fitting a electricity meter for one part of the house?

[mcrob]

Hi, I'm setting up a fishroom in my garage and as I'm living with other people I need to know what electricity usage I'm using to my garage so i can pay for that part of the electricity. so I've already installed a separate fuse box (rcd'd mcb, that goes to an mcb on the consumer unit) it feeds the garage but I don't really know how to install the meters.
I take it would go in between the two mcb's ? I don't know much about the meters,
anyone with any experience with meters?
thanks rob

 

[rjm2k]

Has your landlord approved it? Wouldn't it have been cheaper/easier just to use one of those plugin energy monitors?

 

[mcrob]

The landlords are my parents, they know whats going on. as for the plug in energy monitors I have over 20 sockets so it's not really practical.

just seen one of these on ebay tho, I have room in the fuse box so might work?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCD-5-32A...UK-Stock-/221290848575?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

 

[Taylortwocities]

Or one of these on the feed to your area http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOTAL-GEN..._Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item43bcf955c4

 

[JohnW2]

just seen one of these on ebay tho, I have room in the fuse box so might work?http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCD-5-32A-230VAC-DIN-Rail-Electrical-Kilowatt-Hour-kwh-Meter-DDS238-1-UK-Stock-/221290848575?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

In theory (if the total load is no greaterthan 32A), but installing one of those in your CU would probably not be at all straightforward. As TTC has suggested, just an ordinary cheap kWh beter inserted in the feed to the CU would probably be simpler.

Kind Regards, John

 

[THRIPSTER]

Look on Ebay for Owl monitor. Clip to line incomer on your garage CU. Program with tariff (s) and will display what you owe.

Regards

 

[mcrob]

something i've been thinking about is dial meter vs digital. I was wondering if the electricity went out or if i turned it off would i lose my electricity reading with the digital meter?

 

[Taylortwocities]

The type of meter that I linked to (above) is the same as used by electricity companies in many houses.

These certainly retain their reading otherwise your meter would go to zero with every power cut!!

 

[Satori]

The DIN rail meter in the 3rd post has a fake CE marking. Stick with known brands.

 

[Taylortwocities]

How can you tell?

 

[Satori]

Reflecting the "C" in the vertical axis must cause an intersection with the left-hand semicircle formed by the "E" without a region being enclosed. A circle added in Photoshop demonstrates that for this logo a region is formed and hence the logo is non-compliant.

Untitled

• Satori
• 9 Oct 2013
• 1

http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file38623.pdf (page 16)

 

[AdrianUK]

something i've been thinking about is dial meter vs digital. I was wondering if the electricity went out or if i turned it off would i lose my electricity reading with the digital meter?

No, a digital meter will not loose its readings if the power is turned off. Imagine how much money the leccy board would loose it that happened every time there was a power cut!

 

[AdrianUK]

Look on Ebay for Owl monitor. Clip to line incomer on your garage CU. Program with tariff (s) and will display what you owe.

Regards

You could do that ... but the Owl and its clones aren't very accurate. The problem is that they measure the current but assume the voltage. Since they can't measure the voltage they cant calculate the power factor and hence the best they can do is 'calculate' VA not kW (although they claim to display kW).

Comparing our British Gas Owl clone against a calibrated Alstom M243 reveals an error of 5-10% in the 'kW' recorded.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Can you, mcrob, not come to an arrangement with your parents to pay so much?

Oh, wait, McRob. oops

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I've already installed a separate fuse box

Did you apply for Building Regulations approval?

If not, are the people you live with, who are so keen that you should not get away with not paying to run some fish tanks, happy with you having broken the law, and quite possibly landed them with financial/legal headaches if they ever want to sell the house?

Skewed priorities it seems to me.

And do you all know that the new CU and wiring is safe? Do you know what testing you should have done before and after energising it, and did you do it?