Can you read my electric meter?

[Bram]

Our last electric bill had an estimated kw usage much higher than is typical for us. Today we get a letter from AEP saying they're going to raise our budgeted monthly bill from $65 to $200. So I called them to complain about discuss this & they asked me to read the meter & call back so an adjustment can be made based on actual kw used.

Now my DH had taken a pic of the meter on Feb 3 so we could sort of keep tabs & compare to their estimate & actual reading. The first pic is Feb 3 reading.

So today we read the meter & it seems to us that the reading is LOWER! The second (bottom) pic is taken today.





Here's the readings I got:
Feb 3 , 2007: 19927
Feb 13,2007: 19302

Are we generating electricity?? How can this be??

[MasterBlaster]

I read the first meter at 18927 and the second at 19302.

The net usage for you between the readings is 375 kW-hours

The tricky part is looking at the 3rd digit indicator in the top image and noticeing that it hasn't yet passed the 10. That indicates that the reading on the 4th digit is only 8... not 9 as you indicated.

I got good at reading these things as we have a natural gas meter that has some water rusted dials. The meter has been read incorrectly a number of times resulting in very very large monthly bills. Whenever I get a really large bill I just go read the meter and give them a call. That usually straightens things out.

I asked them to put a new meter on the house but all they would do is give the meter a "cleaning". So this happens once a year or so.

[justin]

2/3 - 18927
2/13 - 19302

net 375 kWh

[UncleHoney]

My reading is 18927 on the first one and 19302 on the second. The left dial shouldn't read 2 until the second dial from the left reads "0".

Looks like the meter dials are a little out of sync. A common problem with an old meter. The next meter reading should straighten out the confusion.

UH

[scrinch]

DUNCAN

[TromboneAl]

So, you're using about 37.5 KWH per day. $200 per month wouldn't be far off.

Why do you use a budgeted bill?

[Buckeye]

This website is unbelievable! You can even get your electric meter read here.

[Goonie]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

This website is unbelievable! You can even get your electric meter read here.

Now if we could all get our electric bills paid here!

[Goonie]

I agree with:
2/3 - 18927
2/13 - 19302

At w*rk we have 28 electric meters scattered around town at our various facilities, and we have to read some of them because they aren't readily accessible except by appointment. Same with gas meters. After a while you get the knack. In fact one of the meters at our main plant gets read every morning at 7am, so we can monitor daily usage, which in turn lets us know right away if we had any major equipment failures overnight while things were unattended.

However, AmerenIP is now starting to replace the old "dial" meters with new digital readout meters.....just numbers, NO dials! No more guess work.

[lets-retire]

I had a similar gaff and did the same thing, called and complained. I didn't know it at the time but the electric company had planned to change all the meters to electronic. Supposedly the meter reader can drive by point their gizmo at the meter and receive a reading. I thought meter reading might not be a bad gig once those are installed in all the houses.

[Bram]

DUNCAN

That took an unbelievable amount of time for me to "get"!

Thanks to all you other meter readers too.... the ones who used numbers! I didn't realize the meter dial could be a little off & one had to take that into account when reading.

Why do you use a budgeted bill?

$200/month would be waaay over paying. Our total electric bill for 2006 was about $675. We use the budget method as a convenience of knowing that a set amount is automatically withdrawn from the checking account each month.

This website is unbelievable! You can even get your electric meter read here.

Yes! Isn't this amazing what resources we have here!

[Khan]

Just to add: my gas meter is 'off' in a similar manner.

It's about 50 years old.

[scrinch]

That took an unbelievable amount of time for me to "get"!

Thanks for taking the time. I was starting to feel like I had wasted all that time typing that post!

[Nords]

Originally Posted by Bram

That took an unbelievable amount of time for me to "get"!

Too subtle for me the first time-- I'm glad you mentioned it.

The human eye/brain expectation is that all of the meter's dials will be numbered clockwise. However the meter's design is easier/cheaper if the 2nd & 4th wheels run "backwards", so those two dials are numbered counterclockwise.

Our meter went digital a few months ago but HECO still sends a human being out to read it. They don't even have an RF signal-- the guy actually parks his car and walks up to the house. I'm still trying to figure out how to tap the meter with an RS232 cable and download directly to our PC.

[UncleHoney]

Now for bonus points.

What does the Rr 13 8/9 at the top of the meter refer to?

[John Tuttle]

We no longer have a meter reader. They read our meter directly at the electric utility office. At some point they promise we'll be able to get real time figures of our electric usage over the Internet.

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by John Tuttle

We no longer have a meter reader. They read our meter directly at the electric utility office.

A lot of utility companies use "Turtle Meters" to transmit usage information over the electric lines to a central office location for billing.

[eridanus]

Originally Posted by UncleHoney

Now for bonus points.

What does the Rr 13 8/9 at the top of the meter refer to?

Resistance of the meter?

[Goonie]

Originally Posted by UncleHoney

Now for bonus points.

What does the Rr 13 8/9 at the top of the meter refer to?

Rr is the number of revolutions of the pickup gear for a full revolution of the rightmost dial.

13 8/9 the number of rotations for a hectowatthour.

Or 138.888.... for a kilowatthour.

[eridanus]

Originally Posted by Goonie

Rr is the number of revolutions of the pickup gear for a full revolution of the rightmost dial.

Cool.