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Con Edison digital electric meter (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.comSmart Electric Meters
Read a smart meter status & usage

Smart Meter Electric meter reading and decoding:

This article explains how to interpret the common readouts found on digital electric meters.

This article series describes types of electric meters, meter inspection points, and how to read an electric meter. We also discuss electrical arc burns at the meter base and we include case reports of electric meter base overheat and arcing damage, failures, and repairs.

InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website.

- Daniel Friedman, Publisher/Editor/Author - See WHO ARE WE?

Digital or Smart Meter Electric Meters

Digital electric meter in Campo San Maurizio, Venice Italy (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.com

Photo: above, a digital electric meter in Campo San Maurizio, Venice, Italy in 2018. [Click to enlarge any image]

Our photo above and those below illustrate that digital electric meters or smart meters are provided in a variety of shapes, sizes, and displays.

However all of them will display the same basic information that we will list below.

Smart Meters or "Smart Electric Meters" are digital electric meters that us an LCD display that automatically cycles through the following images:

Test pattern on a digital Smart Meter electric meter (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.com

Digital electric meter display of KWh used since installation (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.com

Smart Meter electric meter at a mobile home (C) InspectApedia.com KiaQuestion: my outside meter is reading open

2018/08/12 Kia said:

I life in a single mobile home and the landlord has done something to cut power to the house.. the light company said everything is good on there end but my outside meter is reading open

This Q&A were posted originally at MOBILE HOME ELECTRICAL WIRING FAQs

Reply:

Kia:

If your SmartMeter is reading "OPEn", according to Com Edison's guide, If the meter display reads “OPEn,” or “OPN,” your power is disconnected.

You should contact the customer service for your electric utility company or service provider.

Watch out: if your landlord has modified the electric service entry wiring or service drop at your property the result could be unsafe. Ask your utility company to send an expert to the site. Don't just rely on what their computer tells them.

Con Edison digital electric meter (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.com

When calling your electric utility to ask for help with your service or your electric meter, it will be helpful to have the electric meter number, shown on the meter label such as that in our photo above.

Reader Question: Special Smart Meter Mount Arcing Problems in Retrofit Electrical Meter Programs?

4 Sept 2015 THOMAS said:

I have seen comments to the effect that meter base jaws are sized to fit analog meters only, and the blades of SmartMeters are thinner and therefore more subject to arcing. This seems very unlikely to me, but it is often seen in blog comments. Is there any truth at all to this?

Reply: risk of arcing at electrical meter mounting bayonets is addressed by inspection & testing; patent disclosure research.

Interesting question, Thomas.

A scholarly search for research found plenty of research citing the properties of smart electrical meters and no research or papers discussing mounting clip problems. One would *think* that for cost reasons if a replacement meter is to mount on an existing meter base the new meter's connectors would be sized to fit the existing clips.

In fact loose electrical meter connections is a concern with ANY electrical meter, particularly if the meter has been pulled and replaced as that process might spread the receiving meter connectors. That this is a known concern for all meters is reflected by patent disclosures such as I cite below.

What I infer from this is that there is probably not a special problem with under-sized smart meter bayonets but there might be occurrences of poor connections in removing and plugging in ANY electrical meter, including smart meters being installed to replace older conventional units.

Smart Electric Meter & Smart Meter Installation, Testing, & Smart Meter Error Codes

Smart Meters used for electrical use metering and billing are usually accurate, pre-tested, and depending on where you live, your electrical utility company may be required to prove the accuracy of their electric meters before they can be installed.

Depending on where you live you may be served by an electric utility company that charges different rates for electricity usage by time of day. Some electricity usage metering systems or the charges you see for electrical use may then vary depending on your particular pattern of electricity usage versus time of day. Older analog electric meters don't have the ability to relate usage to time of day.

Watch out: unless you are trained in proper and safe electrical work do not try to dis-assemble, open, or touch any electrical connections, switches, panels, or devices as you could be shocked or killed.

Otherwise, in normal and safe conditions (that is a building is not flooded, storm or earthquake-damaged, etc.) you should be able to operate normal user-operated switches or controls intended for use by a homeowner or building occupant.

Basics of Smart Meter Reading Procedure

Georgia power SOCO smartmeter reading cited & discussed at InspectApedia.com

Above: a SOCO smartmeter reading 35832 kWh in an example offered for U.S. customers of Georgia Power. On smart meters like the SOCO unit above just read the numeric display after 8888888 disappears and other numbers appear in the window.

Below an OVO-SSE smartmeter in the UK. On some smart meters you may need to press a button to obtain a reading.

