How to make submeter reading in MDUs more efficient

IoT technology offers the opportunity to automate submeter reading in MDUs, making it more efficient. With automatic submeter reading, the costs traditionally associated with meter readings are lowered significantly.

Let us take a look at how the IoT can make submeter reading in MDUs more efficient and a couple of examples of IoT technology ideal for automatic submeter reading:

• Remote submeter reading
• Billing based on real-time consumption data
• The ideal platform for automatic submeter reading
• Interfaces for collecting real-time data from meters

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Remote submeter reading

Via IoT technology, building managers of MDUs save the expense of trips to physical locations to read every meter. This way, administrative costs are lowered as physical visits do not have to be scheduled with each tenant. In circumstances where it is not advisable to do physical visits, the automatic submeter reading allows the readings to be performed anyway.

By enabling wireless communication between a meter and a connected gateway, IoT technology allows consumption data to be collected from the meter remotely and makes them available for billing and analyses.

With IoT technology, building managers get easy access to the meter data without having to disturb their tenants. Automatic submeter reading also helps building managers eliminate misreading errors and time-consuming follow-ups. In addition, the visualization of the meter data enabled by the remote readings helps the process of optimizing the consumption.

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Billing based on real-time consumption data

A benefit of automatic submeter reading is that billing can be calculated from real-time consumption instead of estimates based on past consumption or predictions. The automatic submeter reading also helps quickly identify sudden increases in consumption that could be caused by the meter being broken.

With the right IoT technology, it is possible to do automatic submeter readings from different types of meters, such as electricity, gas, and water. In addition, automated readings of heat cost allocators are possible via IoT technology.

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The ideal platform for automatic submeter reading

To provide MDUs with automatic submeter readings, it is vital to choose the right platform to handle the meter data and keep them private.

Onics’ Squid.link gateways live up to strict security standards. They are configurable and flexible platforms ideal for MDUs, and they support a range of communication protocols, including Wireless M-BUS. As the gateways are white label products, they offer the possibility of visual customization.

Check out the Squid.link gateways

If you are looking to collect meter data from a larger amount of meters, you can base your solution on the Meter Data Concentrator, a battery-powered Wireless M-Bus gateway for large-scale collection of meter data.

Get to know the Meter Data Concentrator.

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Interfaces for collecting real-time data from meters

Meter interfaces are a way of equipping meters with wireless communication technology, enabling them to report data to your system. Onics offers several meter interfaces compatible with different kinds of meters.

Take a closer look at them here