Help Me Understand How to Read My Smart Electric Meter

[larry4406]

Help me understand how to read the smart meter recently installed by Virginia Dominion Energy at our house in northern VA. I have searched on line and not found answers and the power company website offers no help either.

The meter is a Landis+Gyr Type FOCUS AXRe-SD. I even went to their website and could not find a manual explaining how to read the displays.

We do not have any solar.

Meter looks like this. I blanked out the meter serial number, bar codes, etc.


The meter has a digital display. The display cycles between 4 different readouts. I have arbitrarily named them Display 1-4 for purposes here. The display constantly cycles thru these displays in the same order and then repeats. I took the photos today 12/6/22.

Display 1

Several questions on what Display 1 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does 001 mean?
• What does the 4-quadrant circle with counterclockwise numbered quadrants mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume 004787 kWh is the total consumption since the meter was installed on 9/22/22?
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars under 7 and 8 mean?

Display 2

Several questions on what Display 2 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does 002 mean?
• What does the 4-quadrant circle with counterclockwise numbered quadrants mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume 009.47 kW is a peak consumption rate? This number has remained constant for days, but was 3.63 within a minute of the power company installing the smart meter.
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars mean? Note that they are in different locations compared to Display 1

Display 3

Several questions on what Display 3 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does “CLS” or “CL5 mean?
• Note how quadrant 4 is missing from the circle. What does this mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars mean? Note that they are in different locations compared to Displays 1 and 2

Display 4

Several questions on what Display 4 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does “NET” mean?
• Note that the circle is back to all 4 quadrants
• The letter “C” again
• What is the number “300003”?
• The horizontal bars appear to be back to the same position as shown in Display 2
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?

Thanks in advance to the smart folks who I am sure have the answers.

 

[MongoTA]

Can't answer all your questions...but:

1) 4787kWh is your total kwh consumption since the meter was installed. As you use electricity this number will increase. The dashes below the numbers are the digital version of the old meter's spinning wheel. If the dashes march left-to-right across the display, you are taking electricity from the grid. If the dashes march right-to-left, the meter wheel is 'spinning backwards' you are returning electricity to the grid (solar for example).
2) 9.47kW is your peak demand use. The highest momentary load you drew from the grid.
3) the '240' is you have 240v service.
4) not positive about this, but I believe "CLS" is CLOSED, the internal contacts on the meter are closed, allowing current to pass through during normal operation. If you failed to pay your bill, or if Big Brother decides you no longer deserve electricity, they can remotely turn off your power and the CLS would change to 'OPN', or OPEN.

 

[larry4406]

@MongoTA

Thanks for clarifying some of the display items and confirming my suspicion of others.

The literature from the power company does confirm ability to remotely shut off power or enable so your CLS assumption makes sense.

I just now checked the horizontal bars (“dashes”) and sure enough the two match side by side from left to right to mimic the meter spin. This is consistent with some of the YouTube videos I found of different meter types.

 

[AntonLargiader]

The meters on my building actually say CLOSED as part of the scrolling display.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I have the same meter

cant give you info on every symbol but do know what some of it is

DISPLAY 1 is total kWh consumed since meter was reset

Va is volt-amps not virginia (have the same on my meter)

240 represents nominal voltage system its connected to not actual voltage its getting.

The horizontal bars represent current flowing through the meter. the faster they scroll the more current is flowing through

DISPLAY 2 is kw being consumed right at that moment @ 240v. so 9.47kw means you have 39a flowing @ 240v or 19.73a on each leg

most of the rest of your questions were already answered above

DISPLAY 3 other than the ones i already answered above, I dont know what they mean as i dont have those symbols on my meter

DISPLAY 4 same as display 3

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Can't answer all your questions...but:

1) 4787kWh is your total kwh consumption since the meter was installed. As you use electricity this number will increase. The dashes below the numbers are the digital version of the old meter's spinning wheel. If the dashes march left-to-right across the display, you are taking electricity from the grid. If the dashes march right-to-left, the meter wheel is 'spinning backwards' you are returning electricity to the grid (solar for example).
2) 9.47kW is your peak demand use. The highest momentary load you drew from the grid.
3) the '240' is you have 240v service.
4) not positive about this, but I believe "CLS" is CLOSED, the internal contacts on the meter are closed, allowing current to pass through during normal operation. If you failed to pay your bill, or if Big Brother decides you no longer deserve electricity, they can remotely turn off your power and the CLS would change to 'OPN', or OPEN.

i have the same meter and that is not what it represents. it represents usage at that time. I have sat there and watched my meter and the "9.47kW" measurement will actually change as the load changes. say my air conditioner cycles off, the number will drop while the meter is still displaying that metric

My PoCo doesnt measure peak demand for residential so....

