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Electric meter dial runs very very slow when power is completely cut from breaker????

S

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
So I bought a new house, I cut the main breaker switch before getting the power company to turn the power on. When I visited the house (the day the power was supposed to be on) I noticed the dial on the mechanical meter was turning very slow (a little faster than the minute hand on a clock). I went inside the house and verified the main breaker switch is actually off and no other breakers are connected to the meter (just one breaker panel). I contacted the power company telling them about this and they agreed to send someone out to test the meter. I get a letter back indicating the meter is running within the calibrated limits. A person told me at work that the meter actually needs power going to it, so the meter turns based on it’s own power consumption to meter the electricity????
 
EagleKeeper said:
Try asking them. 😵

Any idea how much 3 watts is costing? Is this per hour or per month?😕
Click to expand...

Assuming the meter takes 3 watts to power, that's .003 kwh used per hour.

running 24hours and you're at .072 kwh used each day.

And let's just say electricity is 10 cents/kwh, that ends up being $0.0072/day.

For 30 days, that would be $0.216
 
Sluggo said:
21 cents a month at 10% interest (maybe someday we will see that again) over 70 years gets you $35,000
Click to expand...

I think your math is off by a few zeros.
I=Prt
I=Principle ( 21 cents) x rate (10%) x time (70 years)
I=0.21x10%x70
I=$14.70

This is assuming a Yearly APR. IF you compound it monthly, then you're looking at $223.71
 
Last edited:
I'd be looking for a more serious problem than power utility conspiracies. There could be something called a high-resistance short circuit somewhere between the meter and the panel. A short like that can be a fire hazard. Is your house old? Could be the insulation on the wiring has rotted.

I'd call a licensed electrician and ask them about it.
 
JeffreyLebowski said:
I think your math is off by a few zeros.
I=Prt
I=Principle ( 21 cents) x rate (10%) x time (70 years)
I=0.21x10%x70
I=$14.70

This is assuming a Yearly APR. IF you compound it monthly, then you're looking at $223.71
Click to expand...
Somehow I think that's wrong.

If you're putting in $0.21/month, over 70 years, that's $176.40 before any interest is even applied.
 
PottedMeat said:
assuming this is something like what you have:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sangamo-KWH-Meter-Model-CL200-Type-J5S-30TA-240V-/170604086622

assuming that means it needs 3 watts to run
Click to expand...

Nope.

3W means '3 wire' in this context: Phase A, Neutral and Phase B

Electric meters shouldn't rotate significantly when isolated completely. However, due to the way that they work, sometimes they do record tiny amounts of power when none is being drawn. I've even seen one which ran backwards (very, very slowly) when powered but not loaded.

As it is, the way the meters are designed, they shouldn't record their own power consumption - the meter takes its power from the circuit before the actual measurement element is connected.

To estimate how fast it is recording energy, use the meter constant (labelled on the meter as 'Kh' - typically this is about 6 or 7). The 'Kh' is how many Watt-hours of energy spin the disc by 1 rotation. So for a Kh=6 meter, 6W of power draw would spin the disc exactly once in 1 hour.
 
Mark R said:
Nope.

3W means '3 wire' in this context: Phase A, Neutral and Phase B

Electric meters shouldn't rotate significantly when isolated completely. However, due to the way that they work, sometimes they do record tiny amounts of power when none is being drawn. I've even seen one which ran backwards (very, very slowly) when powered but not loaded.

As it is, the way the meters are designed, they shouldn't record their own power consumption - the meter takes its power from the circuit before the actual measurement element is connected.

To estimate how fast it is recording energy, use the meter constant (labelled on the meter as 'Kh' - typically this is about 6 or 7). The 'Kh' is how many Watt-hours of energy spin the disc by 1 rotation. So for a Kh=6 meter, 6W of power draw would spin the disc exactly once in 1 hour.
Click to expand...

ah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_meter

In an induction type meter, creep is a phenomenon that can adversely affect accuracy, that occurs when the meter disc rotates continuously with potential applied and the load terminals open circuited. A test for error due to creep is called a creep test.
Click to expand...

i guess it passed their creep test
 
JeffreyLebowski said:
I think your math is off by a few zeros.
I=Prt
I=Principle ( 21 cents) x rate (10%) x time (70 years)
I=0.21x10%x70
I=$14.70

This is assuming a Yearly APR. IF you compound it monthly, then you're looking at $223.71
Click to expand...

your principal is only considering 1 month of 21 cents.

He was talking about 21 cents every month over 70 years.
 
I've seen this before and there's another possibility that hasn't been mentioned: shady wiring jobs. In the case I saw, the previous owner of the house had wired in an alarm system to the utility side of the main breakers, so it sucked power and ran the electric meter even when all the breakers were in the off position.
 
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