Tropical_Helper
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2021
- Messages
- 8
I have a curious question... I've been helping a friend research solar and other options for his rural property in Thailand. In the process, I was wondering about a voltage drop that he has on his existing grid feed, so I decided to use a couple of these meters to monitor his power--one connected at his light meter, and the other one at his 100A cutoff switch at his property (more than 1000 yards away). Anyhow, here's the meter I'm using:
I put one at both ends of the line because I can see at a glance what the voltage is at either end as well as the load in watts or amps. These meters also have accumulated Kilowatt hours, so naturally I was eager to see how many kilowatt hours we are actually getting at the property versus what we are using straight out of the utility's meter. (Perhaps I should mention, my friend's property is the only one with houses in this 1000-yard distance from the nearby village, and the village is the closest existing place to connect to the utility/grid. Therefore, that's where their light meter is.)
I also noted the utility's meter reading when I began monitoring with my digital meters. After running with these meters for 5 days, I subtracted the difference with all three meters, and here's what I found:
Utility meter: 200 kwh of usage
My digital meter attached to the utility meter: 150 kwh of usage
The meter at my property: 120 kwh of usage
Now 150-120=30kwh, and I was not surprised that we lost 30kwh (20%) on the line from the meter to the property since the wire is too small. What I can't explain is, why is the utility meter reading so much higher than my meter that is hooked up directly to it?
I thought perhaps the induction current detector (the clamp-on device to the right of the meter in the photo above) might be flaky, so I checked the amp reading on that meter against my clamp-on meter, and they basically agreed (within 5% at least).
We actually had someone out here from the utility this morning, and I asked them about the difference. Unfortunately, I don't understand what all they said in Thai, but my translator said it was something about a voltage drop from the light meter to my meter, or something about power being consumed inside the utility meter. Either way, sounds kinda fishy to me since my meter is hooked directly up to the output of theirs. Could my "cheap" meter be that far off?
What do you think?
I put one at both ends of the line because I can see at a glance what the voltage is at either end as well as the load in watts or amps. These meters also have accumulated Kilowatt hours, so naturally I was eager to see how many kilowatt hours we are actually getting at the property versus what we are using straight out of the utility's meter. (Perhaps I should mention, my friend's property is the only one with houses in this 1000-yard distance from the nearby village, and the village is the closest existing place to connect to the utility/grid. Therefore, that's where their light meter is.)
I also noted the utility's meter reading when I began monitoring with my digital meters. After running with these meters for 5 days, I subtracted the difference with all three meters, and here's what I found:
Utility meter: 200 kwh of usage
My digital meter attached to the utility meter: 150 kwh of usage
The meter at my property: 120 kwh of usage
Now 150-120=30kwh, and I was not surprised that we lost 30kwh (20%) on the line from the meter to the property since the wire is too small. What I can't explain is, why is the utility meter reading so much higher than my meter that is hooked up directly to it?
I thought perhaps the induction current detector (the clamp-on device to the right of the meter in the photo above) might be flaky, so I checked the amp reading on that meter against my clamp-on meter, and they basically agreed (within 5% at least).
We actually had someone out here from the utility this morning, and I asked them about the difference. Unfortunately, I don't understand what all they said in Thai, but my translator said it was something about a voltage drop from the light meter to my meter, or something about power being consumed inside the utility meter. Either way, sounds kinda fishy to me since my meter is hooked directly up to the output of theirs. Could my "cheap" meter be that far off?
What do you think?