Reading a meter

[Shaun @ Tru6]

The electric company says I used 17,500 kWh in February and March. First, I have no idea what could use that much electricity in 2 months but we did agree that it seems a bit high so they are looking into it. And they said I should take pics of my meter every day.

Pics below of entire cycle. Which numbers mean what and what is important?

[masraum]

Wow, not as easy as reading the old analog boxes. So many different bits of info. I assume it flips through the various screens as you're standing there. I would ASSuME that the main number that you need to determine power used in KW. I was guessing one of the numbers in the 80k range, but then you have 2. It looks like it should be a smart meter and so they shouldn't have to read it.

I'm curious to know the answer about how to read them.

Good luck!

[gacook]

No clue. To add to my lack of understanding, I have another meter that looks the same that is my solar meter.

I only look at that one to make sure it's "doing something." That lets me know I'm producing and sending energy to the power company.

The rest of it...yeah, it'd be interesting to understand, so I'm waiting for a smarty to answer

[HobieMarty]

I guess you could search for how to read a meter on YouTube and see what the experts say.
I don't have a clue either, but you would think we all would know how to read one in order to keep from being ripped off by the power company.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[masraum]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

I guess you could search for how to read a meter on YouTube and see what the experts say.
I don't have a clue either, but you would think we all would know how to read one in order to keep from being ripped off by the power company.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I was taught how to read one of these in school, but it only gives one number and you can see if the wheel is spinning fast, slow, or stopped.

[Steve Carlton]

[rwest]

Shaun,

Do you have a clamp on amp meter you can clamp onto the main line in your panel? Of course you need to be super careful not to touch anything and fry yourself.

You can clamp to individual circuits as well to zero in on a circuit that is drawing a lot or when you’re not expecting a load.

Rutager

[red 928]

Anecdote:
A guy I knew in high school got a job working for the local small town utility reading meters.
Only problem was, he was lazy and had a wee bit of a problem with the liquor.
When faced with a meter than was a pain to get to, he would "estimate" the number based on experience and previous useage.
He started only doing it once in a while but the longer he got away with it the more it became a habit.
After a while he could do a daily route in 20 minutes without getting out of the truck much.

Eventually it caught up with him and he got fired, and lots of customers were shocked to find that they suddenly owed many thousands of dollars in unpaid utility bills because he had guessed way to low.

Small town, big scandal. He nearly went to jail for it but was able to scurry away with his tail and rep on fire.

Bottom line, I don't trust utilities to decide how much I owe and regularly double-check to be sure. Same with the water meter.
Luckily I still have analog meters.

[rockfan4]

The first screen matches the serial number printed right above it.
Screen 2 looks like the date.
Screen 3 is likely the time.
I believe screen 4 is the number you need to watch.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

The first screen matches the serial number printed right above it.
Screen 2 looks like the date.
Screen 3 is likely the time.
I believe screen 4 is the number you need to watch.

Good eye! What about screen No 64? Both 4 and 64 have units of kW.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by masraum

Good eye! What about screen No 64? Both 4 and 64 have units of kW.

It's a smart meter, and 64 displays "prev kw", so that might be the reading 24 hr ago, or maybe the last time the meter was remotely read. I guess if Shaun takes a set of photos at the same time tomorrow, and screen 64 now reads 85398, we'll have that answer.

[Flat Six]

Originally Posted by masraum

Good eye! What about screen No 64? Both 4 and 64 have units of kW.

Originally Posted by rockfan4

The first screen matches the serial number printed right above it.
Screen 2 looks like the date.
Screen 3 is likely the time.
I believe screen 4 is the number you need to watch.

Originally Posted by rockfan4

It's a smart meter, and 64 displays "prev kw", so that might be the reading 24 hr ago, or maybe the last time the meter was remotely read. I guess if Shaun takes a set of photos at the same time tomorrow, and screen 64 now reads 85398, we'll have that answer.

rockfan4 and masraum are correct; here's some additional info:

1) meter serial #
2) date
3) time
4) current kVA (rate -- not really useful for measuring usage unless you also know power factor; this will fluctuate throughout the day)
5) current (total) kWH -- this is what you want to record
6) current kW (rate -- this will fluctuate throughout the day)
7) previous kVA (probably previous day; see item 4 above)
8) previous kWH (probably previous day); if you subtract this number from #5 you get 2400 kWH (85398-82998). 60 days @ 2,400/day = 144,000 kWH for 2 months; within ~18% of the 175,000 kWH you mentioned.
9) previous kW (rate)
10) ??

FWIW, here in Nevada our base electricity rates are in the lower range of markets in the country. 175,000 kWH over two months here would cost (two-phase residential) over $9,500/month.

Where I used to work (Portland General Electric) we'd capture readings every 15 minutes for the vast majority of smart meters. Any customer could download ~2 weeks' worth of their usage data; I'd dump that into Excel and analyze what time & which days we used more/less electricity in 1/4-hour increments. If I really had some extra time, I'd overlay hourly temperatures. I am (was) a data geek. You might want to check your utility's online portal for something similar.

Is this for a commercial building?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thank you Dale and rock, this helps a lot, now I can create a spreadsheet.

It's commercial, 3 phase, and I should be in the 3500 range per month vs. 17,500 for the two months.

Going to take pics now and call it a day.

[wdfifteen]

Last year a hose to my irrigation system blew out. I got charged for using a LOT of water. So maybe one of your wires broke or has a hole in it. It could happen.

[LWJ]

Back in the bad old days, people would tap into a convenient power line and bootleg juice to power their grow operations.

No idea about MA and your legality of MJ but this sort of thing used to be somewhat common.

Good luck. A weird issue.

[A930Rocket]

I don’t keep track of our power, but I get an alert from the water company if I take a shower and wash clothes the same day.

I thought the old meters read in 10s, 100’s, 1000s etc and you read the meter dials left to right to add up your data.

[Racerbvd]

The new “Smart” meters, I came home a few weeks ago to find a note telling me that I had to have a “Issue” repaired by a licensed electrician and a Town Code Enforcement agent or have my electricity turned off in 10 days.
I immediately call the power company and give them the number on the card.
The last thing electrical wise was when my insurance company said that I needed to update my fuse box. I used a known, local electrician, permitting, etc, and all has been great. The lady from the power company told me that something needed to be replaced and inspected.
After talking to my electrician (who is also on the Town Council) told me that the JEA had decided that one of the breakers, which was in Code when he installed it in 2022, but for some reason, three years later, it had to be replaced by a licensed electrician and reinspected by Code Enforcement.
My electrician said that the JEA had used the smart meter literally spy on you.

[wdfifteen]

I asked the installer what all the numbers meant when they put the new meter in to accommodate our solar panels. He went through it so fast I barely understood what he was saying, but I was glad to hear , "this is the number showing how much your panels are sending back into the system."

[WPOZZZ]

17500 kwh. That would be an $8k+ bill here. I'd get rid of that grow farm.

[Danimal16]

Shawn, put a go pro on it to record a specific time for a specific duration. It will take the guess work out of it.