The cost of electricity is constantly increasing, as is the amount of its consumption. Therefore, issues of proper accounting remain invariably relevant. If the readings taken last month are significantly different from their current value, you need to check the counter. It can be carried out periodically independently. It is not necessary to call a specialist. How to check the electricity meter for correct readings will be discussed later.
When do you need to check?
For various reasons, the owners of the house or apartment may sneak up on whether the electric meter is working properly. In this case, you need to find out how to check it. It should be understood that such a procedure has nothing to do with verification. It has no legal force. Such a check is necessary if the owners doubt the correct metering of electricity.
If some violations are detected, you need to contact a specialized organization. Its employees will confirm or deny the fact that the device does not work correctly.
Checking whether the electric meter considers correctly is quite simple. This is a simple process that almost everyone can handle. But in some situations, a check is necessary. These include the following.
- For unknown reasons, the amount of energy consumed has increased. At the same time, the owners did not begin to use electric household appliances, did not purchase new equipment. Electricity consumption can increase if you buy a washing machine, air conditioning, heater, slow cooker, etc. Also, the number of kilowatts consumed per month can increase if more people live in the apartment or in your own house. In some cases, a change in this indicator may be due to seasonal changes. If there were no such facts, but the indicator of electricity consumption increased markedly, an inspection should be carried out.
- The meter readings did not decrease, compared with the previous month, although the owners were not at home for a long time (at least a week). It should also alert if the indicator declined disproportionately.
- Electricity consumption, in accordance with the meter, clearly exceeds the available capabilities of household appliances.
Preparation for verification
Before checking the correct operation of the electric meter, you need to perform some preparatory steps. It is necessary to exclude the possibility of the occurrence of "self-propelled." Such a term is used to describe a situation when all electrical appliances in the housing are turned off, but the meter still works, the drive wound kilowatts.
It is necessary to leave the meter energized, but it will be necessary to turn off the single-pole circuit breaker. If plugs are provided in the system, they must be turned out. Then for 15 minutes you need to observe the operation of the device. If the system has a disk, during this time it can make only one revolution, but no more.
Being interested in how to check the correctness of the readings of the Mercury electric meter or other popular modern models, one needs to focus on the operation of the light indicator. It emits light pulses. With the consumption in the house completely turned off, it can emit only one signal.
It is also worth considering that it is not the norm if the meter showed less kilowatts per month than usual. If the owners did not limit themselves in the consumption of electricity, but a similar situation is observed, it is necessary to check the integrity of the device body. This action must be performed in accordance with all electrical safety requirements. If there are defects, you need to replace the counter. To do this, call the experts of the electricity supplier company. They will conduct an appropriate examination. If it turns out that the user performed some actions to save payment, disrupting the operation of the device, he will pay a fine. Therefore, you must perform all the steps to check the equipment very carefully.
How to detect theft of electricity?
When checking the meter for the correct readings, the likelihood of energy theft must be eliminated. If all household appliances in the apartment are turned off, but the device still counts kilowatts, this may indicate a breakdown.
But sometimes, especially in an apartment building, this situation may indicate the unauthorized use of electricity by neighbors. In this case, additional wires will go to the shield from your counter. Sometimes it’s hard to determine if a person is not an electrician. Intricate twists can confuse even a professional.
Wrongful acts on the part of the owners
Sometimes the owners of the apartment themselves use different methods in order to illegally reduce the count rate of electricity consumption. Extraneous interference with the system may damage the device. At the same time, testers will surely find additional devices. The illegal interference in the meter system is indicated by:
- Hole drilled in the housing. It is used to slow down the counting rate of consumed kilowatts with a needle.
- Lack of glass on the electric meter. Instead, they can insert film. But such material leaves a mark. During the examination, this will certainly be revealed.
- Connection of additional wiring, due to which part of the electricity is not fixed. Such a wire is easy to find with a detector. He usually hides behind plaster or skirting.
- Loose tension screw. This can be done if there is no seal on the counter.
To avoid problems with the inspection company, you must periodically inspect the device for damage. Checking the electricity meter for proper operation necessarily begins with a visual inspection.
Checking the connection
How to check whether the meter counts correctly? It is necessary to determine whether the device is connected correctly. If there are violations, the equipment will not work properly. Therefore, you must perform the appropriate action. Most often, single-rate (single-phase) meters are installed in apartments. This equipment is characterized by direct connection. You need to examine how the wires are connected. If everything is in order, you need to use special equipment (clamp meters). They can be bought at a specialty store or rented from a friend electrician.
Using the equipment presented, you can determine what load acts on the network. When using clamp meters, complex calculations are not required. If you plan to periodically check the operation of the electric meter, it is best to purchase equipment in a specialized store. In this case, it will be possible at the slightest need to obtain an accurate result.
How to check if the meter works correctly with measuring clamps? It is necessary to familiarize yourself with the instructions of the manufacturer of the presented equipment. Next, you need to switch the range to the ACA 200 position. This is the best mode for checking the correct connection and operation of the meter.