OVO SSE Smart Electric Meter Buttons & reading  cited & discussed at InspectApedia.com

If it's not obvious how to read your smart meter these sample instructions from SSE (now owned by OVO) in the UK may be all you need:

On most electricity smart meters, the screen will show your meter reading as standard. If you see a row of zeros, wait six to ten seconds for the screen to show your meter reading. On some meters, you may need to press the OK button or button A to show your reading.

If your meter display shows 8888888 it's in test mode and is working. Keep watching the display. In a few seconds it should change to a number - this second number after the all 8's display is the kWh or Kilowatt hour reading on your meter.

If your meter looks nothing like the U.S. SOCO meter or the UK SSE electricity meter above, start by noting the name of your electric company and smart meter brand itself, because the exact procedures vary depending on the exact smart electric meter model and brand provided by your electric utility.

For example here are five different smart meter reading procedures for Ovoenergy utility company meters:

SMETS1 (Secure) meters - Press 9 on your smart meter keypad to show the meter reading in kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity, and cubic meters for gas
SMETS2 (Aclara) electricity meters – Press A 3 times.
SMETS2 (Aclara) gas meters – Wake up the meter by pressing a button, and it should automatically default to the reading screen.
SMETS2 (Elster) electricity meters - Press the bottom button once.
SMETS2 (Elster) gas meters - Press the middle button once or twice. - cited in detail below.

So you can see that which button you press to start can vary. Codes of the same characters or numbers have different meanings on different smart meters.

Example: From HOPO cited below in explaining Smart Meter Error Code 04:

The LCD screen displays the err-04 error code, and sometimes the alarm light and the LCD screen are always on. If these phenomena occur, the reasons are as follows:

1. When the err-04 error code appears, there is no need for the customer to deal with it by himself. Call the power supply company and let professionals handle it.

2. Err-04 indicates that the 3.6V clock battery voltage is insufficient, indicating a system error. This is a unified national standard, notify the meter supplier to carry out maintenance processing

3. If the clock battery runs out of power in a short time, there may be a design problem inside the meter, which can only be solved by the manufacturer. Because once the battery is out of power, the accumulated power data will be wrong. After the battery is replaced, it needs to be re-checked and the lost data will be processed.

Below on this page you'll see smart meter instruction manuals and error code guides for many suppliers, but be sure you start by identifying your electric or gas supplier, and give them a call for help if you need.

Fundamental or Simple Electric Meter Test Procedure

Best solution: if you have any reason to suspect that your electric meter is not working properly, call your electric utility company and ask for help.

Watch out: if your electric meter is hissing, buzzing or arcing it is unsafe; you should avoid touching it or any electrical components and should call your electric utility or a local licensed electrician for emergency help as there may be shock or fire hazards present.

On older dial-type electric meters, a slight mechanical noise is normal and not dangerous.

Simple DIY electric meter "tests"

  1. Turn off all use of electricity in the building.

    To do this, Turn off the main circuit breaker or fuse that powers your building using the normal homeowner control such as turning off a main circuit breaker or pulling the main fuse block.

    See MAIN ELECTRICAL DISCONNECT

    Watch out: do not even touch an electrical panel if it is wet, visibly damaged, or the floor or building is/are wet; Call for help from a licensed electrician instead.
  2. Look at the electric meter:

    it should show no electricity usage on its readout.

    If not you have not found the main electrical shut-off or there is other wiring that may be improper or unsafe - Call for help from a licensed electrician
  3. Turn your main electrical panel breaker or fuse back on
  4. Turn off all circuits in the building: but leave the main breaker or fuse "on" - you should see no electricity usage
  5. Turn on one circuit that powers an appliance that uses a lot of electricity such as an electric stove or electric heater
  6. Read the wattage consumption rate of the one appliance that is ON, and leave the appliance on for an hour
  7. Read the wattage used as displayed by your electric meter and compare it with the watts-per-hour or watt-hour rating of your appliance: the two numbers should be within 5% of one another.
  8. Remember to turn other circuits back on.

Use a VOM to measure the Current of an Individual Circuit

If you are trained to do so safely you can use a DMM or VOM to measure the current consumed on an individual circuit and you can, by turning off other circuits, compare that with the electricity usage reported by your electric meter.

AMPS MEASUREMENT METHODS describes how to measure the electricity used on individual circuits

Also see DMMs VOMs SAFE USE OF

Electric Smart Meter Reading & Accuracy Guides

Meter bayonet tool for testing tension of electrical meter socket jaw tension - Patent US 20140157907 Johnson 2014

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Reader Comments, Questions & Answers About The Article Above

Below you will find questions and answers previously posted on this page at its page bottom reader comment box.

Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2022-10-07 by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - Landis & Gyr Focus ALF Form 2S CL200 meter reading

@Stephanie Smith,

Thank you for that additional detail, we're researching this further.

On 2022-10-06 by Stephanie Smith

@InspectApedia-911, Lindsay, OK USA So its a municipality and we purchase our electricity from GRDA ( Grand River Dam Authority) These were smart meters but that's all that it ever displays.

It will do the all 000 then flash the number with the ST still on right left side and that's it. So when my meter reads 03541 but my last bill reading had it reading 102060 so my bill had me using almost 3789 usage which saw a huge increase in my bill.

But no one knows or can tell me how these meters are read correclty or if mine is faulty

On 2022-10-06 by InspectApedia-911 (mod)

@Stephanie

I'll find the instructions for that specific meter so that we can give a more detailed reply. Please also tell us your country and city of location and the name of your electric utility company.

Landis & Gyr meter (C) InspectApedia.com Stephanie

On 2022-10-06 by Stephanie Smith

I have a Landis + Gyr Focus kWh type ALF Form 2S CL200 240V 3W 60Hz meter and curious what the S and T means then it reads 03541 but when I received my bill it had a 1 added to the number?

curious what numbers do they take down when reading it? My bill has almost doubled and dont feel like the meters are accurate nor the numbers? Here is a picture of my meter. Any help would be amazing.

On 2022-10-05 by InspectApedia (Editor) (mod) - Eaton digital meter flashing numbers

@William Smith,

Take a closer look and tell me the model of your Eaton electric meter and we can then review its instructions to be sure we're answering properly.

EG here is just one of many Eaton meter manuals

EATON IQ 250/260 HIGH PERFORMANCE MULTIFUNCTION ELECTRICITY METER [PDF] web: www.eaton.com

This meter measures and may display instantaneous, average, maximum, and minimum electricity usage.

On 2022-10-05 by William Smith

I have a Eaton brand digital meter on my house. The meter always has one set of numbers. Lately it has been flashing between 3 sets of numbers, what causes this?

On 2022-09-05 by InspectApedia-911 (mod)

@LOUIS BRIAND,

Let's start by the basic information needed:

country and city of location

name of your local electric company

and it'd be helpful to see a photo of the heater so that we can look at all of its identification data

On 2022-09-04 by LOUIS BRIAND

i have ETS heater so my elect is cheaper at night--Question: my meter on left 001-002-003-004-005-006 which changes every 5 seconds
i want to no how to read it---Cant find this meter on GOOGLE or YOU TUBE. Reply, thanks.

On 2022-07-07 by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - Higher than normal electricity usage can be a warning

@Sol,

Higher than normal electricity usage when you are confident that nothing in your home is drawing current could be a warning:

The fact that your main breaker tripped without an explanation is a bit of a concern because of the possibility of an inadvertent short circuit or bad electrical wiring that could be unsafe. So you might want an electrician to inspect your panel and wiring.

First try turning off circuits and appliances in your building one by one to see if that makes an immediate change in what you're seeing at the electric meter if it does that might indicate where the problem lies.

On 2022-07-07 by Sol

My electrical meter is constantly reading for the GSS a 04 while my neighbors are all on 09 throughout the day. The apt complex gave me fans to use since the AC not working well but should I be worried about our electricity usage as it is always on peak?

The breaker turned off automatically about 4 days ago. I don't even have washer and dryer connected yet.

On 2021-10-18 by inspectapedia.com.moderator - checking the accuracy of your smart meter

@Glenn Brooks,

We've added some suggestions for checking the accuracy of your smart meter at the end of the article above; please take a look.

On 2021-10-18 by Glenn Brooks

How can I verify that my smart meter is correct? As far as I can tell it is reporting exactly twice the amount I am using. I am supplied by SCE in Santa Clarita, CA.

On 2020-11-11 by danjoefriedman (mod)

no not directly

On 2020-11-10 by Archie

is the amperage draw indicated on meter readings

On 2020-05-23 by danjoefriedman (mod) - SmartMeter domestic electric meter shows the kilowatts

Neeraj,

Your SmartMeter domestic electric meter shows the kilowatts flowing into the meter as a digital number .

Electricity Inflow: the cumulative total of electrical usage since the meter was installed, in kilowatt-hours or KWh.

Are you asking how you would verify that the electric meter is correct?

On 2020-05-23 by Neeraj

How to check running Watts in smart domestic meters


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