 

[MongoTA]

i have the same meter and that is not what it represents. it represents usage at that time. I have sat there and watched my meter and the "9.47kW" measurement will actually change as the load changes. say my air conditioner cycles off, the number will drop while the meter is still displaying that metric

My PoCo doesnt measure peak demand for residential so....

Good to know. My second display is the peak consumption over the last 30 days. My meter is older, I've had it for quite a few years now.

 

[larry4406]

@wyliesdiesels

Good info, thanks

I have looked at the meter at various random times thru the past several days, and Display 2 always shows 9.47 Kwh. It never changes. I will have to do some testing when the rest of the household crowd is not around. For example, turn on all of the electric ovens (3), crank the heat up on the heat pump for the resistance elements to kick in, turn on the electric floor heat, etc.

I am hoping this thing has enough smarts in it to help advise me in selection of proper whole house generator.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

@wyliesdiesels

Good info, thanks

I have looked at the meter at various random times thru the past several days, and Display 2 always shows 9.47 Kwh. It never changes. I will have to do some testing when the rest of the household crowd is not around. For example, turn on all of the electric ovens (3), crank the heat up on the heat pump for the resistance elements to kick in, turn on the electric floor heat, etc.

I am hoping this thing has enough smarts in it to help advise me in selection of proper whole house generator.

well then it sounds like they have it programmed for peak demand. the same display on my meter varies depending on load... im sure these meters are highly customizable....

 

[walta]

My guess is the data under the VA is about how the meter is connected to smart meter network signal strength and channel etc.​

Walta​

 

[ipgenie]

We got new smart meters in our area this year. I wasn't home at the time so I just called the power company and in about 3 minutes they described each screen on my particular meter (I have solar grid tie and peak/off peak rates) and they answered any other questions I had. Give them a call and I bet they will take care of you.

 

[larry4406]

As a test, I just turned on several large electric resistance loads. Let them run for about 5 minutes. I checked the meter display before and after.

• Kitchen electric floor heat. Not sure its actual amp draw. It's on a 240V 15A breaker (at max breaker 3600Kw)
• Electric wall oven. Not sure its actual amp draw. It's on a 240V 30A breaker (at max breaker 7200Kw)
• Dual fuel range double ovens. Turned both ovens on. Not sure its actual amp draw. It's on a 240V 50A breaker (at max breaker 12,000Kw)

No change in the "9.47 kw" on the meter display.... The horizontal bars (meter spin graphic) definitely moving at a much faster pace!

IF these resistance loads were at max breaker rating, then would have been 22.8Kw just for these loads, forget the rest of the house. At 50%, these loads would have been 11.4 kw. At 25%, these loads would have been 5.7 kw.

At 9470W and 240V, this would mean a peak draw of 39.5A at some point in time.
At 9470W and 120V, this would mean a peak draw of 78.9A at some point in time.

I would have thought turning on the floor heat and 3 ovens, all 240V, would have bumped the 9.47 number if that number represents the peak usage from some random point in time.

 

[larry4406]

I logged onto my account just now with the power company. This is the only stats they have thus far. I have selected a "30 Minute Interval Data Collection and Download" option but they are still processing the data and say it could be 3-5 days for this to occur. Not sure what it will show me once available.

 

[Jlanciani]

kW demand as displayed by your meter is typically calculated over a 1 hour interval. Running everything for 5 minutes won't change the display.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I logged onto my account just now with the power company. This is the only stats they have thus far. I have selected a "30 Minute Interval Data Collection and Download" option but they are still processing the data and say it could be 3-5 days for this to occur. Not sure what it will show me once available.

Looks like an avg of 60kWh per day? Geez you use a lot of electricity!

 

[reader2580]

What would you think of my 1,300 square foot house that averaged 120kWh per day before I bought it? It had electric baseboard heat and no air conditioning so daily usage in the winter was far higher than 120kWh per day. I put in gas heat and I now average around 15kWh per day.

Some smart meters like mine have a display that rotates through 888888.8 plus everything else on the LED turned on. The 888888.8 display just shows that all of the segments of the LED display are working.

