Why the counter winds more - a detailed analysis of the main reasons. Why is the electric meter lying

The appearance of extraneous noise from the electric meter, the smell of burnt insulation, a change in color (usually yellowing) of the glass are external signs of an overload of the meter, but the device is considered to be working.

This situation is fraught with the most serious consequences and it is necessary to quickly eliminate the malfunction. Replacing a failed electric meter will cost more.

It is possible to qualitatively and quickly put the wiring in order, prevent a fire and keep the meter in working order with the help of specialists from 10 kilovolt LLC.

Extraneous sounds can occur when the wires are oxidized or the contact is broken with the terminals of the pad - often such malfunctions occur when the room is dusty or damp. Malfunctions of the electric meter can appear under the influence of overloads, switching and lightning surges. Here it is enough to call an electrician and fix the problem.

A common cause of a malfunction is premature wear of the meter. Unfavorable conditions can cause metal corrosion, defects in metal elements and clogging of technological gaps between rotating disks. This is also the cause of the malfunction of the electricity meter and calling an electrician to fix the problem is mandatory.

If the meter is faulty

It is more difficult if the electric meter does not turn: due to a malfunction or in the event of theft (situations when the electric meter is stolen are not so rare), you will have to perform a number of mandatory procedures.

Sometimes the display does not show numbers: the electric meter in this case is also considered faulty. Experience shows that the lion's share of all electric meter malfunctions is due to an unreliable connection of conductors. A loose connection leads to heating of the wire, degradation of the insulating coating, burning of the contacts and sparking, as a result, the electric meter does not count.

To prevent failure of the metering device, it is necessary to inspect the contacts for dust and dirt, tighten them tightly and monitor the compliance of the ratings of the circuit breakers or fuses - they must correspond to the calculated loads of wires and sections. If the electricity meter stops showing, it is faulty and this is the fault of the responsible tenant. Even if you broke the electric meter and it continues to work, it should be considered faulty.

Replacing an electric meter in case of a breakdown

According to the legislation (Article 210 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), the owner independently bears the burden of maintaining his property, but the procedure for connecting an electric meter is regulated. If the meter is located in the entrance - you need to carefully read the terms of the contract, but if in the apartment - the owner is determined unambiguously. In the event of a meter failure, the owner is obliged to independently notify the supply organization, report the latest readings and ensure that the device is repaired or replaced.

Replacement of the electricity meter must be carried out by a qualified specialist with the appropriate work permit. Employees of the company "10 Kilovolt" carry out the replacement of faulty electricity meters on a turnkey basis: the owner receives a properly executed certificate of replacement of the electricity meter. Our specialists have all the permits and are certified by the Incotex company, the most famous Russian manufacturer of electricity meters under the Meruriy trademark. The act of replacing the electricity meter is issued by the 10 Kilovolt company and is the basis for calling a sealer who will take readings from the new meter.

The sealer can also be called by our specialists - this service must be provided by the electricity supplier free of charge.

Video: does not count the electric meter

In the off-season, electronic electricity meters are capable of producing inflated numbers. Are they lying? It turns out - yes! However, "craftsmen" easily deceive these metering devices.

In various forums relating to electronic electricity meters, the topic of reliability of readings is most often discussed. Here is a typical post:

“There are two counters in the apartment: one on the site is electronic (under the contract), the other in the apartment is induction (for self-control). Moreover, relatively new, not older than five years. An electronic meter usually overestimates by 5 percent, and in autumn and spring - by a third or more. Does he have an exacerbation?

“Three months ago, meters were changed for everyone in our entrance. And immediately the payments increased by 70-100%, ”complains the telefon forum member.

“Once during the night, when only the refrigerator was working, 4 kW ran up. Isn't it too much? In Energosbyt they said that electronic meters do not lie, and an engineer from the same place secretly admitted to me that these devices are still those deceivers, especially the “budget versions,” a certain Ivan Ivanovich shared.

In reality, electronic meters can give inflated readings, even if they work correctly. First of all, due to a decrease in the voltage in the network, which happens regularly, in particular, when air conditioners or heating devices are working en masse. This happens because household appliances can change the efficiency downward if the network is much lower than 220 V.

