Reading a power meter - am I insane or is the POCO?

16 years ago

I'd love some input from those of you with experience reading meters. (I'm usually on the decorating board and am WAY out of my league here -- please bear with me).

We got our power bill last night (11/01/07 to 12/04/07) and about fell over. $562.08/6,426 KWH. That's only about 5 times what it should be, based on previous usage. ( 2,000 sq. ft, gas heat, hot water, range -- electric should decrease in the winter). So we investigated, pulled prior bills, figured averages, noted price per KWH has not spiked, etc. The result? We think APCO has simply read the meter wrong. Twice. Rather than bore with lots of details and try to sway you to my side, here's a simple question:

What does this meter read?

I want to be sure I'm not the insane one before I get on the phone this morning with the residents of the next level of purgatory. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Thank you so much!

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Comments (12)

heimert
16 years ago
Have you asked the power company whether all the readings were actual readings prior to Nov. 4? Sometimes you'll get a spike if they do an estimated bill, but are wrong. A lot of power cos. don't actually check the meter each month. Instead they guess based on prior usage and things like weather (at least where people use a lot of A/C). I've gotten huge bills and small bills when their estimates were off by a lot, and then they did an actual reading.

5x seems like a lot for that, however, so I would press them to explain how it's possible. Ask for a manager. And, that said, I had an incorrect reading too, or at least it was in the system wrong. They had managed to add an extra thousand unit, so instead of being billed for (say) 330 kwh we were billed for 1330kwh. They suspended need for payment and when they rechecked, they confirmed that it was wrong.
jakabedy
Original Author
16 years ago
Well, we figured out what happened, sort of. There was an estimated reading on 12/03 that was crazy high (96344 from 49385 a month previous). They put in a call for a meter chack/actual read. That "actual read" didn't occur until 01/03, and at that time they simply read it wrong.

They read it as 61283 when it should have been 51283 -- 10,000 EXTRA KWH! I believe I have convinced someone that this is what happened and I await a call back.

Outstanding! I just got the call. They have fixed the bill based on the reading on my photo.

What they wanted for two months: $1,043.58.
What we really owe for two months: $183.
Proving APCO wrong? priceless.
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joed
16 years ago
I read that meter as 51497.
bigbird_1
16 years ago
51497 also.
normel
16 years ago
Let's go one more digit...514975
jakabedy
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, all!

You have restored the faith I have in myself of my ability to read a dial. The meter reader logged it as 61xxx rather than 51xxx. Apparently they use binoculars to read my meter (not joking) and must have misread it. But I had to go through 3 people and e-mail the above photo to convince them I hadn't blown through an extra 10,000 KWH over the last two months.

Now, on to the cable bill . . .
tom_o
16 years ago
Your power company is not the only one that uses binoculars. My local utility usually wants the meter facing the road unless there is some advantage (for them) for it to be elsewhere.

Last winter, I rescued a customer from the same type of problem.
jakabedy
Original Author
16 years ago
The binoculars make sense. We moved to this place in August, and I never really thought about how they would read the meter. The house is in the middle of three fenced acres, and we have dogs. But I never got a call to put the dogs inside, so I never thought about it.

The meter is on a side of the house that is wooded about 100' to the fence. The power line cut is just over the fence. I guess the meter reader walks up the cut and uses the binocs to look through the trees. I really don't know how he does it in the summer when everything is in full leaf.
tom418
16 years ago
My POCO (Northeast Utilities) uses a digital meter that they read by remote. It records different amounts according to peak/off-peak hours.
bus_driver
16 years ago
"Let's go one more digit...514975" In my area, the two POCOs do not interpolate to get an extra digit.
pudge565
16 years ago
I read 51597 on the meter the "needle" is pretty much right on the 5 so i said 5
hendricus
16 years ago
Any time you have a question on what the number should be you have to look at the previous number. 97 is 3 points away from making a hundred, so the third number has to be a four and not a five.

Reading a power meter - am I insane or is the POCO?

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heimert

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Reading a power meter - am I insane or is the POCO?

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