How do they do that? They don't accelerate the meter during peak hours, do they? That is, the face of the meter still accurately shows the watt hours?
Is there a separate counter not shown through the glass that keeps track of the off-peak (or on-peak) hour use?
I think I now have a radio transmitting meter, so they either have to drive through the neighborhood, or I'm told maybe they can read the meter from their office. If the latter, they don't take readings every time off-peak starts and ends, do they? That would do it but it seems complicated.
TOU meters incorporate a timer and have multiple registers. Residential variable-rate meters normally only permit two tariffs ("peak" and "off-peak") and in such installations a simple electromechanical time switch may be used. The meter will actually have two separate accumulators only one of which runs at a time--which is selected by the timer. The meter shows both peak and off-peak usage.
OTOH, large commercial and industrial loads may (do is maybe more accurate generalization?) use electronic meters which record power usage in blocks of half an hour or less. These demand-based meters do record much detail and commercial rates may be predicated on both time-of-day and system-load as well as the actual load and rate of use of the premise itself. Many really large industrial users have very complex load-reduction schemes in place to control their costs by load-leveling and scheduling.
No, if it is a new enough meter to incorporate remote reading _and_ is a dual-tariff meter it is probably microprocessor-based and all of the computations can be easily incorporated in the firmware. In that case it will have an onboard clock so the TOD and TOU info is readily available and the accumulation of usage at any given time is simply an accumulation into one of a particular number of (virtual, software) accumulators. There are various levels of hybrid (mechancial verus microprocessor-based) meters, depending on age and manufacturer in use.
Residential meters still outwardly look a lot like the "same old meter", but likely have at least some cpu-horsepower in them these days. But, since in most areas residential rates are still one tariff only, the emphasis has been on the communications and diagnostics to try to minimize costs to the utility in eliminating meter-readers and reducing/detecting tampering.
Sounds to me like the landlord did not hook up the thermostat correctly, or not at all. If your bills shot up right away after installing this unit, then it must have to do with the new ac unit, nothing else!! Either this unit needs more power , or the themostat was not hooked up properly.
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