rows of semi columns and numbers. Is there a way to export a usable excel file with rows/columns broken down by the categories listed in the app meter view?”
However, another simply says “Basic app not worth 50 cents.”