“In this case, to achieve the goal, say, to wash five kilograms of laundry in an energy-efficient washing machine, it will take not 0.19 kilowatt-hours per kilogram, as prescribed in the passport, but 0.25 or more,” explains electrical engineer Alexander Nikolaev. “A similar pattern is seen in almost all categories of home appliances.”

So it turns out that for the same consumer, in different months, readings can be recorded that differ by hundreds of kilowatts, although "everything was as usual." Meanwhile, maintaining the required parameters of electricity is the main task of networkers.

Did undervoltage for the current period of time, for example, for the past month, you can find out using a common house electric meter, in whose memory the parameters of the supplied electricity are stored. Consumers can safely write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor and the Consumer Rights Protection Society if it turns out that the voltage was still below 198 volts. This is a very serious corporate violation, which can and should cost the head of Energosbyt his position. In addition to the fact that consumers are forced to pay more, the deterioration of household electrical appliances is also accelerating.

In addition, experts argue that the inclusion impulse sources power supply, gas discharge lamps and controlled electric motors leads to problems of electromagnetic compatibility of various household appliances. In other words, the current acquires a pronounced pulse character. The resulting non-sinusoidality can affect the accuracy of the electronic electric meter and give a measurement error in the larger direction by 5-7%. We must not forget about the power supply of the meter itself, which for some models can be approximately 4 watts per hour, which corresponds to three kilowatt-hours per month. By the way, in the West networkers pay for it.

In principle, you can independently check the electronic counter. The instrument panel shows the number of pulses of the LED indicator. As a rule, figures are given from 180 to 3200. That is how many times the red light will “blink” when consuming one kilowatt-hour. If, for example, 1600 is indicated on the device, and only a hundred-watt light bulb is turned on in the apartment, then the electric meter LED will light up 160 times in one hour. In this case, however, you should be sure that the reference lamp actually consumes strictly 100 watts per hour.

“If in doubt, do not be too lazy to examine your meter at Energosbyt for active, capacitive, inductive, mixed loads,” advises Alexander Nikolaev. And, strictly in your presence. Of course, they will try to put you out the door, referring to some internal instructions, but this will be illegal. If the error exceeds that specified in the meter's passport, then it must be replaced.

However, some consumers are in no hurry to carry their counter for verification, but prefer to steal "light". If they do not understand electrical engineering, then they can easily become a victim of various scammers offering to “rewind” the testimony back.

For example, in neighboring Ukraine, on various forums, you can find the following entries: "I ask for help from everyone who can rewind or stop the electronic counter." “Helpers”, of course, are and even leave their phone numbers, for example, with the note “I accept calls from 10 am to 8 pm Kyiv time from Monday to Friday. Calls from unknown numbers are blocked.

As a rule, they offer diode bridges, which are designed in the form of energy saving devices. “They are really very popular in Ukraine,” says Alexander Nikolaev. - They are also sold here, in Russia, at a price of 1600-1800 rubles. Meanwhile, we are talking about reactive power compensation of the included electric motors or transformers. True, the savings achieved are symbolic and do not justify the cost of buying these, as a rule, Chinese devices. This is an ordinary “scam” and the exploitation of fear of a cold winter.”

Those who understand electrical engineering steal strictly according to science, relying on Ohm's law.

The most commonly used so-called artificial zero. It is erroneously believed that it can be achieved by grounding through radiators. “In Soviet times, this scheme worked, since there were no plastic pipes, and heating systems were necessarily grounded,” says safety specialist Andrey Mayorov“However, even then there were electric shocks, and now it is especially dangerous.” In addition, the process of hydrolysis is actively going on in threaded connections, provoking premature corrosion.

A really working scheme includes turning off the "zero" going through the meter and grounding directly in the apartment, for example, through a technological basement. As a rule, the natural neutral wire is “set on fire” on the terminal block, after loosening the contact and turning on a powerful electrical appliance. Such “specialists” tell the inspectors who come to the scene that the tension has recently disappeared. However, consumers whose meter is frozen, but the light is on in the apartment, are calculated in one or two months. Therefore, secret switches are most often installed, which allows you to show consumption at a certain level, for example, 80 or 100 kW per month, saying "we have one light on and only the refrigerator is working."