 

[larry4406]

Looks like an avg of 60kWh per day? Geez you use a lot of electricity!

Yes so it appears we do. House is 100% electric except for the gas burners on the range.

House is around 2000SF finished, unfinished basement. Adult family of 4. 2 fridges, 2 freezers, washer/dryer stack, well, pumped septic, heat pump, hybrid heat pump water heater, electric ovens, dual dishwashers, etc.

I think the big nut is the air handler fan that runs 24/7/365 as family insists on air movement.

 

[larry4406]

I put this graph together showing monthly energy use per year for the past 4 years. This was done to assess various home improvements.

5/31/20 the hybrid heat pump water heater went online
1/31/21 new windows and doors
6/22 new attic insulation

 

[larry4406]

As a test, I told the family that our electric bill was too high and that I am turning off the air handler fan from continuous run to automatic. Changed its setting on 12/7. The updated usage data for 12/8 and 12/9 shows that the usage dropped by about 15 kwh per day compared to recent days; no other change.

The fan in the HVAC system is rated 5.2A 3/4 HP. Its on a heat pump wired 240V.

I am thinking the fan operating 24/7 costs us $50-60/month.
-----------
Edit - replaced graph with one including the legends. Oops!

 

[AntonLargiader]

I don’t understand the variables in your graph but it looks like the 8th and 9th show the red and blue tracking each other similarly to other days.

$60 per month for us would (I think) be a steady 6A draw difference on 120 (our circulation fan is 120). Thats a lot. How big is your system?

 

[larry4406]

I don’t understand the variables in your graph but it looks like the 8th and 9th show the red and blue tracking each other similarly to other days.

$60 per month for us would (I think) be a steady 6A draw difference on 120 (our circulation fan is 120). Thats a lot. How big is your system?

Sorry - I updated the graph to include the legends, didn't realize I had not included them. Red is daily max temp and blue is daily min temp while the green is the daily use.

I think you are right.

The fan in the HVAC system is rated 5.2A 3/4 HP. Its on a heat pump wired 240V. However, 5.2A*240V*24 hours is 29.952 kw, so the fan must be really 120V (14,976 kwhr) . Conversely, 0.75 hp* (0.74757 kw/hp)*24 is 13.5 kwhr which is quite close to the observed dip.

The increase on Saturday 12/10 I think is because we run the electric floor heat in the kitchen longer on the weekends in morning.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

As a test, I told the family that our electric bill was too high and that I am turning off the air handler fan from continuous run to automatic. Changed its setting on 12/7. The updated usage data for 12/8 and 12/9 shows that the usage dropped by about 15 kwh per day compared to recent days; no other change.

The fan in the HVAC system is rated 5.2A 3/4 HP. Its on a heat pump wired 240V.

I am thinking the fan operating 24/7 costs us $50-60/month.
-----------
Edit - replaced graph with one including the legends. Oops!

Is the blower motor 120v or 240v?

I have an app that calcs energy costs...

Also what is your kWh rate?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

When i input 5.2a (624watts per hour), 24hrs/day and my tier 1 rate of 12.01c, i get a cost of $53.96/mon

EDIT: dont know how i messed up the math on this one but i fixed it...

 

[AntonLargiader]

And you're not saving all of that by switching to auto; you're only saving the portion that the fan would have run beyond what it needs to do to heat or cool the house. Furthermore, the actual draw may be lower than it's rated draw, especially if it's multi-speed or variable-speed. When I ran my gas furnace on my 1500W inverter, the draw was lower than I expected.

 

[nadogail]

Help me understand how to read the smart meter recently installed by Virginia Dominion Energy at our house in northern VA. I have searched on line and not found answers and the power company website offers no help either.

The meter is a Landis+Gyr Type FOCUS AXRe-SD. I even went to their website and could not find a manual explaining how to read the displays.

We do not have any solar.

Meter looks like this. I blanked out the meter serial number, bar codes, etc.


The meter has a digital display. The display cycles between 4 different readouts. I have arbitrarily named them Display 1-4 for purposes here. The display constantly cycles thru these displays in the same order and then repeats. I took the photos today 12/6/22.

Display 1

Several questions on what Display 1 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does 001 mean?
• What does the 4-quadrant circle with counterclockwise numbered quadrants mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume 004787 kWh is the total consumption since the meter was installed on 9/22/22?
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars under 7 and 8 mean?

