How to check the meter at home independently?
Every month people pay for electricity,the flow of which is accounted for by the electric meter. However, often the amount of electricity consumed is significantly higher than the actual energy consumption. This casts doubt on the quality of the meter. Let's look at how to check the electricity meter at home.
Why do they lie electricity meters?
During periods of seasonal change, electricity meters often overestimate their testimony. These devices are lying. In various forums, many discussions of such cases can be found.
Some people argue that overnightwork of the refrigerator, the energy meter counted as much as 4 kW - it's a lot. At the enterprise, which deals with the supply of electricity to the apartments, residents are informed that the meter is working exactly. But engineers from the same enterprises openly declare that they lie counters, and even as they lie. This is especially true for budget systems, such as the Mercury counter. Very often they complain about him.
The real picture is that to give out inflatedindicators the device of account can and at quite correct work. The first reason is the reduction of the voltage in the network due to the fault of the mass use of air conditioners or heating equipment. Household appliances change the efficiency in the direction of reduction, if the voltage is below 220 V.
So, an electrical appliance to achieve some kind ofThe task is necessary, for example, not 0,19 kV / h under the passport, and from 0,25 and above. This picture can be observed with all home appliances. It turns out that the same consumer of electricity at different times on the meter will spend a different amount of energy, although it seems that everything is fine.
In this case it is necessary to testmeters, so as not to pay energy companies what they should pay for themselves. The fact is that the electricity supplier must maintain the required parameters in the network. If the parameters are violated, then the supplier of the company pays for it in Europe.
When should I check the counter electric power?
To check the device of the account follows in cases, if inhis work is a violation, namely, a strong increase in consumption, or, conversely, a sharp decline. With an emergency check, you should not delay, a quick reaction in this case will avoid serious penalties and problems. Also, the check should be carried out with the connection of any new equipment, if the energy consumption remains the same as it was. And one more situation is a decrease in real consumption, if the meter does not change its performance in any way.
Also the electric meter is checked once during each year. Such timely checks can also help to avoid serious problems.
Are you familiar with the situations described? Then it is worth using simple tips on how to check the meter yourself. During the testing the device will be checked for self-propulsion and error. It takes a stopwatch, a multimeter, a 100-watt bulb and a calculator.
Verify the connection is correct
This is a very important point. It is important that the meter is correctly connected to the electrical network. This can be a 220 V network or an industry standard of 380 V.
Single-phase meter
Single-phase meters are used in apartments, the networkfor such apartments is also single-phase. To connect in this case, four terminals are used. The correct circuit is one where the phase wire will go from the electric line to the first counter terminal. Through the second terminal, the line usually goes into the apartment. It is also considered correct when the neutral wire goes to terminal 3 and exits through terminal 4. How to check the electricity meter at home for correct connection? Just count the terminals and see where and what goes.
Three-phase meter
For residents of private homes, a slightly different connection scheme is used, since in this case there is likely to be a three-phase electricity meter.
The scheme only changes the number of cables andterminals. In general, the principle of connection is the same - the phase from the electrical line is connected to terminal 1 and exits terminal 2. The second phase enters terminal 3 and exits terminal 4. The third phase approaches terminal 5 and exits the sixth. Zero is connected to terminal 7 and goes to the 8th.
That's all you need to know before you check the meter.
Testing the meter for the self-propelled gun
What is a self-propelled gun? Everything is very simple - it is energy accounting, if at the current time any expense is missing. That is, the meter can read the indications independently, without using electrical appliances.
To verify that the device drivedoes not rotate independently, it is necessary to completely switch off all automata that are in the electrical panel at the bottom of the device and serve outlets, switches. Also it is necessary to disconnect all electrical devices.
How to check the home electric meter on the self-propelled gun,If there are no machines in the electrical network? It happens and this - this test is even easier. All electrical appliances, as well as switches, are disconnected from the mains. In this case, the electricity consumption should be absent.
After disconnection, it is recommended to wait around10-15 minutes. Then a visual test is performed: if the LED flashes on the front panel or the disc is spinning, then this test device did not pass. The owner has no choice but to check the correctness of the electricity meter in the management or service company.
If the device is functional, then nothing will be blinking or rotating. The LED can blink once in 10 minutes, the disk should make one turn for the same 10 minutes.
We consider the measurement error
So, in the course of this test it is necessary to calculateaccounting system error. To do this, the incandescent lamp, multimeter, stopwatch, and also the calculator are useful. As a multimeter, it is best to use an electronic device.
As a load, the most commonincandescent lamp - the whole problem is that modern appliances can adjust their power depending on the situation. As a consequence, the passport capacity will not correspond to the real values. If there is an error already at this stage, the result of the check will not be accurate.
How to check the accuracy of the electricity meter
The first step is to perform a networkvoltage, here and need a multimeter. How to use this device, you need to know in advance. The figure on the display of this measuring device is better written on a piece of paper.
Then measure the current intensity of the light bulb. The tester is switched to the current measurement mode and connected to the lamp. Together with the current strength for the calculations, the power of the light bulb is also required. This can be learned with a simple formula from the school course of physics - the tension is multiplied by the power. In addition, you should also calculate the resistance of the light bulb - the voltage is divided by the power.
Now it's time to go to the check. Let's see how to check the electricity meter at home for accuracy. For this purpose, when a light bulb is lit, it is measured how long it takes for the registration device to use 10 LED blinks or 10 turns of the disk. At the same time, you need to monitor the voltage in the network. For example, the device can do 10 revolutions in 2 minutes, and the voltage can be 223 V.
Further on the meter body it is required to findIts value is constant - it is denoted in pulses per kWh. Also, the meaning can be different. For example, the electronic meter "Mercury" has this data on the front panel.
We use the formulas
Using the formula P = U * U / R, calculate the actual consumption of electricity. This is done in order to find out how much the lamp actually consumes at the current moment.
To verify, it is still necessary to find out whichpower was consumed during the verification period, for example, let it be 2 minutes. To find this out, the actual consumption should be divided by the time of verification, in this case 120 s.
You can check the error using the following formula: 1000 is multiplied by the number of revolutions divided by the constant from the front panel of the device. For example: 1000 * 10/3200. The error is determined by subtracting the figure from the previous step from actual consumption. Further, all this must be multiplied by 100. If it turned out about 5%, then this is an insignificant error.
E = (P * T * A / constant number of pulses - 1) * 100%,
where E is the error value in percent, P is the lamp power, T is the time for which the counter will make one full revolution, and A is the gear ratio of the meter.
Tests for magnetization
Often on the Internet, questions are asked about countersbrand "Mercury", as well as "Neva" on the level of magnetization. The thing is that these devices are equipped with a special antimagnetic seal. If this device was tried to stop using a powerful magnet, then this same seal will change its color. As a result, when checking equipment from the service and management companies, you can get serious problems.
That's all you need to know about how to check the meter at home. This information will help to avoid unnecessary spending on bills and serious problems.
