How can I check the correctness of the meter operation?

How often do you check?

So, if you are familiar with one of the following situations, you should not lose time to check whether the electric meter in the private house or apartment is right:

1. Electricity consumption has increased dramatically, although you use the home appliances in the same way as before. In addition, new electrical appliances were not purchased and, accordingly, connected to the network.
2. Opposite situation - you less often began to use home appliances, but the electricity consumption did not decrease( for example, during your long absence).
3. Electricity consumption is very high, an order of magnitude higher than it can be in reality. For example, if your apartment has nothing more powerful than a kettle, and the electricity consumption is the same as that of a neighbor who uses an air conditioner or an oil heater every day.

If you are familiar with the above situations, read the tips below and immediately proceed to check the meter for self-propulsion and the error of accounting. To check the device, you will need a stopwatch, a calculator, a multimeter and a 100-watt incandescent lamp.

Step 1 - Checking the correctness of the

connection The first thing you need to check is whether the meter is properly connected to the 220 or 380 V network. We have already described the circuit for connecting a single-phase meter. It looks like this:

If in your case the connection does not match the example, you need to solve this problem as soon as possible. Illegal connection entails not only the possible malfunctioning of the electricity meter, but also the imposition of high fines.

All the wires are connected the way you want? We pass to a more serious test of the device - the self-propelled gun.

Step 2 - Make sure that the disk does not rotate arbitrarily

To check the electric meter at home on the self-propelled vehicle, it is enough to disconnect all circuit breakers that are located below the meter and serve outlets, lighting group and individual electrical appliances in the house. There are no separate machines? Simply turn off all household appliances from the outlet, and turn the light switches into the "off" mode. In theory, in such a situation you should not have an electric power consumption. We are waiting for 10-15 minutes and perform a visual check - see whether the lamp on the front panel is blinking or whether the disk is spinning on the counting mechanism.

If the electricity meter is functional, blinking should not occur( maximum may flash once every 5-10 minutes), and the disk should stop( or make one turn for 10 minutes).Otherwise, your electricity meter has not passed the self-test for impulses and it is necessary to call a service organization that can more carefully check the meter in the laboratory.

Step 3 - Counting the measurement error

To check the correctness of the operation of the electric meter, it is necessary to calculate its error of accounting. To do this, you will need a conventional incandescent lamp( as a load), a multimeter, a calculator and a stopwatch. Immediately recommend reading about how to use the multimeter, if you do not know it. You must use an electronic model( not a dial gauge and not a clamp meter).

So, the verification process is as follows:

1. Measure the voltage in the network using a multimeter. About how to measure the voltage in the outlet, we told in the relevant article.220 volts you are unlikely to be, so write down on the sheet a valid value - for example, 223 Volts.
2. Measure the lamp current. To do this, place the tester in the ammeter mode and connect it to the light bulb. For example, take the value 0.43 A.
3. Find out the actual power of the bulb - voltage multiply by the current. In our case, 223 * 0.4 = 96 watts. As you can see, there is already a deviation of 4% from the technical characteristics of the incandescent lamp. In addition, calculate the resistance of the lamp - 223 / 0.4( we got 557.5 ohms).
4. Now you need to check the counter itself. When the lamp connected to the network is measured, at least for how long the electric meter will blink 10 times or the disc will scroll 10 times. At the same time, you must monitor the voltage in the network at this point in time. For example, 10 turns the meter made exactly 2 minutes( 120 seconds), and the voltage remained 223 Volts.
5. Find the constant meter on the front panel of the meter, which is designated "3200 imp / kWh" or other value.
6. Using the formula P = U * U / R, calculate the actual power consumption. So you can check how much the lamp consumes at the moment. For example, 223/223 * 557,5 will get 89 W
7. Find out how much watt was spent for the check period( 120 seconds).To do this, it is necessary( 89 W * 120 s) / 3600. We got 2, 97 Wh-hour.
8. The meter is checked for error by the calculation: "1000 * number of revolutions / A( constant, indicated on the front panel)". For example 1000 * 10/3200, 3.13 Wh-hour will be obtained.
9. Determine the error. For this purpose( 2.97-3.13) / 3.13 * 100 = -5%.Such a result means that the error of the electricity meter is not significant, becausea deviation of up to 10% is allowed. In our experiment, the meter was tested for the correctness of the readings.
   

   Calculation formula variant 2

Video instruction for the calculation and measuring part:

This way you can check the meter with a multimeter at home. As you can see, the technology is quite simple and even a schoolboy will be able to cope with the calculations, not to mention the home self-taught master.

Step 4 - Check the magnetization

Very often, Internet users ask how to check the energy meter of Energomera, Mercury or Neva on the magnetization. The fact is that if you decide to stop the electricity meter with a magnet, and in your model of the electronic device there is an antimagnetic seal, then the check is very simple - the sticker or special indicator changes its color. As a result - when the verification comes, you can easily be accused of illegal actions.

If you have a simpler counter model, you can check its serviceability after the magnet with a thin needle - if it is attracted to the panel, then the electricity meter is magnetized. As a rule, 2-3 days after you remove the magnet from the dial, the magnetization passes. If the problem persists, you can buy a special demagnetizer as in the photo below:

This concludes with the technology of checking the electricity meter. Now you know how to check the electricity meter yourself at home and what equipment is needed for this!