The pliers must be opened and then fixed around the phase wire. They should cover only one wire. You can measure on an insulated wire, which is fed into the apartment. The result will appear on the device screen. It is measured in amperes. This indicator needs to be multiplied by the network voltage (220 V). The cosine should be 1.
Measurement error
There is another way to check if the meter is correctly counting. Indeed, not everyone has at home special equipment in the form of clamp meters. One of the methods for checking the meter is to determine its error. To find out, you need to prepare a simple incandescent lamp that will create a load. In addition, you need to prepare a calculator and stopwatch. Measurements will be carried out using a multimeter. He must have an electronic scoreboard. A dial multimeter is not suitable for this.
The use of a conventional lamp during the examination allows you to get an accurate result. If you use household appliances for these purposes, you can get the wrong result. The data sheet indicates the maximum power of the device. But many of them in different operating modes consume an unequal amount of electricity. Because of this feature, it is not possible to determine the exact error of the counter. An ordinary incandescent lamp is stable. Therefore, it is used during testing.
Considering how to check whether the electric meter works correctly, you need to familiarize yourself with the presented methodology in detail.
First, with a multimeter, you need to measure the voltage in the network. How to perform this action must be read in the manufacturer's instructions. The result will almost never be exactly 220 V. For example, you may get 223 V or some other value. It is written on a piece of paper.
Next, the amperage of the lamp is measured. The tester for this is switched to ammeter mode. It is connected to a light bulb. The obtained value, for example, can be 0.43 A. In order to find out what power the bulb will have at this voltage, you need to perform a simple calculation:
223 × 0.43 = 96 W
This deviation is 4%; therefore, standard values cannot be taken for calculations. They can differ significantly from the actual indicators.
Subsequent Settlement
Considering how to check the electricity meter for correct readings, you need to understand the essence of calculating the real indicators of the network. For this, you also need to calculate the lamp resistance. To do this, the mains voltage is divided by the load of the appliance:
223 ÷ 0.4 = 557.5 Ohms
Now you can start checking the counter. You need to connect the lamp to the network. Then, using a stopwatch, it is measured how long the counter blinks an indicator 10 times or makes 10 turns with a disk. At this point, it is important to control the voltage in the network. So, for example, during measurements it was found that the disc made ten revolutions in 2 minutes (120 seconds). The voltage during the test remained at 223 V.
Further on the front panel you need to find a constant value of the electric meter. This, for example, may be 3,200 imp / kWh. Other values may be indicated. Next, you need to perform the calculation using the following formula:
PE = NS × NS ÷ SL, where
PE - lamp energy consumption (real),
- mains voltage,
SL - lamp resistance.
PE = 223 × 223 ÷ 557.5 = 89 W
It is necessary to calculate how many watts the lamp consumed during the test:
120 s × 89 W ÷ 3600 = 2.97 Wh
To determine the error of the meter, the calculation is performed:
1000 × number of revolutions ÷ constant value indicated on the front panel of the meter. Substituting the available values, we obtain:
1000 × 10 ÷ 3200 = 3.13 Wh
Error = (2.97 - 3.13) ÷ 3.13 × 100 = -5%.
This is a minor error. It is in the acceptable range. A deviation of 10% is allowed. In the presented example, the counter is working correctly.
Magnetization
Considering how to check the electric meter for correct readings, it is necessary to consider such a feature as magnetization. Some users use a magnet to reduce the speed of counting kilowatts. Do not resort to such actions. A similar trick will certainly be revealed during the test. To understand why it is not necessary to resort to magnetizing the counter, you need to consider the features of the check.
So, in modern models of the presented devices, for example, Mercury, Neva, Energomer, etc., a special magnetic seal is installed. This is a special sticker that, if the meter stops, will change color in a similar way. If this happens, the user will be accused of illegally consuming electricity during verification.
In simpler models of meters, you can also check the health. To do this, you need a thin metal needle. If it is attracted to the counter panel, then it is magnetized. But in such models, if you remove the magnet, the field is restored literally in 2-3 days. In some cases, the magnetization does not pass. In this case, you need to buy a special demagnetizer.
Two and three tariff meters
A simple check is performed on the correct operation of a three-phase or two-phase electric meter. Such devices have certain features. At different periods of the day, the cost of electricity calculated by such devices is different. At night, the tariff will be slightly lower than during the day. This feature of the calculation allows you to reduce the load on the network in the daytime.
For this reason, two- or three-phase meters are called two-rate and three-rate. They allow you to reduce your energy bill. At the same time, uneven consumption leads to intense environmental pollution during the day and evening. Electricity consumption at night is more environmentally friendly.
The disadvantage of using such devices is the high requirements that are put forward for the proper operation of electrical appliances. Otherwise, significant savings will be impossible.
Checking the two-rate counter
How to check a two-tariff meter for correct readings? You need to perform a few simple steps. First, the correct connection of the appliance is checked. The device is also checked for the presence of "self-propelled". If no problems are found in this indicator, you can proceed with further verification.
How to check the meter for correct readings? Disconnect all electrical appliances from the network, turn on all machines that exit the shield. Next, the above procedure is carried out with a lamp and a multimeter.