The most cunning consumers prefer to negotiate with controllers. If there is an exit to it and the person turns out to be “without frills”, then this “normal” employee of Energosbyt will set the meter himself, “as expected” according to the screw method.

Sometimes the “reed switch” method is used, which consists in the fact that in a new electric meter a reed switch with a closed contact is soldered into the wire of the voltage coil. During verification, this meter will show the required parameters, after which it will be sealed. In order for such a meter not to read the power consumption, they bring the magnet to that part of the case where the reed switch is hidden. Usually residents who have installed a meter in the apartment use this method.

Finding such "blue thieves" is almost impossible. Meanwhile, the common house meter will definitely record the electricity they stole. All residents of an apartment building will have to pay for it. The state is satisfied with such a system, if only because there is no need to look for thieves, because honest citizens, primarily pensioners, will pay in full for electricity. Meanwhile, in the EU countries, general house accounting is maintained by a separate meter, and energy supply companies are struggling with unauthorized selection. However, independent experts doubt that Russia will want to adopt this European experience.

As practice shows, more and more people are faced with the problem that the meter winds more light. And okay, if new electrical equipment were added, and, as a result, energy consumption increased. Or there was a replacement of the electricity meter and similar more or less explainable reasons. But sometimes the counter starts to wind twice as much for no objective reason. Since there are no miracles in such "technical" matters, there are always reasons for increasing energy consumption, you just need to correctly identify them.

So, let's conditionally divide the reasons for the increase in energy consumption into five groups - seasonal, meter replacement, illegal manipulations with the meter, technical aspects of the operation of electrical networks and external connections. Below we consider each group of reasons in detail.

Seasonal increase in electricity consumption

Those who regularly pay for electricity every month and are forced to take and record meter readings could not help but notice that in winter the light burns up an order of magnitude more than in summer. This is due not only to the fact that we are sometimes cold and we turn on the heater. It also has to do with things like:

• Day is shorter, night is longer. And that's not all: the days are not only short, they are still mostly overcast and cold. And a person on a subconscious level perceives light as heat, so in winter we turn off the lighting only at night (and because of the New Year holidays we don’t turn it off at night) and on rare sunny days.


• "The water is colder." Together with the air temperature, the water in the reservoirs, and, accordingly, in the water supply, becomes much colder than in summer. And this means that our water heaters also have to expend more energy to heat it. If the kettle simply takes more time to boil water, then the boiler also has to maintain a certain temperature, and the colder the room in which the boiler is located, the more often it turns on and “eats” such expensive electricity.


• "Internal heating". Since the normal body temperature is 36.6 ° C and a person strives to maintain it in cold weather, we quite often drink hot drinks (not strong ones!). At home, we often turn on the kettle, and in offices, coffee machines and coolers, which are constantly on, are more popular.

If you think about it, you can find many more natural reasons why electricity consumption is increasing: relatives came to visit, holiday preparations.

On hot summer days, energy consumption can also be quite high - in contrast to heating devices in winter, air conditioners and fans are used in summer, and refrigerators turn on more often and last longer.

Counter replacement

Most often, consumers notice changes in electricity metering after replacing the meter. Today, an induction meter (remember, such a black one with a rotating disk?) Is listed in the Red Book as an endangered species, because it is unprofitable for electricity suppliers, because the poachers who destroy them (energy companies) do not want to incur losses and lose profits. Therefore, every effort is made to ensure that there is not a single representative of the species working on the basis of magnetic induction. Induction meters do have a significant drawback compared to electronic meters: they do not consider low consumption. This is due to the principle of operation and design, which are described in the article about the types of electricity meters, which on a national scale entails megawatts of unaccounted for energy.

