The electricity meter has broken - what should I do?

An electric meter is equipped in any building into which electricity is supplied. This device is equally necessary for both the energy consumer and the supplier in order to correctly make calculations. As a rule, counters work stably, but sometimes troubles happen to them. The electricity meter has broken - what should I do? This will be discussed in our article.

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What are the counters?

Metering devices that can be seen in apartment buildings are divided into two main categories according to the number of users:

• individual;
• common house.

Residents most often have to deal with individual appliances - those that are in apartments or on a common panel in the corridor. It is from them that the consumer writes off the data in order to pay the supplier. Household metering devices are not everywhere, and only representatives of the management company or organization that sells electricity have access to them.

According to the principle of operation, counters are also of two main types:

• induction;
• electronic.

In an induction system, a metal disk rotates due to the action of an electromagnetic field. The field is created due to the load current. In electronic devices, analog signals are converted to digital codes, after which data appears on the display.

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How is the calculation made?

The consumer must pay only for what he consumes, and nothing more. On the counter, he can find out - just look at the indicators and compare with the previous ones.

Important! When the apartment passes to the new owner, the data is reset.

So, to understand how much energy is consumed by electrical appliances in your apartment, do the following:

1. Rewrite what you see on the counter onto a piece of paper.
2. Find the sheet with the previous readings.
3. Find the difference by subtracting from the number that you wrote down now, what was recorded earlier.
4. Multiply the difference by the cost of 1 kilowatt hour in your area.

Important! When taking readings from induction counters, pay attention to all the icons, including the comma before the last window - it is because of it that consumers very often have to overpay almost an order of magnitude.

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Can it be repaired?

Meters should be checked periodically. If they are in the common corridor, the tenants usually don’t even know about it - the employees of the energy sales company do it themselves, and they send out notifications to consumers only when it is time to change the equipment.

However, the consumer himself may contact his energy sales or management company with a statement that the device is defective and something needs to be done with it. Usually, after this, a specialist leaves the place and gives the corresponding instruction.

Important! Repairing such equipment yourself is strictly prohibited. The fact is that the electric meter, regardless of where it is located, is sealed. If you try to disrupt them, trouble cannot be avoided. The most common punishment is a fine, and rather large.

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When to contact?

The electricity meter does not work - what should I do? Of course, understand and do not leave the device without attention. But first, let's discuss exactly when to deal with the problem - that is, what exactly can fail. It is very important here, in which house you live - new or old. In newly built buildings, electronic devices are used, in old ones - most often analog ones, although in many cases they have already been changed, because the service life has expired.

So what can make a tenant turn to an energy sales company? One of the following issues:

• decrease in accuracy class;
• burnt contacts;
• punched cable;
• broken case;
• the counter is buzzing;
• the disk rotates when there is no current.

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Accuracy class

And what should I do if the electricity meter breaks, but this is not noticeable at first glance? The new induction device has a standard accuracy class of 2.5. Over time, it drops to 2, or even lower. Deviations can be in both directions:

• you consume about the same amount of electricity as you always do, and you pay a lot more;
• all the devices work fine for you, but according to the counter it turns out that they consume almost nothing.

If the payment unexpectedly increased, the consumer himself flees to the energy sales organization and asks for clarity. Another thing is when you have to pay less. Usually in this situation people are in no hurry to understand. But you need to invite a specialist, since only he has the necessary equipment for verification.

Important! For induction devices, the accuracy class does not change over time, the meters are checked or replaced when the service life is over. The new device must have an accuracy class of at least 2.0.

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If he buzzes

A good reason to contact the marketing company is extraneous sounds that do not disappear for a long time. Sometimes a serviceable meter can buzz, but usually it passes quickly. If the hum does not stop, you must do the following:

1. Inspect the viewing window - it usually turns yellow.
2. Sniff - most often in such situations, the smell of burning insulation appears.

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The disk is spinning

Is everything turned off and the drive keeps spinning? Or, if the meter is electronic, does it blink continuously? You will still have to contact the sales company. Otherwise - the counter will wind up such amounts to you that you can’t pay for several years. You can check the device for this defect yourself, fortunately, a screwdriver is not needed in this case:

1. Take a watch - it should show minutes, a stopwatch is optional.
2. Turn off all electrical appliances.
3. Take time.
4. In 15 minutes the disk can scroll 1 time, and the same time - the electronic indicator on the display of the electronic device flashes.

