The meter spins a lot – twice as much

The constant increase in electricity prices is impacting household budgets. But the problem doesn’t end there. It has been discovered that electricity consumption has sharply increased – the meter spins a lot. Moreover, it doesn’t just add 10-20 kilowatt-hours per month, but the consumption doubles. It’s time to sound the alarm.

Let’s start with the fact that the devices themselves – meters – can be electronic or induction. Induction coils installed in old equipment, the government decided to replace with new ones – electronic meters. The reason is simple – when the current consumption by appliances is less than 1 Ampere, there was weak electromagnetic induction. That is, when a weak current moves in a magnetic field, the meter did not account for electricity usage. Or there were errors in favor of the user by 5-50%.

Electronic meters lack such a flaw. Moreover, electronics account for active and reactive current. The energy consumed and returned to the network – if that’s easier. For example, a consumer has solar panels to try to reduce electricity drawn from the grid. But, unfortunately, there will be no savings – because the electronic meter measures electricity flowing in both directions.

The meter spins a lot – what to do

The new electronic meters, which the government installs completely free of charge instead of induction equipment, are initially set up to steal electricity. Any electrician from a commercial organization can easily demonstrate how the deception occurs on site. However, no organization will provide a written confirmation that the government meter is faulty. The alternative is to buy a special device capable of measuring power consumption in Watts and conduct an experiment with a heating device, disconnecting other equipment in the house.

The most effective way to restore justice is to buy a new and verified device from a specialized store. It doesn’t matter who the manufacturer is. The store is inherently interested in selling working equipment. The solution is expensive, but electricity consumption will be accurately accounted for.

Fighting electricity theft by the population

With rising electricity prices, considering that the meter spins a lot during the winter, consumers resort to deception. The operation of the meter installed in a private house or apartment is blocked by disconnecting the neutral wire. That is, the phase is supplied to the meter, and the neutral wire is diverted to a separate block. The same block is connected to a cable from a lightning rod, for example. And the cable from the block is returned to the meter’s output panel. When checked by relevant authorities, the user switches the neutral wire on the block.

The trick is easy to uncover, only the inspectors themselves are unable to think of this, or simply there is no team from above. If, approaching the meter, the neutral wire is disconnected, then logically all electrical appliances in the house or apartment should turn off. If this did not happen, it means the consumer is stealing electricity. In the dark, you can remove the neutral cable from a utility pole and, seeing light in the window and hearing the sound of working TVs, you can confidently draw up acts of electricity theft. For an apartment building, the situation is easily repeated.