Possible reasons why a new meter can count a lot of electricity:

• "Accounting for the smallest power consumption." Since electronic meters contain very sensitive microcircuits that react to the slightest changes electrical network, they take into account absolutely all consumers. It is not entirely correct to think that all appliances that are simply plugged into an outlet consume electricity. For example, if the most ordinary electric kettle is simply plugged into the outlet, but does not heat water, it will not consume anything until the button is pressed. Another example: if the TV is plugged in, but not in standby mode (that is, it cannot be turned on with the remote control), it will also not consume anything. But if you press the POWER button on the TV (that is, turn it on in standby mode), the TV's power supply and the standby indicator (LED) will turn on, which will already consume electricity. If you leave the TV in standby mode for a month, then, depending on its generation, the consumption will be from 150 W to 7.5 kW. If you recalculate the consumption of all appliances that are constantly on in standby mode, such as a microwave oven, audio and video equipment, as well as all kinds of charging device from phones, tablets, laptops, etc., it turns out a consumption of several tens of kilowatts. It is worth noting that induction meters, if they noticed this consumption, then some hundredth of it.


• "The quality of the electricity meter". As everyone has long been accustomed to in our country (and not only in ours), most of the Chinese-made equipment. Electricity meters are no exception. In fact, energy companies also like to save money and do not disdain to buy meters in China, and not of the best quality. After the meters arrive in Ukraine, they enter the control and measuring points where they are checked. It is there that all necessary documents and inscriptions on the counter are translated into Ukrainian. But one cannot but rejoice at the fact that a fairly large percentage of installed meters are measuring instruments of the Ukrainian company NIK. But the problem is that the situation is similar to a “pig in a poke”, since the installed meter can be incorrectly calibrated, either through oversight or malicious intent, respectively, to count both up and down. But that's not all: even if you can determine that the meter is incorrectly counting electricity, the only thing you can do is send the meter for verification at your own expense directly to the company that supplies you with electricity. And then the situation comes to a standstill: do you think the power company recognizes that they supplied you with a defective meter ?!

Attempts to influence the electricity meter

There will always be citizens with low morals who will look for ways to take and not pay for electricity. For such purposes, special magnets are most often used. But it's against the law and no one teaches people how to use them properly. Therefore, a variety of situations arise, from simply fixing the installation of a magnet without harm to the meter with the imposition of a rather large fine to the complete disabling of the metering device with the imposition of an even greater fine. To fix the fact of installing a magnet, both a regular sticker with metal balls evenly spaced in 4 sectors, which are collected in one place when a magnet is brought to them (Fig. 2), and special electronic circuits that are paired with the ASKUE system immediately send a signal to the control panel. That is, you have not yet managed to steal anything, and you have already been fined. Therefore, before using such methods, it is worth thinking carefully.

There are also radio amateurs who are trying to assemble electronic circuits to counter those that are in the meter, creating a kind of "ban". But, as practice shows, the efficiency of this enterprise often results in the failure of the meter, and, accordingly, is subject to a fine. And even with such manipulations, the opposite effect may occur: instead of paying less, the meter will start winding up electricity for you with a vengeance.

Technical aspects of electronic meters

Like it or not, the meter is an electrical appliance that works with a certain algorithm based on a comparison of network parameters. If we take the formula for calculating power consumption, we will see that there are several variables, such as voltage, current and power factor, which is the ratio of active power to apparent power. Accordingly, when these parameters are changed, the entire scheme is violated.

• Voltage. The first thing that can affect the calculation of electricity is voltage. It is believed that the optimal voltage in the network is 220 V. Services supplying electricity are obliged to supply electricity with a voltage of 220 V ± 10% (for single-phase consumers), that is, from 198 V to 242 V. But in practice it is also found above 260 V, and below 170 V. For technology, the voltage of 230 V is considered the best. How does all this confusion affect the meter? Firstly, not all meters have a voltage surge compensation circuit and, with a constant load, but different voltages, the counter counts differently. Secondly, the most sensitive to power surges are active power consumers, such as heating devices - boilers, kettles, heaters. The simplest example is a boiler (all heating devices operate on this principle). It consists of a nichrome helix that has some kind of resistance. When an electric current flows, this coil heats up. And according to Ohm's law, the greater the voltage, the greater the current, the more it heats up. If you lower the boiler into water and plug it into a network with a voltage of 220 V, it will start heating water, if you increase the voltage to 250 V, it will heat it up faster, if you lower it to 200 V, the boiler will heat water more slowly. And since the power of the boiler is constant (let's say 1 kW), then for the counter the only difference is how long the boiler will work - if 1 hour, then it will count 1 kW, but if 20 minutes, then already 200 watts. Here's some simple math. But this rule only applies to active load consumers, and full load consumers (active and reactive, having a motor and transformers: a refrigerator, a washing machine, a TV) are subject to other laws, although electricity consumption at different voltages also changes.