Important! By the way, you need to think about what to do if the electricity meter does not spin. Of course, you can ignore this and then try to explain that you did not know about the malfunction. But there will come a not very pleasant moment when the power sales company will pay attention to the difference between the actual energy consumption and the payment received.

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Burnt contacts

The user will not immediately guess the burnt contacts. When the electricity meter stops, what to do will tell the behavior of the disk. If it stops, the contacts may be the cause of burned out from overheating.

Important! Overheating is usually accompanied by a characteristic odor. Even if you are well versed in electrical appliances and are sure that you could deal with such a trifle yourself, do not do this in any case.

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What to change?

If the question does not turn the electricity meter - what to do, you have found the only answer - to change, that is, it makes sense to think about what exactly. With the accuracy class, everything is more or less clear - not lower than 2, but better if it is 2.5. But other?

1. Determine the total load in your apartment.
2. Select a model whose power is higher than the total load.
3. Contact the energy sales company - they must install the meter, reset it and seal it.

Important! Promotional flyers are regularly placed in the mailboxes with a proposal to install new counters - you should not pay attention to this, it is better to consult a company that provides your home with electricity, it can also offer you models of meters.

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If there is a suspicion

With the situation when the electricity meter does not show data - what to do if it seems to be working in appearance, everything is more or less clear. Call a technician. And what if there seems to be no damage, but it seems to you that something is wrong with your device? You can check it yourself:

1. Turn off all electrical appliances in the apartment.
2. Make sure that the indicator flashes no more often than permissible in such a situation, that is, not 1 time in a quarter of an hour.
3. Check out the counter scale - they are different.
4. Note how many kilowatt hours your meter winds up per 1 revolution.
5. Turn on any device whose power you know (for example, a 75 or 100 W bulb).
6. Note the time and count how many times the disk will scroll within 5 minutes.

The energy consumption of a light bulb is defined as follows:

1. Multiply the estimated time (5 minutes) by the number of kilowatts (0.075).
2. Divide the result by 60 - that is, by the number of minutes in 1 hour.

In a normal situation, the counter should give a similar result, but, of course, the calculation is also performed according to the formula. It is necessary to multiply the energy consumption per revolution by the number of revolutions that the disk made in the same 5 minutes.

Error

Absolutely accurate household appliances do not exist in nature. The counter is no exception, even if it has a high accuracy class. There is always an error. It is indicated in the certificate, and for meters it is also indicated on the case. To check how good your device is, do the following:

1. Find the difference between the energy expenditures - the same ones that you calculated for the meter and the bulb.
2. Subtract the energy consumption of the meter from the energy consumption of the light bulb.
3. The result should be less than the error indicated on the case.

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How is the replacement?

And who else, besides a specialist in a household organization, can get inside your meter? The management company is responsible for the condition of the house-building networks and individual devices (in some cities such organizations are called otherwise - ZhEKami, REU, etc.). Therefore, you can act through this company:

1. Contact the customer service department (it can be called a subscriber) and leave a request. You must be assigned a time - you have the right to be present at the replacement or inspection.
2. A specialist inspects the counter.
3. Checks how correctly it is installed.
4. Puts a seal
5. It writes out the act that you can use the counter.
6. He writes out the second copy of the act, signs both copies himself and gives you a signature.

The statement shall indicate:

• address;
• phone number;
• counter type:
• counter number;
• the reason for petition.

Employees of the sales or management company have the necessary equipment, but sometimes it is not enough. Checking the counter can be carried out:

• in place;
• in a specialized laboratory.

Important! Employees of management companies usually themselves check the meters installed in the corridors - sometimes tenants do not even know about it, this happens every six months. In the same way, appliances in apartments should be monitored - unless, of course, there is a special agreement where a different frequency is established.

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Who is following the counter?

Despite the fact that representatives of the energy sales company or management organization must change or repair the meters, these devices are considered the property of the residents. Accordingly, the owners are responsible for their condition and timely replacement and verification. You will have to change at your own expense.

It happens that consumers disable devices intentionally.In this case, and also when it is not sealed for some reason, an examination is carried out. It is carried out by a commission, which includes representatives of the State Consumer Standard and the electricity supplier. The act is drawn up in the presence of the consumer. After the document is drawn up and all signatures appear on it, it is believed that the electric meter is under repair, and you will have to pay on average.

Important! If the owner has not repaired his equipment within three months, they begin to be charged according to the standard, and with increasing ratios.

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Stock footage

Thus, the most important thing when dealing with meters is to understand that it is impossible to disassemble it and that in case of any trouble you need to contact the utility service that operates such devices in your city.