Display 2

Several questions on what Display 2 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does 002 mean?
• What does the 4-quadrant circle with counterclockwise numbered quadrants mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume 009.47 kW is a peak consumption rate? This number has remained constant for days, but was 3.63 within a minute of the power company installing the smart meter.
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars mean? Note that they are in different locations compared to Display 1

Display 3

Several questions on what Display 3 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does “CLS” or “CL5 mean?
• Note how quadrant 4 is missing from the circle. What does this mean?
• What does the letter “C” mean?
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?
• What do the horizontal bars mean? Note that they are in different locations compared to Displays 1 and 2

Display 4

Several questions on what Display 4 is showing me:

• What does Va mean? Virginia or Volt-Amps?
• What does “NET” mean?
• Note that the circle is back to all 4 quadrants
• The letter “C” again
• What is the number “300003”?
• The horizontal bars appear to be back to the same position as shown in Display 2
• I assume the 240 means the delivered voltage?

Thanks in advance to the smart folks who I am sure have the answers.

If your electrical utility will not teach you how to read your meter; I suggest you contact your local regulatory authority.

 

[larry4406]

Is the blower motor 120v or 240v?

I have an app that calcs energy costs...

Also what is your kWh rate?

In Post 21 I guess I did a poor job of explaining the air handler fan rating.

The label is not real clear for the fan motor. It clearly labels it as 5.2A and 3/4 HP but does not list the voltage that the amp draw corresponds to. In another section of the label, it says the air handler is 208/230 V. This is why I calculated the power as Volts*amps and then multiplied by 24 hours to get the daily kwhr to try to compare it to the consumption drop the smart meter reported. The smart meter clearly showed a 15 kwhr drop for 12/8 and 12/9 compared to prior days and the only thing different was the fan was not on 24/7.

So if the fan was 240V, its daily consumption would be 29.952 kwhr, and if 120 V its daily consumption would be 14.976 kwhr. Surprisingly, the later is almost the same as the smart meters reported drop in usage.

Working the other way, 0.75 hp* (0.74757 kw/hp)*24 is 13.5 kwhr which is quite close to the observed dip.

All I was trying to show was that the nameplate data from the fan corresponds with the observed measured drop.

When i input 5.2a (264watts per hour), 24hrs/day and my tier 1 rate of 12.01c, i get a cost of $22.83/mon

5.2a * 240V = 1248 W
5.2a * 120V = 624 W (I think your 264 W is transposed?)

The electric bill has so many various line item charges for this, that, and the other thing its not real clear on the rate. For the past 4 years, I have just divided the total bill by the kwhr consumed and this gets me a pretty consistent smeared rate of between $0.11 - 0.14/kwhr.

The smart meter says the observed consumption drop was 15 kwhr. If this continues for a full month (30 days) then it equates to a cost of $49.5 - 63/month.

Hopefully this is more clear.

 

[larry4406]

And you're not saving all of that by switching to auto; you're only saving the portion that the fan would have run beyond what it needs to do to heat or cool the house. Furthermore, the actual draw may be lower than it's rated draw, especially if it's multi-speed or variable-speed. When I ran my gas furnace on my 1500W inverter, the draw was lower than I expected.

Very true and agreed.

However, the smart meter reported a consumption drop of 15 kwhr/day with the only change not being the 24/7 operation of the fan. Nice savings either way.

 

[larry4406]

If your electrical utility will not teach you how to read your meter; I suggest you contact your local regulatory authority.

In fairness to Dominion Energy, I have not yet tried to reach out to a live person for meter reading instructions.

One would think in today's day and age, that the information is out there on the net.....

 

[wyliesdiesels]

In Post 21 I guess I did a poor job of explaining the air handler fan rating.

The label is not real clear for the fan motor. It clearly labels it as 5.2A and 3/4 HP but does not list the voltage that the amp draw corresponds to. In another section of the label, it says the air handler is 208/230 V. This is why I calculated the power as Volts*amps and then multiplied by 24 hours to get the daily kwhr to try to compare it to the consumption drop the smart meter reported. The smart meter clearly showed a 15 kwhr drop for 12/8 and 12/9 compared to prior days and the only thing different was the fan was not on 24/7.

So if the fan was 240V, its daily consumption would be 29.952 kwhr, and if 120 V its daily consumption would be 14.976 kwhr. Surprisingly, the latter is almost the same as the smart meters reported drop in usage.

Working the other way, 0.75 hp* (0.74757 kw/hp)*24 is 13.5 kwhr which is quite close to the observed dip.

