Electricity Meter

sharky008

Hi Everyone,

I have a question with regards to electricity meters and the fact that ours may well be overcharging us. After receiving a back bill from our supplier that was over £1800 over 2.5 years, I decided to look into our usage and cannot seem to find an answer from anyone. We already pay £125 a month so this is quite a bump up in prices. As this forms a back bill, Im also fighting this front for a write off.

Anyway, the electric meter. Actaris SM0. Most electric meters have an impulse (a flash of a red light), our meter is supposed to clock up at a rate of 1000imp/kwh. So my understanding is when the red light comes on 1000 times, this is one KWH.

Units on the far right of the display are split into 100. 100 of these units makes up 1kwh. So that means that the light should flash 10 times and click over 1/100 of a unit.

100*10 = 1000 imp.

Now our meter, clocks up 1/100 of a unit after 5 flashes. This flash is also not an impulse, it appears to be a light on/light off state equispaced. (Most of the other meters ive seen are a quick pulse.)

Can anyone shed any light on this. My question is should I count light on and light off as two impressions or one. My provider seems to be having real issues with what im saying. If im right I think our meter is faulty and we are being charged twice the amount.

Carrot007

Not really enough info.

http://www.universalmeterservices.co.uk/images/ACE1000.pdf says it is 800 imp / kWh. And noone on the frotnline help will be able to tell you. It is too technical. Have you even a pulse reader attached? Doing it by eye is not going to help!


Anyway no need for even doing that, just work it out yourself.


1. How many units are you using a day and what size if the property? For example I am in a 3 bed semi. 2 Poeple, and I work for home most days. I use around 16 units a day. (working from home has not made much difference to electric since heating is gas).


2. What heavy use electrical items do you use and how much? (heating/shower are the usual two).


3. Get a 1000/2000 watt heater and turn of eveything else (your freezer will be fine if you do not open it) and run it for an hour. Record units used, is it the expected 1/2?


£125 seems reasonable to me, it's what I pay! It's not as cheap as it used to be. (For more info regarding electric shoewer which my last palce did and this does not I was paying around £160 a month there).


If your test in part three is done correctly and shows a big variance then tell your electric company and they should do something (the smaller ones will prefer you to leave though, you get what you pay for).

Robin9

Are you reading your own meter ?

Are you aware that you need to include the leading zero's and ignore the numbers after the decimal point ? Get this wrong and you could introduce a factor of 10 or 100.

Look back on your bills and see if the meter reads suddenly changed.

sharky008

125 a month I'd say is about right. That's what I've been paying over the past 2.5 years. It's the accumulation of the back bill amount that worries me.

My question is more to do with the meter. Clicks are audible and visible and this is for 0.01 units. 5 flashes. 0.01kwh.

By my understanding this should be 10.

I have a video but cannot post a link as a new user.