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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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18th Jan 2018, 8:42 pm | #21 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,274
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
I'd have thought most people still have 'old analogue' meters, dont they? I do..and my Dads, and in fact everyone I know. At work we only had a digital meter because we found out they were charging us 3 standing charges for 3 analogue meters..one per phase on a 3-phase supply.
Evesdropping on two guys from Western Power, when they get called out to a main supply fuse that's blown, first thing they do is pull the terminal cover off and turn it over to inspect for copper-plating. Modern digital meters, cheap and plasticky as they are, often go bang and then melt their innards just before the fuses blow. Quality.
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Kevin |
18th Jan 2018, 9:03 pm | #22 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,687
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
When we did up next door, the E/M meter was ripped out and replaced with a solid state LCD version. My mam still has an E/M meter. I suspect that the older meters will only get phased out as they fall below the legal 2% accuracy or otherwise fail, though this might be accelerated with the onset of 'smart' meters, which we're not obliged to sign up to at the mo, although we're being nudged in that direction. Wonder if anyone still has one with the separate analogue dials rather than the mechanical digital display?
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18th Jan 2018, 9:31 pm | #23 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,274
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
I like looking at old bakelite meters, its a snapshot of a UK electrical industry thats disappearing. Names like Ferranti, GEC, Brush, Sangamo Weston, AEI. Even Landis & Gyr, (now siemens) who took over the GEC Meters factory in Stone, who had taken it over from Lotus Shoes, and is now occupied by ABB.
I dont think I've ever seen an LCD one made by a company I recognise.
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Kevin |
18th Jan 2018, 9:33 pm | #24 | |
Pentode
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 110
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
It was a very old meter. Dials instead of digits and a coin box on the right hand side. |
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18th Jan 2018, 10:01 pm | #25 | ||
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
Quote:
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18th Jan 2018, 10:20 pm | #26 |
Octode
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saltburn-East, Cleveland, UK.
Posts: 1,786
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Hi, I recall one of my elderly, now deceased, colleagues from a former workplace telling me some years ago that he once attempted to slow his meter disc down (and hence reduce his electricity bill) with some form of electromagnet, possibly of similar design to/or a degaussing coil, but all it did was make the disc move considerably faster!
Regards Andrew |
18th Jan 2018, 11:39 pm | #27 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,274
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
Now it's stopped raining I can go outside and show you mine. Thankfully (I was doubting myself) it's a british GEC.
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Kevin |
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19th Jan 2018, 1:15 am | #28 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Nice bell transformer!
Here's our old one that went faulty.
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Regds, Russell W. B. G4YLI. |
19th Jan 2018, 11:24 am | #29 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
The generation meter on the Solar PV is by someone called Elster that I'd never heard of, though apparently it's a big name in the business.
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19th Jan 2018, 1:22 pm | #30 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dukinfield, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,038
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Ours is a spinning disc type with mechanical digital readout, made by Landis & Gyr.
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Andy G1HBE. |
19th Jan 2018, 6:48 pm | #31 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Gosport, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 606
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
I seem to remember my Dad telling me a long time ago that there was a time when you could run a torch bulb for nothing by connecting it between earth and neutral. Neutral is earthed now isn't it? So that's not going to work. Never tried it though!
Now we've got a Smart meter - don't get me started on that!!
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19th Jan 2018, 7:07 pm | #32 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,687
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
I used to do the torch bulb thing when I had a shack at the bottom of the garden, some distance from the house, and I had the electric fire on full whack. It's a sort of phyrric victory, economy-wise, if you like. Getting back to electricity meters, when Whitehaven had its own power station (d.c.) it was discovered that the meters could be by-passed simply by putting an earth stake into the soil and connecting one of the consumer-side leads to that! It was quickly changed...
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19th Jan 2018, 7:13 pm | #33 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Weymouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 422
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
It is possible to run a torch bulb from the neutral and earth it works due to voltage drop along the neutral caused by unbalanced loads across the 3 phases which leads to voltage drop on said neutral wire. However it wont work on PME supplys where earth and neutral are joined where the supply enters your house. Also it MAY cause RCDs to trip
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21st Jan 2018, 11:05 am | #34 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,532
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Elster are (or were) in Stafford, funnily enough on the Stone side of Stafford. I say were because I'm convinced the name on the building has change recently. I'll check if we go past later.
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21st Jan 2018, 1:52 pm | #35 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,532
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
No need, just remembered they are now Honeywell.
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22nd Jan 2018, 7:16 pm | #36 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,004
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
I once had a Ferranti pay meter I picked up from a car boot sale for a few pounds.
I used it was a money box, but my parents made me get rid of it. |
22nd Jan 2018, 10:34 pm | #37 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,536
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Why? Were you charging them for electricity they'd already paid for?
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24th Jan 2018, 10:16 am | #38 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Southport Lancashire, UK.
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Quote:
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Paul |
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24th Jan 2018, 10:27 am | #39 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dukinfield, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,038
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Yes, they did exist. I came into contact with several of them and they were just mains transformers with a very high current, low voltage secondary. This winding was fitted with probes (like meter probes) which could be jammed into the meter's cable entry points to make contact with the connections. Get the winding the right way around and the meter would either stop or go backwards, depending on the urge of your transformer and the load at the time.
I kept well away from the people who used them, they seemed like right low-lifes.
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Andy G1HBE. |
25th Jan 2018, 4:36 am | #40 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 8,195
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Re: Analogue Electricity Meters.
Hi Gents. The meters have a voltage and a current coil. the voltage coil is connected between L&N. The current coil is in series with the L wire (usually the 2 outer terminals).
This is the coil that can be shunted with some thick wire as in increasing the range of an ammeter, or it can have a current forced back through it (Kirchoff's law) to reduce the net current flowing and "shave" a few % off the meter reading. AFAIK readings have been statically checked for sudden changes in reading over the quarter etc. The magnet round the disc is a brake magnet that simply stops the disc rotating at very light loads. The gap is tiny and the poles are right over the disc, so even modern high power magnets will have little effect unless they encircle the disc. I was involved with a company that developed a split CT that fitted within the meter, so that if a bypass was added, a mercury coulomb meter would register the imbalance. Ed |