Meter help needed

dogshome

I'm trying to sort out the Utility bills for the widow of a friend who recently died

I've photographed the meters, but am puzzled by the Elec meter. which seems to be fairly recent installed digital, but I when was takeing it's pic there was no red flashing light when I knew power was being used in the house, and the display was alternating from it's read of 986.77 to a solid row of 8's
Is this normal behaviour?

footyguy

dogshome wrote: »

I'm trying to sort out the Utility bills for the widow of a friend who recently died

I've photographed the meters, but am puzzled by the Elec meter. which seems to be fairly recent installed digital, but I when was takeing it's pic there was no red flashing light when I knew power was being used in the house, and the display was alternating from it's read of 986.77 to a solid row of 8's
Is this normal behaviour?

Depending on the meter, it may not have a red flashing light.
If you post the photo here, someone may be able to tell you if it should have a red flashing light.

Yes, could also be quite normal to flash between actual reading and all 8's (the all 8's shows all the LED indicators are working correctly).

Of course this assumes it's a single rate supply. If E7, it should rate between the two different registers before showing all 8's

[Deleted User]

Is there any red light on at all, even a non flashing one ? Yes completely normal to alternate from the row of 8s ( thats to check that the digital display is in order ) and the reading.

dogshome

Sorry so long coming back
Pics at. Whoops - wrong http, I'll try again

The meter is a Siemens S 2BS-100. At the time of photos the display was alternating between the reading and a solid line of 8's, but whilst I know the house was useing at least 250watts at the time, there was no steady or flashing light ( Which I suppose should be from white circled area on the display)

Q1 - Is the lack of a flashing light reason for a meter change ?

Q2 - The read out seems to consist of whole numbers only with no decimal place for fractions of a Kwh, am I right in thinking that the meter will run up to a maximum of 999,999 Kwh before it zero's and starts again

footyguy

dogshome wrote: »

Sorry so long coming back
Pics at. httpi//s1382.photobucket.com/user/Grey678/library/?sort=38page=1

The meter is a Siemens S 2BS-100. At the time of photos the display was alternating between the reading and a solid line of 8's, but whilst I know the house was useing at least 250watts at the time, there was no steady or flashing light ( Which I suppose should be from white circled area on the display)

Q1 - Is the lack of a flashing light reason for a meter change ?

Q2 - The read out seems to consist of whole numbers only with no decimal place for fractions of a Kwh, am I right in think that the meter will run up to a maximum of 999,999 Kwh before it zero's and starts again

This might help you
http://www.meterspec.com/522.pdf

(Not quite the same model as yours, but almost)

It would appears there should indeed be a falshing LED to indicate ongoing consumption.

The display is programmable within the 6 digits available.

So it could be 4 figures and 2 decimal places, 5 figures and 1 decimal place.

But yours seems programmed without any decimal places, so there seems a maximum of 5 digits only (leading zeros may be suppressed), not 6.

So that would be 99999kWh ... and 1 more would presumably return the display to 00000

Note that it is a multi register display also - the arrowheads indicate what is being displayed
i.e. registers 1-4 and the final one is the total
(Not all registers may be in use, but at least one of them should be plus the total)

As the meter both appears to be about to 'go around the clock' and the flashing LED seems to be non-functional, it would be worth alerting your supplier.

But if it's still recording usage, they might decide to leave it.

Edit: you've removed the link to the piccys (which wasn't quite right)
Here's the ones I looked at

MeterMan

The second picture in Footguys post is just the meter updating the reading, Its basically a none screen, the only one you need to worry about is the reading in the top picture.

footyguy

MeterMan wrote: »

The second picture in Footguys post is just the meter updating the reading, Its basically a none screen, the only one you need to worry about is the reading in the top picture.

It's actually there to prove the display if fully functioning, as previously mentioned
(rather than the meter updating)

e.g. a 7 could be dispalyed as a 1 if the top horizontal bar was non-functional

MeterMan

footyguy wrote: »

It's actually there to prove the display if fully functioning, as previously mentioned
(rather than the meter updating)

e.g. a 7 could be dispalyed as a 1 if the top horizontal bar was non-functional

Sounds like a more logical explanation, but the electronic E meters do update every 15 seconds or so.

dogshome

Thank you footguy, those are the pics I was attempting to upload, unsuccessfuly or so I thought.

What little billing paperwork I have for the account of this elderly couple, is based largely some very strange Estimated readings
17 Sep 12 to 13May 13 (239 days)
Start 90867E - End 3589E 12,722 units charged
Which means that EDF who are the supplier , assumed the meter had gone round the clockat a rate of 53 Kwh a day.
The first actual reading I have is 94415 0n 24 Jan 2014, hence my query as to how many whole numbers the meter displayed.

This account which was in the name of the husband only, has now been closed and a new one set up in the name of his widow, however EDF are likely to use the erratic billing history on the husbands account to set the D/Debit level for the widow at the same address - I reckon my best bet is to use the failed indicator lamp to push for a meter change, so the widow starts from a blank sheet
Thanks again for your help

MeterMan

Well something doesnt seem quite right there, its an awful lot of power to be using by an eledery couple.

It seems only 4000+Kwhs have gone through the meter in 10 months, so how can 12000kwhs go through in 7 months. The husband surely couldn't of used that much electricity on his own. If you are acting on behalf of the deceased man and his widow, ask the supplier for a copy of the last few years bills and see where the mistake is.

I anticipate that the end reading wasn't read correctly, and that a 9 is missing from the front, otherwise the supplier might wonder why its gone back up by 95000units.

dogshome

You are quite right meterman - I've only got two bills for reference
The first is dated 28th Jan 2013 and headed First Elec Bill which starts off with an Estimated reading of 90867, (wish I'd got into this couples billing earlier ), and ends with the astounding Estimated end reading of 3589 - 12,722 Kwh in 239 days at a cost of £1,463.41 !

However, the other bill I've got is dated 18th August 2014 which thank goodness starts off with Meter Readers reading of 94415, this coupled with reading by EDF on Nov 3rd of 98791 gives me an accurate consumption of 4376 Kwh over 284 days, which works out to 5,624 Kwh a year

Still huge for an elderly couple, but, they had 4 50watt halogens on all day in dark kitchen, say 10 hours a day = 730 Kwh a year (That's been sorted with LED's) and the husbands old tower computer & Skybox were on 24/7