Data is different from the bill

IMPORTANT: All cost and billing data presented in MyEyedro is for informational purposes only. Your actual bill will be provided by your utility service provider.

If the data on your bill is different than the data collected by your Eyedro product and presented in the MyEyedro Cloud service, consider the following:

Are you comparing measurements to estimates?

Often, consumption values on the bill are estimates and not actual measurements. There are several logistical, technical, and economic reasons why utilities sometimes rely on estimates.

In areas that haven’t been upgraded to Smart Meters, a human “meter reader” has to physically visit your property. Estimates happen when: access is blocked, there is sever weather, or even staffing shortages.
Even with modern Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), technology isn’t perfect. Signal interference, equipment malfunctions or network outages may require data to be filled in using estimates.
To save on operational costs (which theoretically keeps your rates lower), some utilities use a bi-monthly, quarterly or other reading schedule. They will make estimates and when they take the actual measurement, they will “true up” the bill.

Ensure measured data is being compared to measured data.

Are you comparing the same periods?

The bill provided by your utility will indicate the period of time that the bill represents. This is typically a start/from to a end/to date and/or the number of days in the period. Unfortunately when comparing to a bill, you don’t necessarily know the following:

What times were the two readings taken?
Were they taken at the same time?
Does the total include, or partially include, the start and/or end date?

Use the MyEyedro Consumption plugin to ensure you are comparing the same period of time (instructions here). NOTE: The data will be on daily boundaries (12:00 AM to 12:00 AM) and will not take into account any subtle differences between the time of day the utility readings are recorded.

Are there any upstream loads?

Assuming your Eyedro device is installed inside your main service panel, ensure that there are no loads connected upstream (between the panel and the meter). Often times there are loads tapped into the circuit after your meter but before it reaches your main breaker. Examples of these include:

Sub-panels
Out-buildings
Solar inverters
EV chargers
Water heaters
Demand response loads (that can be remotely controlled by utilities)

Any of these upstream loads will not be reported by your Eyedro system since it can only measure what it can see.

Are there adjustment factors being applied to the bill consumption?

Adjustment factors (often called “Multipliers” or “Correction Factors”) might seem like a way for utilities to sneak in extra charges, but they are actually a technical necessity. Since meters are physical devices sitting out in the real world, they have to account for laws of physics and the logistics of the distribution system. Below are several of the most common ones:

Line Loss Adjustments. Electricity doesn’t travel for free. As power moves from the plant through miles of high-voltage wires and transformers to your home, some of it is lost as heat. The utility usually charges based on the power to supply the service not the amount that actually makes it to the finish line.
Meter Multipliers (Map Scaling). In many commercial buildings or larger homes, the amount of electricity flowing through the wires is too high for a standard meter to handle without melting. Utilities use “Transformers” to step down the current or voltage to a tiny fraction (e.g., 1/40th or 1/80th) before it enters the meter. If the meter is only seeing 1/40th of the actual power delivered, the utility applies a reverse multiplier to your reading to get the real number.
Gas Volume Correction (Temperature & Pressure). Natural gas is a compressible fluid. Its volume changes depending on the weather and the pressure in the pipes. If it’s a very cold winter, the gas in your meter is denser (more energy per cubic foot). If it’s a hot summer, it’s thinner. Utilities apply a correction factor to ensure you are paying for the actual energy content (BTUs/Therms) rather than just the physical space the gas occupied in the pipe that day.

Ensure you are reversing any adjustment factors that are being applied to the billed consumption when comparing.

Is the difference in the consumption or the cost?

Consumption differences

Focus on the consumption since it is what is actually measured by both devices.

Using the MyEyedro Demand plugin, scroll through the detailed live data for each of the days in the billing period to ensure there aren’t any blocks of data missing or inverted.
1. Open MyEydro and log into your user account.
2. Navigate to the Demand plugin.
3. If necessary, open the right side options panel by clicking on the gear in the top-right corner of the screen.
  - Select the display group for the device from the Display Data for option.
  - Uncheck the Aggregate Graph option. This will display the data for each sensor independantly.
4. Use the date picker and previous/next navigation buttons to scroll through the date range.
5. Note any extended periods of missing data or 0W measurements. If so, refer to the intermittent or missing measurements section of the troubleshooting guide for tips to resolve.
6. Note if one or more sensors are displaying negative measurements. If so, refer to the negative or inverted measurements section of the troubleshooting guide for tips to resolve.
For Eyedro devices with more than one sensor– i.e. monitoring split-phase (common 240V/120V residential services) or 3-phase systems, use the MyEyedro Consumption plugin to scroll through the data for each of the days in the billing period looking for a significant imbalance in the power data between the sensors.
1. Open MyEydro and log into your user account.
2. Navigate to the Consumption plugin.
3. If necessary, open the right side options panel by clicking on the gear in the top-right corner of the screen.
  - Select the display group for the device from the Display Data for option.
  - Uncheck the Aggregate Graph option. This will display the data for each sensor independantly.
  - Uncheck the Stacked Graph option. This will display the data for each sensor beside the rest.
4. Use the date picker and previous/next navigation buttons to scroll through the date range.
5. Note any significant and consistent differences between the amplitude of each sensor (the height of the bars). If one sensor is significantly different than the other(s), it could result in voltage fluctuations between the sensors. Since the Eyedro device is only physically connect to (and measuring) one of the voltage phases, it is possible that it could be over or under reporting the power calculated on the other phase.
6. If possible, use a multimeter to measure the voltage on different receptacles throughout the building to see how much it varies.
Refer to the unexpected or inaccurate measurements section of the troubleshooting guide for tips to resolve.

Cost differences

If the consumption is close but the cost is significantly different, ensure that the rate profile you are using has been configured to match the fee structure charged by your utility.

Find the most recent detailed rate structure charged by your utility. This information is very often available on the website of your local utility.
Use the MyEyedro Rates configuration plugin to setup your bill and rate profile to match your utilities fee structure as closely as possible.

More Help

If the above content doesn’t help you resolve your issue, contact support and one of our team members will help you resolve the issue and if necessary, handle any warranty requests..