Electricity Meter going backwards?

[OdeTheBear]

Hi all,

I'm buying solar panels on my roof, the potentional insallers have all visited and done thair surveys now I'm reading the quotes. There is something one man said while talking about the financial benefits that I'd like to confirm, is the following technically possible?

He said that one of his customer generated more electricity than be bought from the grid and hence this customer's old fashioned mechanical meter "went backwards, cloking back the numbers". Is that possible?

The new smart meters do that, I know, but an old analogue one? I have an energy monitor that clips on the incoming wire and it only shows the current, not which direction it goes to - can the old meters really go backwards?

 

[Matt_M]

Yes they can go backwards.

If you ring up your energy provider (eg. NPower, EDF, Scottish Power, etc) and tell them what you propose to do, they will come out and upgrade your meter for free.

 

[malcolmsanford]

The old meters can indeed go backwards and depending on age they can indeed "rewind" dials, but they are very old and few and far between.

 

[Justin pearson]

i have an apprentice mate who wired up a system, then took it all apart again as the meter was going backwards he thought he had done it wrong, and didnt want to ask anyone what he had done wrong, in case he looked silly.

He looked silly when he hadnt done anything wrong and it was right in the first place, and had to put it back together.

I shouldnt laugh im a newbie to sparkying too, so would have probably done the same thing.

 

[OdeTheBear]

Thanks for your reply - OK it was true then.

My provider is BG and I have phoned them few times trying to get the meter changed but it seems to be too big of a company, sofar nobody has been able to transfer my call to the right department...

 

[SolarCity]

Shocked and stunned that British Gas have been less than helpful.

I actually see quite a lot of meters going backwards. Perhaps as many as a third of the analogue ones.

You could always leave the old meter in of course......

 

[OdeTheBear]

You could always leave the old meter in of course......

Good idea :wink_smile:

 

[edexlab]

All the old dial type meters I've seen have wound backwards I usually check and demonstrate to customers and advise them to inform the supplier just to prevent any issues later on
if the supplier is made aware then its their problem and not the customers ,anyway I've only heard of a couple of our earliest customers having the meter changed over a year after installation

 

[Worcester]

We just had one electricity supplier claim that it was going backwards beacuse it was faulty and that the solar pv systems was the casue of the fault, so they were going to charge the customer to change the meter as it was the customers fault it was going backwards!

Customer politely told them to !**! ... and they eventually came and changed it for free, after 3 phone calls trying to get the customer to pay, cheeky so and so's!
(customer was on monthly readings and for two months over the summer the reading was less than the previous one, so they just added 1 to the previous readings!)

 

[TonyL]

We just had one electricity supplier claim that it was going backwards beacuse it was faulty and that the solar pv systems was the casue of the fault, so they were going to charge the customer to change the meter as it was the customers fault it was going backwards!

Customer politely told them to !**! ... and they eventually came and changed it for free, after 3 phone calls trying to get the customer to pay, cheeky so and so's!
(customer was on monthly readings and for two months over the summer the reading was less than the previous one, so they just added 1 to the previous readings!)

Your customer was lucky to get away with intentionally submitting inaccurate readings. Where the submission of the reading can be deemed by a reasonable person to be an intentional deception for the purposes of making a personal gain, they are commiting fraud (unless of course, they are a Member of Parliament where its a core skill that they are expected to demonstrate on a daily basis).

This is another part of the Self Certification PV process which is actually far from satisfactory. I know we all smile at it and think hooray for getting one up on the fat cats but................. The installer should have to formally notifying the REC that an analogue meter exists on a PV site. They know it's there and they are, by definition, competent to say so.

As a matter of interest, has anyone done a PV install for an MP (pronouced lying, twisting unprincipled little etc etc etc) ?

 

[SolarCity]

Your customer was lucky to get away with intentionally submitting inaccurate readings. Where the submission of the reading can be deemed by a reasonable person to be an intentional deception for the purposes of making a personal gain, they are commiting fraud (unless of course, they are a Member of Parliament where its a core skill that they are expected to demonstrate on a daily basis).

This is another part of the Self Certification PV process which is actually far from satisfactory. I know we all smile at it and think hooray for getting one up on the fat cats but................. The installer should have to formally notifying the REC that an analogue meter exists on a PV site. They know it's there and they are, by definition, competent to say so.

As a matter of interest, has anyone done a PV install for an MP (pronouced lying, twisting unprincipled little etc etc etc) ?

The meter belongs to the supplier and has nothing to do with the installer. If I am informing them that I have connected to their system, why should it be my concern whether their equipment needs upgrading? It's certainly not a matter of safety and therefore I am delighted every time I see it happening.

 

[brucelee]

British gas metering work ring
0800 316 1779 and ask for a new meter if older than 10yrs old they change it
if you need a 100A dp isolator and new tails all costs £39 total wether you have 1 or all done

 

[TonyL]

The meter belongs to the supplier and has nothing to do with the installer. If I am informing them that I have connected to their system, why should it be my concern whether their equipment needs upgrading? It's certainly not a matter of safety and therefore I am delighted every time I see it happening.

As I said, it is an exceedingly poor part of the self certification process.

Self certification is intended to allow professionals to self certify high standards of workmanship - that should include NOT knowlingly leaving a client with a problem.

A tightening of the standards can't come too soon to make this a professional industry.

 

[SolarCity]

Self certification is intended to allow professionals to self certify high standards of workmanship - that should include NOT knowlingly leaving a client with a problem.

The client does not have a problem. The owner of the meter has the problem.

As electricians, we are repeatedly told not to mess with the meter nor the cutout - a nonsensical situation whereby simply CU changes become a lot more complicated. The meter is not the contractors nor the customers property and I'm afraid they can't have it both ways.

A tightening of the standards can't come too soon to make this a professional industry.

Yeah, yeah. A few meters going backwards is definitely an horrific sign of slipping standards in our industry. We must be the laughing stock of Europe.

 

[Worcester]

Your customer was lucky to get away with intentionally submitting inaccurate readings. Where the submission of the reading can be deemed by a reasonable person to be an intentional deception for the purposes of making a personal gain, they are commiting fraud (unless of course, they are a Member of Parliament where its a core skill that they are expected to demonstrate on a daily basis).

The ONLY reason they put in a higher reading is that the providers system wouldn't let them put in a lower one (on line small supplier) so whose fault is that? The supplier already new of the problem

As a matter of interest, has anyone done a PV install for an MP (pronouced lying, twisting unprincipled little etc etc etc) ?

MP's no, House of Lords, yes, they are our core clientelle!