Open leg of 240V single phase 3W residential/commercial service -- odd results

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Open Neutral said:
Consider the solid-state meter innards would be far smaller than a moving coil's. There could easily be enough space left over....
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Most solid state devices I have seen that are intended to carry 200 amps or more may be relatively small but usually have one hell of a heat sink attached to them.
 
120926-1141 EDT

There is no solid state relay in series with the load current in the Smart Meters. There is a mechanical contact relay (contactor).

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texie said:
I have a colleague down in Florida that works under contract to the POCO to be called in to replace/repair meter sockets when they find issues at meter change out for new smart meters. He reports that some are just old and when they yank the old meter it is sometimes problematic. But he indicates that he gets failures on some well after the change out due to less than ideal clamping of the old socket jaws that lead to failure and sometimes fire.
He said that in many cases the POCO is paying to replace the customer owned meter sockets in this event to avoid the backlash from consumers and bad press. This can be a costly endeavor as the AHJ makes them bring the whole service up to date. I think in his case the POCO is doing something like 5 million of them and when you mess with meters that may not have been touched in 20-30 years your going to get some of this.
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I believe that is what we are running into also. Some of our meters haven't been pulled except for 10 year testing. Also the old meters didn't have the same type of flammable plastic as the AMI meters have. A bad connection in the old meters was found with customer complaints of low voltage rather than fires.
 
Hv&Lv said:
I believe that is what we are running into also. Some of our meters haven't been pulled except for 10 year testing. Also the old meters didn't have the same type of flammable plastic as the AMI meters have. A bad connection in the old meters was found with customer complaints of low voltage rather than fires.
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I thought this info on Smart Meter fires might be of interest to you and others: http://theenergycollective.com/jimp...how-power-industry-can-get-facts-manage-risks

Also: http://smartgridsherpa.com/blog/sma...t-consumer-backlash-how-can-utilities-respond

Also: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8776596
 
Hv&Lv said:
Big thanks...:thumbsup:
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Sure. I thought of you when I saw this because of your comments about the new meters having so much plastic and also it goes along with the comments I mentioned my friend in Florida made. I guess one big question here is, are the POCO getting a higher failure rate when exchanging an old "standard" meter with a smart meter than they see when just reinstalling the same meter after, say, a billing disconnect? It looks like this is a growing controversy, real or imagined. Only the failure data will tell for sure.
 
texie said:
Sure. I thought of you when I saw this because of your comments about the new meters having so much plastic and also it goes along with the comments I mentioned my friend in Florida made. I guess one big question here is, are the POCO getting a higher failure rate when exchanging an old "standard" meter with a smart meter than they see when just reinstalling the same meter after, say, a billing disconnect? It looks like this is a growing controversy, real or imagined. Only the failure data will tell for sure.
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We just changed out ALL of our meters. When we would have a failure with the old analog meters, the plastic composite on the back had a higher melting and flash point as the articles suggested. The failure would be found when a customer complained of electrical problems. So far the failures with the smart meters never resulted in but one fire, and it was a meter on pole.
 
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