AMR meter coming to neighborhood

I was informed the utilty is installing AMR meters in the neighborhood.

I received some generic information but was wondering... with old equipment like with the old meter bases, are these new digital meters compatible?

Are there any issues I should be aware of in regards to compability or function?

Do these guys who install them usually tighten up the connections or do anything to interior of the meter bases?

Thanks.

 

Remote meter readers are a hot topic although the AMR is only one way communication.

The newer style is the AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) also known as Smart meters.

That new meter is just swapped for the old meter. They will not touch a thing inside the meter pan.

 

Mine was just changed out by a sub-contractor in less than 5 minutes and I never lost power. He broke the seal, lifted the lid, pulled the old meter and slid the new one into place and resealed.

 

You didnt loose power?

I was told the meter would be pulled and to prepare for an outage if there was medical equipment. I dont have medical equipment but I still like to have stuff turned off when they interupt power.

So compatibilty is universal?
So the subcontactor must take care doing this to assure a tight connection?

 

How did you not lose power Jim..... do you have a 200a service with the release handle ?

 

They just install two jumpers between the lugs since I did not have the bypass handle.

 

They changed mine in the summer, and my electricity only went out a few seconds.

 

If you are there you may experience a short outage. If not your VcR will be flashing when you return. The contractors know what they are doing so rest easy.

 

Most new residential meter sockets have a horn bypass that makes the jumpers even easier.

 

They put the new meter in today while I was gone, knew they did since the clocks were flashing.

The new meter shows the energy usage and then flashes 0's im thinking to reset itself befrore showing the usage again? I guess that is normal... anyone know?

Now they have to come back and put one on the gas meter.... Im worried about that in regards to pilot lights, hopefully they dont interupt the gas when I am not home!

 

The way I have seen mass gas meter upgrades done is the gas company usually leaves flyers on the doors of the neighborhood telling everyone what day they will be changing the gas meters because it will require service to be shut off for a while. After the meters are changed, they turn the service back on and go inside and light all the pilots. Anyone not home does not have gas service, meter is locked off, but will find a note to call the gas company when they return. I went through this with a house out-of-town for me and I returned late on a Friday night and had no heat or hot water, but the note was there so I called the gas company late on a Friday night. They wanted to come the next day to light pilots, but I told them that was not acceptable. They showed up around midnight that Friday night. Everything took no longer than 15 minutes once the guy got there.

 

My gas meter was converted earlier this year. Tech said only reason gas shut off was because meter needed moved (in basement facing window). Otherwise most of his conversions don't interrupt the supply.

 

When my area went with remote-reading gas meters they simply replaced the registers on the existing meters. No outage whatsoever. Recently they changed the register on my meter rather than replacing the battery, again, no outage.

 

Same here about 20 years ago, but the battery in the device died 3 or 4 times till they finally changed to Cellnet devices. Then last year, I received two letters to make an appointment to have the device changed. I finally called for a Saturday appointment, appointment was 30 days out. They gave me a 4 hour window on a Saturday afternoon and when the window of time was up, I was on the phone to the gas company asking where the guy was. They grabbed a guy on his way home and routed him to my house and he changed the entire meter, a 10 minute job including relighting 2 pilots. Two weeks later I got another letter saying my reading device had to be changed. The new meter didn't have a new reading device....duhh. Another Saturday appointment 30 days out and I finally had the new Cellnet device with no interruption in gas service, a 5 minute job.

 

Never knew when my gas meter was changed because they just somehow changed the readout to digital without removing the meter. Went by the meter one day and thought what is this? The new readout sticks out quite a bit more then the old one. (The pilot light on my WH never went out so I know they didn't pull the meter.)

Edit: Got to check. Maybe not digital.

 

Gas dials were changed today. No service interuption. They added a device inside the dials... its not digital readout though, some sort of transmitter. It took the guy all of 5 minutes.

Yesterday they did the electric meter and in 24 hours we used 13 KWH.... I might have a new obsession in watching usage now!

 

Oh, they didn't change the meter then. Sounds like a major upgrade in the area, who is doing it? Johnson Controls does a lot of these programs including water meters too and usually give the municipality a guarantee on savings for their local utility. The savings come from correcting metering issues of old faulty meters.

 

They still have to change the gas meter every xx amount of years. By just changing the number section does nothing for the accuracy of the meter.

 

390 kwh for a month isn't that much, depending on your appliances, heat, activity levels, etc. Thats about what I use at my lowest levels in the year. We won't talk about the A/C season.

 

True, the OP's electric meter was changed.