My electric meter

Wayco Wayne_2

about my electric meter. I know enough to be dangerous. It all started this Summer when I saw an ad in my magazine, Family Handyman. (cuz that what I am.) The ad was for a product called Blue Line energy monitors. It's a neato device that clamps onto the meter outside and counts the black mark going around on the disc in the glass dome of the electric meter. It then sends a wireless signal into a digital reading device that reads in KWH or in Dollars and cents however you program it. Well I thought something was wrong with it. It seemed erratic at times but I rationalized. Something somewhere must have come on to make it jump like that. Then I started to try and trace where the amp draw was coming from. I took my amp meter out to the breaker panel and amped every line coming out of a breaker. Turned off breakers and walked back and forth. Labeled them too. I was becoming a man on a mission. I wanted to understand and control my electric bill. Must be a faulty energy monitor I thought. Then I bought a different energy monitor. (Obsessive??? maybe!)The Energy Detective. T.E.D. It has currect sensing clamps that clamp onto the incoming power lines in the breaker panel and read the current draw directly then send a signal through the electric lines to a monitor that plugs into a wall socket. At first the energy monitors agreed. Then the one that reads the spinning disc would double for a time. The TED didnt budge. Then the first would settle down and agree again. Madness.... From my truck I got my clamp on amp meter and clamped it on the incoming power line. 5 amps. The voltage was 247. volts x amps= 1.3 KW. The TED monitor read 1.3 steady. The one that read the spinning disc would double even though my clamp on amp meter still read 5 amps. TED agreed with my clamp on. The outside meter was speeding up and slowing down with no reason that I could see. I called customer service of my power company. You could tell they were trained to handle folks like me. Sir your meter is OK. Very patronizing. Very sympathetic. I was a nut case. It was obvious. I will try again tomorrow. I think my house electric meter is fakey, round the bend, bent, wacky. I'll let you know what happens. WW

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hvacfreak

Amtrol

Last year I got one of those digital well pump pressure switches. One day about a week after installation , it went out on an over voltage fault ( no water caused me to even look into this ). I had 278 volts from L1-L2 in my panel...recepticles in the house were reading 160 volts.

The power company told me that I was not qualified to take these readings and would not respond to my claim ( until I mentioned that I would be calling my insurance company next ). They spent the rest of the night replacing the transformer that served my house . And yeah , the " linesman " was impressed with my meter ( Fluke 87 ) and used my meter's readings in his report.

I say , document your actual usage and challenge them ( lawyer time ).

jp_2

does that gadget

clamp onto both phases of your incoming power?

clammy

old meter

had a promblem a few years ago changed my service and finally had my meter changed ended up after testing the result was my meter was running fast they did a estimate for i believe about a year and sent me a check for the difference but that was about 10 years ago ,more recently i was having gas pressure promblems which my new boiler brought a light to and the gas co changed the meter ,the meter in question was sent for testing and was found to be running 30 percent faster they sent a credit letter for about 750 bucks but never credited my account after a few calls i still had noluck then i called complained and stated that i was contacting the board of public ulitites and filing a complaint ,the gas company called me back and in about 5 working days i recieved a check .if you have a older meter and your useage seems to be getting bigger with no real extra draw call and complain and then contact your govering board of public ulities peace and good luck clammy

Wayco Wayne_2

Yes it does

Ironically I just saw it highlighted in a feature in AOL about ways to save money. TED the Energy Detective.

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heatguy

Wayne, very interesting i do hope you will keep us posted

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Do you see the dial change speed rapidly? Is there anything like a laser printer or photocopier running in standby?

If load is low, it takes quite a while for the wheel to make a complete revolution. If you're analyzing the data over a short period near the revolution rate, an apparent doubling in the short-term data can be expected.

When attempting to isolate the offending circuit via the automatic meter dial stripe reader, did you allow sufficient time for at least 4 revolutions for comparison?

Wayco Wayne_2

Just an update

Ever since I called the electric Utility my meter has been normal. I'm fairly sure this is because they have a switch in the generating plant that activates the "Let's gouge Wayco Wayne circuit, and when they suspected I was on to them they turned it off. The voices told me they'd do this. Lo lo lo lo lo. WW

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