Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to me.
I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round the corner of my house.
Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close proximity to the meter?
What did your power company say? They can get rather upset if they discover it undocumented. Since by 'housing' you likely mean meter base, the magnets should have no effect at all, and the power company ought to confirm that. If they balk at having anything on the enclosure, then Plan B should be a piece of sheet metal nailed to the siding to mount the device. Cheers,
Joe
Thanks for the response.
I didn't ask the power company 'cuz I know what they'll say. They'll say "No!" just as a CYA.
Yes, I mean the meter base, and No I'm not nailing a piece of sheet metal to the siding.
I've been in the house for over 20 years and never really needed a light along this walkway, but I've always been on the lookout for something real easy to install just for the fun of it. Where I've actually needed/wanted light, I've done a proper installation, per code.
As soon as I saw that these were battery operated and had a magnetic mount, I knew right where I wanted to try one. I may like it but I may not even replace the batteries when they die. That's how unimportant this installation is.
DerbyDad03 wrote: ...
...
So, remember "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" and go on--what they gonna' do other than take if off or tell you to if they don't like it?
If as you asy you don't care about losing it, I'd go for the magnet and see if it helps for the short term then probably use the tape if decided to leave it there.
As long as it doesn't interfere w/ the meter until it gets replaced or there's other reason to actually do something other than read it I'd suspect they would let it go, especially if it is the tape rather than a magnet that could conceivably be thought a (rather farfetched) attempt at skewing readings.
imo, $0.02, ymmv, etc., etc., ...
--
Shouldn't cause a problem if it's stuck to the metal housing. The housing will confine the magnetic field.
Brings to mind what some cheats used to do way back when...Used a great big old alnico magnet taped onto the meter glass to slow down the shaded pole motor action of the disk.
Jeff
Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
Don't you think they thought of that when they built the meter? You can't get the magnet close enough to the right area with the glass bubble around it.
I don't see an issue.
You can test the magnet in proximity to the spinning dial, on the meter. Any reduction in speed? If so move it away.
New gadgets, let you read your own meter from the comfort of the desktop PC. They are mounted at or near the meter.
Catch the meter reader, and tell what the gadget is for.
In the UK, following WWII (which is when the magnetron was invented by Sir Robert Watson Watt as a device to generate substantial amounts of microwave energy; he being another Scotsman, like alexander Graham Bell, by the way), surplus magnets were available and could often be bought for as little as few English shillings!
Magnets iin those days were much larger and these 'ex-radar' magnets were in the form a large 'horsehoe'. Today microwave oven magnetrons have smaller powerful magnets.
Someone bought one of the surplus magenets and on the way home dropped into his 'local'. Many in the pub were intrigued and spent time picking up or attracting anything around that was magnetic.
Until closing time! When several found that their watches had stopped. Not many pocket or wrist watches in those days were 'non-magnetic'. So they weren't very pleased to have to have their watches de-magnetized!
BTW early basic (non-microwave) radar was in use in 1939/1940 and helped greatly to defend Britain against air attacks.
And yes 'talk' was that those magnets could stop rotary disc type meters; which in those days were often mounted inside the house!
Hmmm... seems to me I remember seeing somewhere that meters have anti tamper 'flags' that magnets can/will trigger...
A quick quick at Wikipedia produced this:
I can't imagine that having any effect on the meter.
There was an outfit that once sold "iron gonads". The things were big magnetic "balls" with a cord that you hung over your electric meter. The balls were purportedly able to slow down an electric meter due to their strong magnetic field. I had a friend who once worked for the local power company and he told me that a regular degaussing coil for CRT style TV's would knock the old style meters out of whack. One pass may speed one up and the next pass may slow it down.
TDD
That's interesting!
But, alas, the experiment was a failure. The device doesn't throw much light and doesn't come on in time to be much of a help.
They both now reside in a linen closet that's darker than I like. Open the door, the lights come on, close the door and 15 seconds later they go off. I'll decide if I'll replace the batteries once I see how long they last.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.