Watt hr meter?

[sberry]

I got a rental and with less equipment after an upgrade the bill went up. This is on a line with a whole buncj of homes fed from 1kettle and a bunch of old connections. The Voltage may have been bouncing depending on other neighbors loads, putting 50A on dropped this one 2v or so then at one point it dropped 10, one leg being mostly responsible.
Does any of this effect the meter reading?

 

[rockwithjason]

have you been upgraded to the smart meters? they are often more accurate than the old disc meters and the bills go up. to answer your question the meter should be able to read all of that regardless of bounce or drops.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Watts is watts. Lower the voltage the higher the amperage. Watts doesnt change! So no it doesnt change the meter reading!

 

[slodat]

Those old "disc" meters are very accurate. I calibrate them for a living. Demand is demand. If you are billed for power factor, that is a different thing altogether.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Those old "disc" meters are very accurate. I calibrate them for a living. Demand is demand. If you are billed for power factor, that is a different thing altogether.

Interesting. People are always saying that the analog meters arent that accurate and the smart meters are....

 

[slodat]

No doubt new meters work well. We have 4200 MW of generation in the power house I work in. We use a combo of old and new here. The old electrical-mechanical relays and metering are being phased out in favor of microprocessor stuff for sure. There is still a ton of electrical-mechanical in service though.

 

[DC73]

Interesting. People are always saying that the analog meters arent that accurate and the smart meters are....

Analog meters are very accurate when first calibrated. But, as with any mechanical device, they tend to slow down with age. That's why the bill tends to go up when an old analog meter is replaced with a digital. Smart power companies have designated calibration intervals for the mechanical meters to lessen the loss of revenue. Depending on the age of an analog meter and when it was last calibrated, a customer might not see any difference when replaced with a digital.

DC

 

[slodat]

Interesting. People are always saying that the analog meters arent that accurate and the smart meters are....

Are the people saying this meter/relay technicians? I'm assuming "smart" means digital?

 

[sberry]

I figured it was strictly watts.

 

[fast one]

Depending on what your voltage started at, you may have fallen below minimum standards. Is it possible that you have a hot leg starting to burn open or a bad connection on the power companies side.

Are all of your connections on the load side of the meter tight?

 

[MTW]

Couple of pointers,
Do you have a tenant running up the bill?
Does the home have any underground. Old underground leaking can eventually lead to some horrendous invoices, if not found and mitigated. Outbuilding feeders, post lights, outdoor receptacles? Seen it happen many times before.

Old overhead utility connections are vulnerable to corrosion, especially the neutral which is usually left bare and exposed. Bad neutral connections on the pole lead to unequal division of voltages, especially when the loads are greater. When it gets bad enough electronic items are usually the first thing to show the signs. Ask the neighbors that are on the same transformer can if they have noticed any similar problems.

Most utility voltage specs are +/- 10% a 10V drop on a 240V system is still within the specification. 240V -10% =216V

MTW Ω

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Couple of pointers,
Do you have a tenant running up the bill?
Does the home have any underground. Old underground leaking can eventually lead to some horrendous invoices, if not found and mitigated. Outbuilding feeders, post lights, outdoor receptacles? Seen it happen many times before.

Old overhead utility connections are vulnerable to corrosion, especially the neutral which is usually left bare and exposed. Bad neutral connections on the pole lead to unequal division of voltages, especially when the loads are greater. When it gets bad enough electronic items are usually the first thing to show the signs. Ask the neighbors that are on the same transformer can if they have noticed any similar problems.

Most utility voltage specs are +/- 10% a 10V drop on a 240V system is still within the specification. 240V -10% =216V

MTW Ω

i once had a customer who had 228v at the main service panel with NO LOAD. When she kicked on the air conditioning or oven it would drop even lower and cause breakers to trip due to the low voltage. Turned put PGE had issues in the neighborhood for years and had been out numerous times to fix it!