On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 14:28:45 -0500 Denny Esterline writes: > The disk should not turn when no power is being drawn. But, the main > breaker in the house may not disconnect ALL of your power. I've > seen outbuildings and other add on connections tapped directly to the > meterbase (not going through the house main) so this may or may not be a > significant problem. > > -Denny I am 100% sure ALL the power was off. I probably over-simplified my original post. There are two connections on the meterbase. One goes to an old fuse box that feeds the panel in the house. The other goes to another fuse box which feeds the panel in my barn. When I said I threw the main breaker, I had actually pulled both sets of fuses. Both fuse boxes are mounted about 5 feet from the meter. I had the fuse blocks pulled because, at 4 pm on a Saturday, I lost one 120 VAC leg in the house. I ended up finding some corrosion under one of the fuses lugs in the box that feeds the house. Of course the corrosion was on the meterbase side of the fuse, so I had to break the seal and pull the meter... it was either that or go all weekend without 1 leg! Mental note: I really ought to call the power company and get a new seal. On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 19:32:05 -0000 Brian Clewer writes: > With everything off it should not move a bit. Do you have a garage > with a separate breaker? Garden pond pump or light on a separate breaker? > If everything *is* off and all breakers are open circuit, your meter > could be faulty (although I think this is unlikely). The power has to go > somewhere, so is the meter getting hot? > > Brian. Everything was off. Meter was not noticibly warm. On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 12:10:48 -0800 David Schmidt writes: > Which direction? They 'can' spin backwards with no load being drawn > - but shouldn't. Your bill does not sound out of reason given the number of electric > items you've listed. (I run nearly $100 a month with fewer appliances and > a gas water heater). > > Dave I'm pretty sure itt was going forwards. Maybe I should pull the fuses and verify this. On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 15:18:03 -0500 "Rick C." writes: > Depends on how slowly. How far is it from your meter to the panel? If > it is less than about 6 feet, About 5 feet. > and there are no other taps from the meter to other loads, No other taps that weren't also disconnected. > the meter should stand still or sometimes turn backwards > "very" slowly. This is normal. This appears to be the case. > If your panel is a good distance from the > meter, stray capacitance in the cable will turn it forwards super slow. If > the disk turns less than one revolution in 5 minutes, I doubt it will cause > your bill to "be a little higher". > Rick You are right, it probably was rotating slow enough to only be costing me pennies per month. Maybe I should go out and time a revolution. On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 15:24:42 -0500 Dave L writes: > additionally: > some jurisdictions have flat rate water heaters etc which > bypass the main breaker and/or are remotely controllable > by the utility to help manage peaks. > if there is this feature or history of this feature in your area > its enough to cause great variance in the connection configurations. > Dave This isn't the case where I live. Thanks for the comments, folks. Maybe when I call the power company to get a new seal, I'll see if they can check the meter. (Hopefully I don't have any problems getting a new seal.) Aaron ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics