New electric meters

[Gary Fowler]

Anyone have the new digital RF electrical meters installed at home. The power company swapped mine out last month. The house meter didn't change much but my shop bill went from normal $50-60 per month to $110. OF course they claimed it was accurate and nothing could be done. They did say they would send someone out to check it. I think they billed me the normal rate (minimum charge per month usually) but billed me for both meters, the one they removed and the one they installed. The took the old meter so no way to tell what the reading was when they pulled it. They didn't notify us of the intent to switch, just pulled them and replaced them. On the phone call, they claim to have notified us that we had a choice to keep the old meters but we didn't receive any such notice.

 

[flyerdan]

What likely happened is that your shop was on the same residential rate as the house, and when they changed the meters they updated their accounts and put in on a higher rate. That's what happened here; the basic meter charge was over twice as much and the shop bill was higher than the house. What I ended up doing was dropping the house account all together and having them run a line from the shop service, which was then considered residential as it fed the house.

 

[TnAndy]

What likely happened is that your shop was on the same residential rate as the house, and when they changed the meters they updated their accounts and put in on a higher rate. That's what happened here; the basic meter charge was over twice as much and the shop bill was higher than the house. What I ended up doing was dropping the house account all together and having them run a line from the shop service, which was then considered residential as it fed the house.

That could be. Base charge for house here is $21/mo. Anything non residential is $35 (business, shop building, even a stand alone meter on a well I used for watering cows) plus the kwhr rate is 30% higher.

I put in a 400amp service at my house just so I could run 200 of it back to the shop to eliminate the separate service of a meter there, as many months I don't even come close to meeting the minimum use. Winter time, I use my woodworking shop in there and the 200amp is handy, but spring thru fall, it's often just few lights or garage door opener that gets powered.

 

[RalphVa]

Replaced ours with one that can count backwards when we put in our solar panels. It's digital.

Ralph

 

[RNeumann]

The digital meters have been around for quite some time. Their were some here who fought them back in the day. They can turn them on and off remotely, and change the rate depending on the time of day etc. I have had them on the last few places.....not really a way to fight the man on this one.

Good luck with what sounds like a double bill.

 

[Diggin It]

They changed mine several years ago. No change in rate. At east not due to that. They've been hiking rates nearly every year though. I like that they read it remotely and don't have to come on my property any more.

 

[bunyip]

They changed mine several years ago. No change in rate. At east not due to that. They've been hiking rates nearly every year though. I like that they read it remotely and don't have to come on my property any more.

We have those but still get the odd note saying they could not access the meter as the dogs were out, we had to change when we went solar so we could get the infeed credit, environmentalists (again) claim they cause cancer.

 

[oosik]

Three years ago the utility installed new meters that send their readings to strategically located "hubs". Previously - I'd log onto the utility site and enter my monthly reading. The utility would come out once a year and check to see that I was being honest.

Well - I'm so remote that the new meter did not have a powerful enough signal to reach any "hub". Now I have a utility installed high power transceiver installed on the next to last power pole.

New meter collects reading > high power transceiver > strategically located "hub". I've had no unexpected hike in monthly bills but that high power transceiver & all the associated paraphernalia didn't come cheap for the utility.

 

[grsthegreat]

That could be. Base charge for house here is $21/mo. Anything non residential is $35 (business, shop building, even a stand alone meter on a well I used for watering cows) plus the kwhr rate is 30% higher.

I put in a 400amp service at my house just so I could run 200 of it back to the shop to eliminate the separate service of a meter there, as many months I don't even come close to meeting the minimum use. Winter time, I use my woodworking shop in there and the 200amp is handy, but spring thru fall, it's often just few lights or garage door opener that gets powered.

did same thing with my shop. A separate meter would have been way easier, but not only cost more to install, I’d have been hit with $30 minimum bills each month.

 

[WM75Guy]

The local electric coop switched both of mine out several years ago, no issues. I have a 400A for the house/stables and 200A for the shop. Meter fee is $20 a month each. I love my local electrical coop for the low cost of electricity, $0.1048/kWh.

 

[oosik]

0.1048/kWh is low where you have no hydroelectric generation. We do here - Grand Coulee Dam. Our rates were raised 1/1/2020 from 0.065 to 0.068. The first major increase in the last ten to fifteen years.

 

[kenmac]

They call them smart meters here. There maybe a few small co-op electric places that still use the old meters, but the largest power provider in the state has changed them all to smart meters

 

[Grumpycat]

Some utilities rotate meters every 10 years. Replace with a recently calibrated meter. Take your old back to the shop to verify calibration and put back in the field. If they find the meter reading low they might send you a retroactive bill. Supposedly they will do the same if the meter was reading high.