All I was trying to show was that the nameplate data from the fan corresponds with the observed measured drop.

5.2a * 240V = 1248 W
5.2a * 120V = 624 W (I think your 264 W is transposed?)

If you look at NEC T430.248, the FLC for a 3/4hp 230v motor is 6.9a. for a 120v motor its double that (obviously) so 13.8a.... so your motor is running @ 240v....

and yeah i screwed up on the numbering in my previous post....

The electric bill has so many various line item charges for this, that, and the other thing its not real clear on the rate. For the past 4 years, I have just divided the total bill by the kwhr consumed and this gets me a pretty consistent smeared rate of between $0.11 - 0.14/kwhr.

The smart meter says the observed consumption drop was 15 kwhr. If this continues for a full month (30 days) then it equates to a cost of $49.5 - 63/month.

Hopefully this is more clear.

who is your electric provider? theyre required to give you a list of their rates, tariffs and fees. Im betting its available online....

 

[larry4406]

who is your electric provider? theyre required to give you a list of their rates, tariffs and fees. Im betting its available online....

Provider is Dominion Energy. Here you go for some exciting reading:

Residential Rates | Virginia | Dominion Energy

Rate Schedules serve VA customers who purchase both the supply (generation and transmission) and delivery (distribution) portions of their electric service.

www.dominionenergy.com

Last month's bill for 1792 kwhr

 

[larry4406]

Checked the smart meter this morning

It now shows 12.68 KW which is the presumed max peak encountered at some point in time. Previously, it read 9.47 KW. Still waiting for my electrician friend to complete the load calc to size the whole house generator (maybe an 18 kw will work?).

Temperatures here have been quite cold with morning lows of 5-6 F past couple of days and below freezing all day. I noticed the thermostat for the heat pump was showing "Aux heat" the few times I looked at it when I noticed it was running (currently 13F outside).

I also turned on the resistance heater in the garage 12/24 as it was down to 40F in there.

House is all electric except for the gas burners on the range.

As temperatures plummet, electricity usage increases as expected.

Heat pump is 14 SEER Goodman, installed October 2014.

 

[AntonLargiader]

I just got some numbers that may be fun to toss in here.

Best I can tell, my furnace has a 1/2 HP circulation blower rated at 7.7 FLA (120V) and a 1A combustion fan. The blower is variable speed, so the actual speeds won't reflect full power (they are programmed to whatever the HVAC people thought was best) but I get:
- recirc: 60W
- low: 240W
- high: 415W

I don't know if you have a separate, lower recirc speed or not but it looks like you have a 50% larger blower, so upping the recirc speed a bit puts you at 100W which is $7.92 per month. That's kind of the limit to your potential savings unless you are running recirc on regular low in which case the equivalent would be $32/month. Minus, of course, the percentage of time that the system that the system is heating.

If you are running at much higher speeds, of course, it'll be higher. But this is what I have measured for my system. For $4/month I think we will leave ours in recirc.

 

[larry4406]

I shut off the 24/7 operation of the heat pump air handler fan on 12/8/22.

Bill for service 11/9-12/2 2022 was 2178 kWhr and $285.60, so last bill with fan operation included. Average temperature for November 2022 was 49.5F.

Bill for service 12/2/22 -1/12/23 was 2043 kWhr and $268.69, a reduction of 135 kWhr and $16.91. This period includes 6 days of fan operation). Average temperature for December 2022 was 37.55F and average for first half of January 2023 is 44.07F.

So the latest bill shows a savings. Not sure how much these savings are due to (1) not running the fan and/or (2) heat pump heating costs which are affected by outdoor temperatures.

 

[AntonLargiader]

What fan speed was your recirc? Same as heating?

 

[larry4406]

What fan speed was your recirc? Same as heating?

I honestly have absolutely no idea what the fan speed is. On the thermostat there is a setting for Auto or On, pick one. The flow at the registers feels the same heat, cool, recirc.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Well there's an improvement you can make... tell your HVAC guy to bring you out of the 1980s! Running the blower at full speed 24/7 is definitely pretty extravagant. Ours is so low you can barely feel it (and can't hear it at all), but it draws air in from everywhere, mixes it and redistributes it to keep the temperature a bit more even.

The numbers I mentioned are from the downstairs 3.5 ton unit (which should be even smaller). The upstairs unit is 1.5 or 2t and we run it the same way, but I can't measure the energy as easily.