Checking Functioning of Electronic Meters

Science shows that the conservation of energy helps in the environment. Rising energy costs and the lack of customer confidence in the accuracy of electricity meters all contribute to the growing importance attached to testing electricity meters. If your electricity bill has increased suddenly without any reason, check the functioning of your electric meter.

Check where the problems lie

There is a simple check you can perform to find out whether the problem is in the new electronic meter or in the connections or household wiring etc. You can check the working of energy meter in the following manner.

• 1000-watt lamp Test: A 1000-watt lamp if energized for one hour would consume one unit of electrical energy. You need to switch off all your electrical lamps/appliances, etc. Now record the reading of your electrical meter and let only 1000 watt lamp run for one hour and then record the final reading. If the difference of reading is one unit i.e. 1 KWH, it means that meter is working satisfactorily. This check can also be conducted with 500W lamp run for 2 hours or 200W lamp for 5 hours or 100W lamp for 10 hours.

• Kill A Watt: Kill A Watt from P3 International is a pretty simple concept. The Kill-A-Watt allows you to connect your appliances and assess how efficient they are. A large LCD display counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour, just like your not-so-friendly utility company. You can figure out your electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. It’s essentially a meter that tracks the power consumption of whatever’s plugged into it.

• Meter Constant: Meter Constant for an Energy meter is the amount of KWH used in its low voltage circuit for each revolution of the induction disc. You can check the working of energy meter with the help of meter constant which is indicated in the space meant for indicating name, etc attached to the meter e.g. X impulses /kwh i.e. X impulses per unit. If meter constant indicated on the meter matches with your actual impulse count/number of blinks of LED, it means that the meter is running ok.

• Power strip: A power strip is a strip of sockets that attaches to the end of a flexible cable and allows multiple devices to be plugged in. Power strips are often used when many electrical devices are in proximity, especially with audio/video and computer systems. Some power strips have energy-saving features, which switch off the strip if appliances go into standby mode. Using a sensor circuit they detect if the level of current flowing through the socket is in standby mode (less than 30 watts), they will turn off that socket. This reduces the consumption of standby power used by computer peripherals and other equipment when not in use, saving money and energy.

Meter working Unsatisfactorily

If your meter is working unsatisfactorily, find out whether the problem is in the electronic meter or in the connections. Faults in the measuring circuit of an electricity meter can occur when a system is wired incorrectly from the start. Other causes include interruptions to the connecting leads or the use of transformers with the wrong transformation ratio. If incoming and outgoing current is almost the same, then it may be concluded that connection to the meters are ok and there may be some problem in the meter itself.

If outgoing current is appreciably more than the incoming current, then somebody else’s neutral wire has got connected to the meter’s neutral wire and it is because of this reason that the meter is running fast. If outgoing current is less than the incoming current, it means that there is some leakage of current, earthing, etc in the building. This may be because of the old worn-out wiring in the house.

Wrong reading

A meter reader reads a large number of meters in a day. Hence, mistakes though occasionally may happen in taking readings of meters. If there is some anomaly in the energy bill like Wrong reading, arrears amount shown though the bill is paid etc the consumer may contact to the nearest Sub Division Office or Billing Centre & bring the anomaly to notice of concerned Sub Divisional Officer for rectification.

You have to look on your monthly bills and try to compare it on your latest bill. This way, you will study if your electricity bills are going high or low. Make it a habit to switch off the fan, light and electrical appliances when you leave a room. Make sure your electric company is billing you each month for the actual electricity your house has used. Unauthorized extension of your electrical wiring connecting to different or adjacent installation would increase the electricity consumption recorded by your meter.

Disclaimer: The article  contains data collected from various sources and the use of same is at readers discretion.