Basic Knowledge About Electricity Meter Readings Explained

I.Three safety locks on the electricity meter

1.Factory seal

After the manufacturer inspects and approves the meter, they will install the first security seal, which is the factory seal. This seal serves as the manufacturer's guarantee that the meter is functioning correctly.

2.Verification of lead seals

Having a manufacturer's certificate of conformity is not enough. Market supervision and management departments will also randomly select a certain number of electricity meters from the same production batch for testing. Only after passing these tests can the batch of meters receive a certificate of conformity and be sent to the power supply bureau's metering center for further testing. The market supervision bureau authorizes the power supply bureau's metering center to conduct the electricity meter testing. The market supervision bureau will periodically conduct random checks on the power supply bureau's testing procedures and results. If any actions are found to be inconsistent with national verification requirements, the authorization will be suspended or even revoked. When testing electricity meters, the power supply bureau's metering center cannot break the "factory seal"; they can only connect the meters and test for errors using the programmed procedures. Meters that pass the tests will be marked with a "verification seal".

3.Install the lead seal.

After passing comprehensive testing, the electricity meters are sent from the metering center to the power supply bureau. The metering team of the power supply bureau then installs and maintains the meters for residents. The meter installers affix the final "installation seal" to the meter. If you suspect your meter has been tampered with, you can check if the factory seal, verification seal, and installation seal are all intact. Because if the meter's internal program has been tampered with, the seals will inevitably be damaged.

II.Methods for checking if the electricity meter is malfunctioning

1. Check the meter reading yourself and compare it with the last reading taken by the power company to initially determine if there has been a meter reading error; check the billing cycle to determine if the electricity usage period has increased or decreased due to business changes or other reasons, leading to abnormal electricity consumption.

2. Verify if any electrical appliances or household members have been added, and compare the current electricity consumption with that of the same period in previous years to confirm whether the recent electricity consumption is abnormal.

3. Turn off the main power switch in your home and check if the meter is still rotating to initially determine if there is electricity theft, leakage, incorrect wiring, or inaccurate meter readings.

III.Reasons why electricity bills are higher than before after installing a new meter

1. One situation is that smart meters have high sensitivity, which can create the visual illusion of "running fast."

2. Secondly, it's not that smart meters run fast, but rather that smart meters can detect weak currents that old-fashioned meters cannot, and the sensitivity of old mechanical meters decreases with age.

3. When replacing electricity meters, if the work order filing time conflicts with the meter reading time of that month, it may result in the remaining electricity from the old meter being included in the meter reading for the following month after the meter replacement. Therefore, the actual billing period for the first month with the new meter is longer than one month. This makes it appear, on the surface, that the electricity bill for the first month with the new meter is higher than the bill for the previous month with the old meter.