meter line side

[Sierrasparky]

What about those 400 amp Commecial CT/meter combos?

The CT does not care if line is top or bottom as they only measure flow through a CT.

I have seen some underground units fed from the bottom lugs and top feeds the Main breaker in a panel next to it.

 

[kwired]

I would think the utility company's accounting software would automatically audit and discover your Kw/hours are going backwards lol. :lol:

Or they figure the meter rolled over and you used an awful lot of energy and you get a really huge bill.

 

[kwired]

What about those 400 amp Commecial CT/meter combos?

The CT does not care if line is top or bottom as they only measure flow through a CT.

I have seen some underground units fed from the bottom lugs and top feeds the Main breaker in a panel next to it.

To get accurate reading of watt hours it needs to know voltage and current relationship just like self contained meters do, remember they bill in watt hours not amps or VA.

You must have polarity correct on each CT or the meter will not record accurately

 

[meternerd]

I would think the utility company's accounting software would automatically audit and discover your Kw/hours are going backwards lol. :lol:

Our current billing system is unable to allow for negative usage. If we have a customer with solar net metering and his solar actually causes the meter to run backward (count down) and the monthly KWh reading is less than the previous month, the billing system assumes the meter "rollled over" through zero and counted up again. Can result in HUGE bills. We have to manually tell the software that it's a negative number so a credit can be applied. And if the customer installs a solar system without telling us (as required), the existing meters will count up for both forward and reverse power, as stated above. It doesn't take long for 'em to confess. It may go unnoticed for quite a while, though, if the solar never produces more than the customer uses. The meter just slows down.

It gets even more confusing if the solar system generates power back to us. We sell power at the retail rate, but credit the customer for excess power at the wholesale rate, which is what we pay our suppliers for power. Billing headache.....We have replaced all of our solar meters with three register meters. They store Delivered (forward), Received (reverse) and Net (the difference of the two).

 

[meternerd]

To get accurate reading of watt hours it needs to know voltage and current relationship just like self contained meters do, remember they bill in watt hours not amps or VA.

You must have polarity correct on each CT or the meter will not record accurately

Yup...Current in polarity on the primary means curent out polarity on the secondary. Get 'em reversed and the meter runs backward. Get one wrong on a three phase and it cancels one other phase, resulting in 1/3 registration (assuming balanced loads).

 

[GoldDigger]

meternerd, here in PG&E land, the solar smart meters have to register up to three time of use rate bins as well as Delivered and Received. Those of us with PV are fortunate enough to be able to use peak hour surpluses to offset several times that kWh in off peak usage.
The Net number does not play any direct role.

 

[meternerd]

meternerd, here in PG&E land, the solar smart meters have to register up to three time of use rate bins as well as Delivered and Received. Those of us with PV are fortunate enough to be able to use peak hour surpluses to offset several times that kWh in off peak usage.
The Net number does not play any direct role.

Fortunately for us, we don't have to meter TOU (yet). We do get a credit for solar, though, which is why we need the bi-directional meters. Way above my pay grade, though. I was just the lowly meter/relay/substation/water electrical tech. Note the WAS! Retirement GOOOOD! Weekday season passes to Squaw Valley. Now we just need some snow.

 

[kwired]

Fortunately for us, we don't have to meter TOU (yet). We do get a credit for solar, though, which is why we need the bi-directional meters. Way above my pay grade, though. I was just the lowly meter/relay/substation/water electrical tech. Note the WAS! Retirement GOOOOD! Weekday season passes to Squaw Valley. Now we just need some snow.

I have some snow that you can have - you must take all of it though - plus the cold that came with it. Too early in the season to not get a daytime high that is above freezing point Normally this doesn't happen for at least another month around here.

 

[meternerd]

I have some snow that you can have - you must take all of it though - plus the cold that came with it. Too early in the season to not get a daytime high that is above freezing point Normally this doesn't happen for at least another month around here.

Deal.......