On Mon, 11 Aug 1997 18:57:32 +1000 "Paul B. Webster"
<paulb@midcoast.com.au> writes:
>Gustaf Tham wrote:

>> Anyway, I only need to mimic the way the power company's inductive
>> rotating disk measures power.
>
>  Hmmm.  I'm not sure you really want to do that either, unless you
>are
>primarily concerned with mimicing it exactly.  You see, it is anything
>but accurate; doing it with ADCs and a PIC will probably be MORE
>accurate.  For example, it is generally possible to make your meter
>run
>backward under certain conditions (or so I am told - haven't tried
>it!),
>but I'd better not spell it out, had I?  You'd probably be able to
>find
>the details on that evil Internet somewhere though, along with all the
>"build your own terrorist atomic bomb from spare Plutonium" FAQs.



        Isn't the method used to run the meter backwards merely dumping
power (or energy) back into the grid?  Here in California you can have
solar panels for your house and dump the power back into the grid.  Under
certain restrictions, you are considered a small energy prouducer and are
given credit for energy dumped back into the grid at retail instead of
wholesale rates.  As I recall, if you put in more energy than you take
out, you are paid the wholesale rate for the excess.  It's all getting
real interesing as the state moves towards separating electrical
distribution from production.  soon we'll pay a producer for the
electricity we use, then pay the local utility to ship it to us (they
call it a wheeling charge).


Harold