Electric Meter Faulty?
marina_vitro
Posts: 5 Forumite
in Energy
I had a brief power cut or power surge on Wednesday morning this week where I lost the electricity in part (but not all) of my flat for a brief second (some appliances went off, others didn't).
Since then my electric meter has been flashing 88888888 ever since and the red light has been flashing much more quickly than normal.
There's no reset button the meter so I don't know what to do. Has this happened to anyone here?
Thanks,
Marina Vitromanovic
Since then my electric meter has been flashing 88888888 ever since and the red light has been flashing much more quickly than normal.
There's no reset button the meter so I don't know what to do. Has this happened to anyone here?
Thanks,
Marina Vitromanovic
0
Comments
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marina_vitro wrote: »I had a brief power cut or power surge on Wednesday morning this week where I lost the electricity in part (but not all) of my flat for a brief second (some appliances went off, others didn't).
Since then my electric meter has been flashing 88888888 ever since and the red light has been flashing much more quickly than normal.
There's no reset button the meter so I don't know what to do. Has this happened to anyone here?
Thanks,
Marina Vitromanovic
It didn't happen to me. But you say it happened to you last Wednesday? It's Sunday today.
But if you think the meter has developed a fault, I suggest you contact your supplier sooner rather than later. Depending on your supplier, you may not now be able to contact them until tomorrow.0 -
You need to call your supplier ASAP0
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I'd agree with calling them ASAP, the display fault to me says its corrupted something internally but the fact its flashing faster to me also tells me its probably over reading, the saving grace here is unless its stored and retrievable via a PIC (or similar, a job for electronics people not for the regular 'meter man' due to taking it to bits) the meter is not showing said reading.
I don't know how they would deal with getting a reading, others on here would be able to tell you my thought would be if it was faulty for say 2 days or so, they would take some average for that month and use that for those two days.
Did you try to call them today ? I know its Sunday but its worth a minute to find out.0 -
I can't call them today as they're closed on a Sunday. My husband conveniently tells me that he's noticed this a couple of times before in the past after a power cut and says it always fixes itself in the end (???) although he can't remember how long it took before the display went back to normal!0
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Out of interest to me as a meter reader what make and model electric meter have you got ?. The only domestic meter which has 8 digits is the Secure Liberty 100 . Its showing the display of 88888888 meaning it can display , when working correctly , 8 digits.
I am concerned more about the fast pulsing red light. That is usually a sign that electricity is being consumed. The faster it pulses the more energy you are using.
I know that when a meter becomes blank they cannot retrieve the current reading, or any reading. Not so sure about your meter with its display still lit0 -
I'm just about to call my supplier to see what they say, but it's a "Single Phase Watt Hour Meter". It also says "Solid State Digital" on it.
I googled Secure Liberty 100 and it's definitely not that as it looks nothing like it.0 -
So I've just spoken to my supplier - clearly they don't seem to think this is of any great priority as an engineer is going to phone me to arrange a replacement meter "sometime within the next 10 working days".
Charming! At least they've confirmed I won't have to get a smart meter.0 -
Hopefully it will be a "like for like" meter change then.
Although it probably won't make a huge difference you could ask to see the new meter (if you're home when they are fitting it) before he/she fits it.
My understanding here is that Smart meters can be made into completely dumb ones anyway, the same way they would work if the supplier was not compatible with it. Would assume here if they had to install a smart as 'dumb' they would not** fit a SIM in it, as its pointless.
** imo, they should not!0 -
Hopefully it will be a "like for like" meter change then.
Although it probably won't make a huge difference you could ask to see the new meter (if you're home when they are fitting it) before he/she fits it.
My understanding here is that Smart meters can be made into completely dumb ones anyway, the same way they would work if the supplier was not compatible with it. Would assume here if they had to install a smart as 'dumb' they would not** fit a SIM in it, as its pointless.
** imo, they should not!
Personally I would nt trust the word of a call centre employee that the OP would`nt get a smart meter or that it if they did it would be made dumb.Hubs can easily be re activated.
OP if you have a small supplier those that are actually fitting smart meters all appear to be using Secure Liberty 100 meters, because as smart meters go they are as cheap as chips compared to other makes..Watch that meter fitter carefully to see what he s going to fit. Landis Gyr (British Gas ), Elster (Npower0 and Altara (SSE) are used by those big 6 suppliers0 -
Well I suppose if its in a cupboard if accidentally a Faraday cage was to accidentally appear in the cupboard door...
The owners cupboard door not around the meter0
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