multiplier meter 😮

buzz11

A friend has a new house with solar pv, his electricity bill says "a multiplier meter has been installed on your premises by ESB networks"

For August & September his actual metered usage was 4 day units and 8 night units but the multiplier is 30 so his bill was for 120 day units and 240 night units

Does anyone know what a meter multiplier is for? why would they have one?

graememk

I've seen it mentioned before on the farming forum, on a dairy farm as it was high usage.

Dunno why it was put in on a new house.. does he have a very high MIC?

wildwillow

I have one but I think it’s because the house is all electric and the supply is described as enhanced. I can have two electric showers, panel heaters and multiple appliances running at the same time if I needed. The readings are always small and then multiplied.

10-10-20

Yeah, seems to be when there is an enhanced service (high capacity) fitted and they use a CT based meter instead of a standard pulse meter. It seems that the rate of measurement can be different for each CT used, so they multiply the the CT reading by a factor (multiplier) to calculate the actual energy value. It's a bit like looking at a battery voltage to tell you the state of charge of a battery - you can only calculate the remaining energy if you first know what battery's initial capacity was in Ah.

graememk

Enhanced usually means 16kVA which still has a standard meter, but can go up to 29kVA

@mp3guy is yours now on a multiplier meter now?

buzz11

They think they have a 16kVA supply, they asked for step up from ordinary capacity but they've been onto ESBN to find out why its a multiplier meter.

The house is new and not lived in yet so the billed usage in Aug/Sept of 4 day and 8 night seems more correct than the multiplier amount of 120 day and 240 night… so its very odd

The meter is RM627 - its digital so why would a multiplier be needed?

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122701894#Comment_122701894

I think it's because they have a number of CT's with different turn ratios that they can connect to the meter body (CT's wrap around the main incoming cable to measure the current drawn and feed that signal to the meter), but the CT's are for different supplies - ie one for 16kVA, another one for 29kVA and so on. So they have to multiply the signal coming from the CT according to the configuration so that it represents the actual consumption. That's my understanding of it from reading around.

https://peakdemand.com/instrument-transformers-and-the-meter-multiplier/

https://blog.feniceenergy.com/how-to-find-multiplying-factor-of-energy-meter/

graememk

A 16kVA can have a normal meter though. It's more like a 20kVa or more.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122702210#Comment_122702210

Well alright, I'm guessing the details here from what I'd read.

mp3guy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122699096#Comment_122699096

Yup, 29kVA with CT meter with a multiplier of 30. I thought it was to avoid rollovers sooner on installations that use huge quantities of energy.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122704310#Comment_122704310

30!

But yeah your right, on high use with non smart meters, readings sometimes could be few and far between if not supplied by the customer.

A rollover could easily be missed.

buzz11

Update, so they have a 20kVA connection — dunno why but they are going to apply for a reduction in MIC to 16kVA and hopefully get a smart meter at the same time. Their electrician says 16kVA should be plenty

ESB networks said send in an NC2 form…but its not available on their website so they have to post it out… a bit old fashioned.

mp3guy

Why downgrade from 20kVA? Smart meters for supplies >16kVA are coming next year.

buzz11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122739643#Comment_122739643

Primarily to get away from the multiplier requirement on the bill, we don't think its accurate. And also to get smart meter because there is solar installed

graememk

I wouldn't be worried about the accuracy of the meter. They will be correct.

Solar is a good point, but currently they will be getting a deemed feed in rate until the smart meter is installed.