Mechanical meters run same rate forwards and backwards such as if one has PV solar generation. Some utilities permit "net metering" where they buy PV power at the same rate they would sell it it right back to you. This is a steal for the consumer as 75% of the cost of electricity is maintaining the power grid for distribution. So some utilities will use a meter that runs same forwards and reverse. Others install a second meter, with both meters configured to run only one direction. One meters your use, the other meters the power fed back to the grid. Allows separate rates. Allows the utility to know just how much power was fed to the grid.

Know digital meters usually default to counting up no matter which way the current flows. This punishes those who install PV without the utility's blessing by charging the consumer for the power placed on the grid.

 

[jaydee325]

When the generator was installed at our previous house, the utility sent a tech out to remove the meter for the install. She took the meter back to her truck and scanned it. I asked about why the meter was scanned and one of the generator install guys said that they get requests from dishonest customers from time to time to tamper with the meter and shave off a few kW before the meter is reinstalled!

I asked what the technology was that allowed the meter to communicate and she said it was using cell service to "text home". The meter would text in the monthly reading and if there was a power outage, it would text in the outage, as long as cell service was available of course.

 

[CobyRupert]

Anyone have the new digital RF electrical meters installed at home. The power company swapped mine out last month. The house meter didn't change much but my shop bill went from normal $50-60 per month to $110. OF course they claimed it was accurate and nothing could be done. They did say they would send someone out to check it. I think they billed me the normal rate (minimum charge per month usually) but billed me for both meters, the one they removed and the one they installed. The took the old meter so no way to tell what the reading was when they pulled it. They didn't notify us of the intent to switch, just pulled them and replaced them. On the phone call, they claim to have notified us that we had a choice to keep the old meters but we didn't receive any such notice.

Try looking at your bill.
What changed on your bill from last month?
...besides the amount due?

Did the Kw-hrs used double?
Did the Kw-hr rate double?
Did basic connection "fee" increase?

Some bills might have the raw meter total kw-hr number listed. Last months raw number total is subtracted from this month's number and the difference is this months usage that you're billed for. Ask for an accounting of these two numbers (or 4 numbers if they swamped meters).

 

[radios1]

I've seen this problem many times. the electronic meters give a higher bill for some reason, and it has not been properly explained!.. the new meters can measure power factor, but, it has been said that is ignored for residential use.. perhaps time of use is being accounted for?. the bill would vary because of that!..

 

[TnAndy]

Three years ago the utility installed new meters that send their readings to strategically located "hubs". Previously - I'd log onto the utility site and enter my monthly reading. The utility would come out once a year and check to see that I was being honest.

When we first moved onto our place (prior to Al Gore's invention), they have us a year's worth of post cards with 5 meter dials on it to mark the meter position and mail in each month. Once a year, they would call ahead, come out, read it (like you said, to keep us honest) and hand us another stack. This went on for 15 years.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I hate the digital meters, they aren’t accurate (been tested many times on youtube), they are health hazards and I’m consistently fighting with my utility company.

My bill ran around $75 a month in the summer and peaked around $230 in the winter, this was 4 years in a row. Well then all the sudden last year it jumped up to $330 in the winter! That was for January, February was $300. Called the utility company and they assured me it’s actual usage, they changed the whole neighborhoods meters at the end of February. All last summer the lowest bill was $160, again they claim its actual usage. I asked how can my usage double in less than a year? Again they claim it’s actual usage.

Idk what the heck is going on but my electric bills are now double with no change to usage. I constantly unplug things that drain power, keep Tstat low in winter, etc. still double what it’s been 4 years previously.

I heard about putting a filter on my feed to keep the meter from seeing spikes and things it might think is a higher usage, I might try that this summer. I forget what the device is but it’s just a filter, I’m sure harmonics are present in residential power. Those dumb smart meters sees that kinda stuff and interprets it as a higher usage then what’s actually being used. Sometimes it reads below but that’s not often.

BTW I have a separate 200amp feed for my barn, it’s $15 a month depending on its usage. House is 200amp also I believe.

 

[TractorGuy]

I've had the so called smart meter for years. They swapped out the original smart meter with a new one a couple years back. Every now and then I get a wonky high bill. The last was last February. I ordered a set of KWH consumption meters to install inside my panel but haven't got around to installing them. Ever since I called and complained about that bill last year my bills returned to normal.

I did have an issue with my heat pump running too long and I think that was my issue last year. It has a small leak when run in heat pump mode. Seems to stay charged with just the AC running. I started running in EM heat mode for the winter and system has remained charged and bills have been reasonable. While the heat strips take more energy to run they heat the house so fast they aren't actually on for long so they seem more efficient cost wise.

Our smart meter didn't seem to be smart enough to sense power outages and we still had to report them. Most of the time now when I call in a power outage it tells me the system already reported it so maybe they finally got the smart feature enabled.

 

[grsthegreat]

my bills never changed after digital meters installed 5 years back. if your real worried, get yourself a emon-dmon meter and track your actual usage and compare it to the bill. Products | E-Mon