This is the support page for Meter Readings.

Known Issues

The most recent version (6.4.5) was released on 29th November 2022.

If you come across any issues, or you can’t find an answer to your question (below), please send me an email and I will respond as quickly as I can.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Android – I have no plans to support Android.

The app and my bills don’t agree – since the app works in seconds between readings, it can often be a lot more accurate than your bill, however if it is significantly different, chances are you have not set something up correctly. The most common errors are: gas conversion factor; rates being entered in £ rather than pence; a rate change has been added and the app is using a previous set of rates. If you have checked all of these, and still can’t figure out what is wrong, please get in touch!

Bar charts vs line graphs – you can’t choose between the two, the app decides which is best based on the number of points on the graph. So you will start off with bar charts, but eventually (when you add enough readings) it will switch to a line graph.

Changing a gas meter from ft3 to m3 – please see this post for two ways to handle this. UPDATE: you can now set the conversion factor as part of a rate change, simply add a rate change and edit the new conversion factor.

Conversion factor for gas meters – on your bill, this can be quite complex, involving calorific values, volume corrections and divisions. However all you end up with is a single value that you have to multiply your metered units by to get to your billed units (typically kWh). You configure this single conversion factor on the meter settings screen. To calculate it from a bill, find out how many kWh you are being billed for, and how many units you used on your meter, then simply divide billed units by meter units. As an example, say you were billed for 8476 kWh and for this period you used 263 units on your meter. Dividing 8476 by 263 gives you a conversion factor of 32.2281369. In other words every unit on your meter is 32.2281369 kWh.

Exporting readings – this can be done from the Readings screen. Just select the Compose button at the bottom right.

Feed in tariffs – in the UK, you earn a fixed amount per unit generated, plus a smaller amount (3.1p?) based on 50% of these units. Since 3.1p for 50% of your units is the same as 1.55p for 100% of your units, simply adjust your main rate by 1.55p. Note that there are a couple of ways to do this, e.g. use one meter with multiple readings for both usage and generation, or use two separate meters. If using separate meters, you might have to enter your electricity readings twice, once for usage and a second time to calculate your feed in tariff.

Mac – if you have a Mac that uses Apple’s M1 chip, you can now download and run the iOS version of Meter Readings on your Mac.

Opening backup files on a computer or from Dropbox – backup files are not designed to be opened by anything other than the app itself. If you want to look at your data on a computer, you can export it in CSV format from the Readings screen (see above).

Readings only supported up to 99999.9 – if your meter supports more digits than the default 5.1 format, this can be changed in the meter settings (under Format).

Replacement meters – if your new meter is fundamentally the same as your old one (same number of readings/counters … etc), you can reuse the same meter in the app and simply reset your readings. See the user guide section on adding readings for details.

Restoring the Power User or Pro User upgrades – sometimes a new install won’t know you have purchased one of these app upgrades. If so you can restore purchases from the (app) settings screen. This will also tell the app which version you originally purchased so it can unlock the correct feature set.

Solar, PV and wind meters – these are no different from a normal Electricity meter (they count and they have rates), however the terminology is different. For example you tend to use generation vs usage and credit vs cost. To use these different terms, simply set your meter type to Solar or Wind.

Water and sewerage/waste water rates – it is quite common that both of these are billed against the same meter, however sewerage is charged at a reduced percentage (say 95%) of your water usage. The way to handle this in the app is simply to have a single reading and a single rate, but you should add your water rate to 95% of your sewerage rate (or whatever the percentage is). Believe me, this just works. 🙂