Electricity Meters

[teralin]

After nearly twelve months of asking, I had my electricity meter fitted today and it seems to spinning round at a rate of knots I have checked it over a period of exactly one hour with only the fridge and freezer operating and the meter registered 2 kw (I think) which should be way too high for two low wattage appliances. So perhaps I am misreading the meter. There is a series of zeros across the front followed by a small comma and then there is a barely visible small wheel going round which is presumably fractions of a kw. If my meter shows eg 0000007,* (the asterisk being the fraction), does that mean that 7 kw have been recorded on the meter?

[Valencia_Paul]

2 Kw in a hour with just a fridge and freezer sounds way too much.
Are you sure nothing else is on, like A/C? Or maybe you are powering your neighbour! Try turning off fridge and freezer for a few minutes and see what happens.

[Campo Kenny]

I had similar on the last holiday out there. We got a letter from Seviliana with a card asking us to read meter, fill in the card and send off.
After finding the meter (what a job) and marking it with the GPS we read it.

The last reading they said was something like 285............we panicked when the new reading was 3019 or similar( we are hardly ever there), and yes the wheel was spinning like a dentists drill.

Needn't have worried, the 9 on our reading was in fact a fraction and the amount used since last reading was 16kw...pheewww.

They do not seem to have a different colour for the fraction number like we do here in the uk and the meter does look like it reads in full kw's.

[teralin]

Yes it does sound too much and Kenny it may be that the last digit is one tenth of a kilowatt but there is definitely a very small comma between the final digit and the tiny black wheel to the right. Can someone take a look at their own meter and let me know how the numbers correspond to their bills. It would be a relief to know that the last digit (7 in my case) is 700 watts and not 7 kw.

[Beachcomber]

By the same token 200 watts for a fridge and freezer for an hour would be too low. Try switching off your electricity at the main trip switch where the power enters the house and see if the meter is still registering consumption.

It could well be registering someone else's usage as well.

[El Cid]

We have a fairly new (4 years old) meter and it does not show fractions - the reading is in KwH.

Sid

[Valencia_Paul]

I had a quick look on here:-

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fus ... ducts_html

and it seems most fridges use between 250 to 700 Kw hrs per year.
If we take 500 Kw hours average for 1 hour we could expect 0.057 Kw hours to be used. That would only be 57 watts per fridge or freezer per hour so the 200 watt/hour usage is in the right ballpark. (500 / 365 / 24).

Of course the consumption varies with ambient temp, what is in the fridge and how often and how long you open the door for.