About Items

While the most common type of devices are meters, there are many other devices that can be involved with a customer's service. These other devices are referred to simply as "items", and are used to represent lamps, poles, current transformers, backflow devices, pulse initiators, etc.

Items can be either "badged" or "unbadged". "Badged" items are those that have unique identifiers, and are represented by device records. Device records are not created for "unbadged" items. "Badged" items are installed at service points in much the same way as meters are installed (though they use an item-specific install event). For "unbadged" items, "multi-item" service points are used to define the number of each type of item that is installed at the service point.

These "badged" items are not directly measured and therefore do not have a measuring component. Instead there is configuration on the device type that will identify an effective dated average daily usage. Using the average daily usage the item's consumption will be calculated. The total consumption for a given period will always be equal to the average daily usage multiplied by the duration of the period. However, when the consumption for a period is turned into an interval curve there are two ways this can be done:

• Use Straight Line: the consumption will be evenly divided amongst the intervals (thus producing a straight line when graphed)

• Use Profile: a profile measuring component will be used to align the consumption to a curve. This is useful because it can more accurately identify the hours where consumption has occurred.

Refer to About Service Points for additional functional information about "unbadged" items.