[time-nuts] Three Phase Power

Jason Rabel jason at extremeoverclocking.com
Mon Jun 27 23:17:00 UTC 2011


I know the older style meters currently in use usually slow down over time (a minuscule amount, but still I guess it adds up).

I do not know if the talk about demand meters and timing were about current meters or the new "smart meters"... 

I've seen some new meters (I'm assuming the smart ones) that show the time of day on them. They recently put up a bunch of
directional antennas on power poles and little boxes beneath them. My understanding is that they are creating a kind of private
wi-fi network... Talk about ultimate funny if L2's network jammed theirs... lol. But seriously, I would guess these meters would get
time from the private network. How the display time interacts with the internal timing I do not know.

The power company has published exactly zero documents on these meters that I've been able to find. Just the usual propaganda that
these are good for you and will save you (and them) money!

I worry too that these new meters are just a stepping stone to bill during on and off peak hours...

If things get too far out of hand, we have ~65,000 sqft of rooftop that would be an excellent candidate for solar panels.

The power company has been on full alert too it seems lately. We have a few offices that are empty, but we keep the power on for
maintenance reasons. Well a few months after the tenants moved out, a guy from the power company came to check the meter and such.
They noticed the usage dropped to near zero and they wanted to make sure the meter wasn't broken or they weren't stealing
electricity. Apparently the power company didn't get the memo about the recession and countless small businesses closing up shop.


On a somewhat similar note... I *finally* put my time servers on a UPS today. Now every time the power flashes they won't get reset!
Last week I found a guy on craigslist selling a couple APC Smart-UPS 750XL's. When I got there he also had FIVE battery packs to go
along with the two UPSes. I got them for a steal (I assumed the batteries would all be bad) and upon bringing them back to the shop
the batteries seemed in rather good condition after doing some testing and checking the date codes. Each UPS has 2 x 18Ah batteries,
and each battery pack has 4 x 18Ah.


> Without really setting down and looking at the circuitry on the new meters,
> its hard to say what might happen, as I was speculating earlier. The last
> PDF I read, was about the circuits they added to stop folks from bypassing
> them, or stealing the electricity. I think that it was Analog Devices who
> were making the IC's for these, but I may be wrong. There was 2-3 app notes
> I read, as I was interested in seeing how they did it.
>
> You are also right, in that they will do away with the meter readers. If I
> recall, I read that they use a radio link to send the info back to the
> office, or something similar.




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