Electricity Meter Fast: Is your electricity meter also running fast? How to check at home without going to electricity department

New Delhi. When the electricity bill comes, many people get ‘electric’. The reason is huge bills. They feel that they do not use as much electricity as the unit consumption shown. After the installation of smart meters, complaints about high bills have also increased. Many people adopt the path of ‘nothing will happen’ and keep paying the bills silently. They don’t even bother to find the reason for the high bills. You can find out yourself whether your meter is running correctly or running fast. You don’t even have to buy any equipment for this. You can remove the entire meter ‘kundli’ with a simple home remedy in just one hour in your own home.

The first and easiest way to check the meter is to detect current leakage. Current leakage means that electricity is leaking from the wires somewhere in your house and you are not aware of it. The right way to detect current leakage is to switch off refrigerator, TV, fan, light, mobile charger and inverter. If you want, drop the MCB of the house from the main board. Now go to the electricity meter and look carefully at the red pulse indicator there. If this light is blinking rapidly even after everything is closed or the meter readings are increasing, then understand that current is leaking somewhere in the wiring of the house. Because of this your bill is coming higher. The meter is fine.

1000 Watt 1-Hour Load Formula

If the pulse light of the meter is normal after switching off everything, then do a load test of 1 hour to check the speed of the meter. There is a simple rule of science that when a load of 1000 watts (1 kilowatt) runs continuously for 1 hour, exactly 1 unit (1 kWh) of electricity is consumed. Note down the initial reading (KWh) shown on the electricity meter display on paper. Now turn on any household appliance which is exactly 1000 watts. Room heater, electric iron or geyser can be of 1000 kilowatts. Now watch the clock and let this appliance run for a full hour and then switch it off.

Note the new reading of the meter exactly after one hour and find the difference between the two readings. If the reading has increased by exactly 1 unit (or between 0.95 to 1.05) in an hour, your meter is working 100% correctly. If the reading has increased by 1.25, 1.5 or 2 units, then it is clear that your meter is running faster than necessary and it is costing you money. If the reading has increased by much less than 1 unit, it means the meter is running slowly.

Why does the electricity meter run fast?

The reason for the meter running fast is not only its technical fault, but many domestic reasons are also responsible –

• Current leakage in wiring: When the insulation of old or damaged wiring gets damaged, the current continuously leaks into the ground through the wall or earthing, which the meter keeps adding considering it as normal consumption.

• Low Power Factor: Inductive loads in the house like old motor, old fridge or AC without inverter technology spoil the power factor, due to which the appliances have to draw more electricity to run.
• Arrival of high voltage: If the voltage coming from the grid is above 230-240 volts, then electronic gadgets start drawing more power than required, due to which the speed of the meter increases.
• Maintaining complete accounting of smart meters: Old analog meters did not capture small consumption. New digital and smart meters record 1 watt power consumption. Because of this also the bill becomes higher.
• Fault in meter calibration: Sometimes due to lightning, short circuit or internal sensor failure, the calibration of the meter gets spoiled and it starts showing wrong reading.

How to complain if the electricity meter is running fast?

If your electricity meter is running fast then you can complain to the electricity department. You can apply for meter testing in the electricity sub-division office or SDO office of your area. After applying, the department will check your meter. If the meter is found technically defective or running fast, the meter is replaced as per the rules.