Quetion for all you electrician kind of guys

[Dargo]

Is it normal for an electric meter, from the utility company, to run with nothing attached to it? I haven't had a chance to wire up much in my newer barn and when I added it my utility company had to run another drop from the transformer to it because I was already using all of the 600 amp service run to my home and I wanted to put 200 amps to that barn. Anyway, it's a completely separate run with it's own meter. Since not much is attached to it except one outlet, two vehicle lifts (wired direct with their own breakers), overhead lights, 2 outlets for welders (nothing attached to them currently) and a dusk to dawn light (similarly with it's own breaker).

For some reason I looked at the meter a couple of days ago and noticed that the meter was slowly turning when nothing was on. I figured no big deal and that I likely had something with a transformer plugged into the outlet inside such as a cordless tool battery charger. Upon further inspection, nothing was plugged in. Getting more curious, I flipped all breakers off and looked again; still turning. Hmm, since I had the cover off of the panel, I pulled the 200 amp breaker out of the box, leaving absolutely nothing attached; still turning. Is that normal?

It's a really, really simple setup with the utility company riser coming up on the outside of the barn with a meter on top of it and my breaker panel directly on the other side of the meter inside the barn. Nothing else is fed from that run and nothing is attached to it now. Still, the meter makes 3.8 revolutions per hour, every hour, with nothing attached. What am I missing? That just doesn't seem right to me. With no panel attached and nothing but what the utility company sitting there shouldn't the meter be motionless? I can't help but wonder...

 

[jbos333]

I don't have the answer for you, but I have a similar situation. I have a 200a service to a utility building on some otherwise vacant land. Don't leave anything at all plugged in; in fact have only 1 110v outlet on 1 15a breaker- haven't got around to wiring it yet.

I haven't watched my meter turn, but I "use" about 1/2-1 Kwh a month. It still falls under my "minimum" charge for just being connected, which is about $16.50/mo.

So I too am curious about your situation.

 

[LBrown59]

Meter should not be turning .

 

[dave1949]

Meter should not be turning .

That's what we all think, we want to know why it is turning.
Dave.

 

[randy41]

does the meter itself use power? is there a leak to ground?

 

[zzvyb6]

My meters were just replaced by new ones which have an automatic "call home" feature to report the meter readings. This remote feature lets them get actual accurate digital readings without someone having to come onto the property. I presume it costs some juice to do this. You could pull the meter off and see if you have the perpetual motion version...

 

[Dargo]

does the meter itself use power? is there a leak to ground?

I've been told that the meters do not use any energy. However, the only thing hooked up is the utility company's equipment and all of it was installed by them. Call my cynical, but throw in an extra 3.8 turns per hour on every single meter with every single customer and I'm seeing a HUGE amount of additional income to the utility company through less than above board methods.

 

[Ductape]

The electric company charges you for the electricity it takes to run the meter.

 

[czechsonofagun]

When our pole transformer went bad, the meter was not moving, but I agree with Ductape - the company charges you for the power to measure your consumption.

 

[jinman]

About 10 years ago, I had a pole with a meter-drop on it and a main breaker box attached like you would have for an RV. Nothing was attached and the meter did not move. However, I got a bill every month with a minimum charge. I figured that was okay for the "if I ever need it" convenience. When the minimum charge jumped to $25, I made a call to the electric company to have them come disconnect the meter and pull their pole.

Dargo, my guess is that your meter is registering some power used, but it is below the minimum billable usage. What used to drive me crazy was the state and federal taxes they would attach to even the minimum charge when I was using zero electricity.