• Current frequency. This is another value that can change. As in the case of voltage and frequency, electricity suppliers are obliged to supply electricity at a frequency of 50 Hz (in some countries, other standards are 110 V 60 Hz). All electrical appliances in our country are designed for just such a frequency, this also applies to meters. But with a change in frequency, electronic meters experience a semblance of a program failure, which entails an incorrect calculation of the consumed electricity. If we recall our example with a boiler, then as the frequency increases, it will heat the water faster.


• Power. It has already been mentioned above that power is active, reactive and total. Simplified, the difference between them can be explained as follows: active is the useful power that is spent on doing useful work (for example, heating water or rotating the drum of a washing machine); reactive - this is useless power that is spent on passing current through the conductor (in transformers and motors, the winding is closed, and in addition to active power, there is also reactive power, that is, unused energy is returned back to the network); total is the sum of active and reactive power. If we consider household appliances, then the kettle, heater, electric stove consume only active energy, and the refrigerator, washing machine, TV, hair dryer consume both active and reactive energy. More precise power definitions can be found on Wikipedia. According to the law, we must pay only for consumed - active energy. But the meter can count either total energy or reactive energy. Since we have only one meter, the total energy expended is considered, for which we pay. And at large facilities, mainly for some kind of production, two meters are installed, one counts the full power, and the second reactive. Then their difference is calculated, that is, active energy, which the company pays for.

External connections

Another reason why the meter winds more electricity may be an external connection. The most common case is the usual inattention or carelessness of electricians when connecting meters. But this option is only possible if several meters are in the same panel or the connection is made in one junction box.

On fig. 3 shows the correct connection of meters in one floor panel.

But there are precedents when, due to inattention or ignorance, they combine or confuse neutral wires from two or more apartments, as shown in fig. four.

The fact is that the old induction meters took into account the consumption only if the current passed through both wires connected to the meter. Electronic ones record electricity consumption even if only one wire is involved, and the second is connected from the outside. That is, when such a connection occurs, as in Fig. 4, then if there is consumption in the first or second apartment, both the first and second meters will record it - so to speak, you will have to pay for yourself and for that guy. But the guy will have to pay for himself and for his neighbor. Here is such an irony of fate :) The same situation is with apartments 3 and 4.

If the meter is in your apartment, then the possibility of unauthorized connection is close to zero - to do this, you need to get into your apartment.

Still sometimes you hear such versions that a neighbor could connect to one of your outlets. In fact, this is quite problematic. Usually the walls between apartments are load-bearing, that is, their thickness is at least 25-30 cm. The wiring is laid in the wall at a maximum of 5 cm from the wall surface on your side. Accordingly, the neighbor needs to overcome at best 20 cm of the wall and manages to connect to your wires, not to mention the fact that he will need to guess where exactly your outlet is, or gouge the wall between you until he finds it. How likely do you think this is?

So let's sum it up:

And finally, we note that it is necessary to be prepared for the fact that in order to correct the situation, you will have to spend a lot of money, time and nerves on the fight against bureaucratic and legal aspects. And it happens that it is impossible to solve the situation in any way. This occurs in old areas of cities in old houses, where, in order to supply high-quality electricity with a stable voltage and frequency, it is necessary to replace several tens, if not hundreds, of kilometers of cables and re-equip several substations, which, unfortunately, is practically unrealistic in our country. .