Digital electricity meter - red light on constantly!

That's why.

It flickers every nth fraction of a kWh. If the current drawn is very low, it'll stay on until that fraction of a kWh has passed. (I think.)

If you doubt it, just put an electric fire or immersion heater on and the light should go off and then start flashing quite rapidly.

It'll say on the meter how many flickers to the kWh so with a 1 bar (1kW) electric fire and a stopwatch you can count/time it (at least within the tolerance of the mains voltage and the fire's rating).

Owain

If it's the same unit as mine, then when the current draw is really zero, the led stays on.

As I have a cordless phone base station plugged in, my current draw is only ever zero when I opne the main switch. Try it an see if the red led stays on.

If the fridge/freezer and chest freezer weren't doing anything, that leaves three alarm clock radios, a VCR showing the time and the PIR on our outside light (if that uses anything during the daytime). I'll keep an eye on it.

Why can't you just unplug that too?

It is designed to do that. The "on" time, at least on mine, isn't constant, but also slows down as usage decreases. If you aren't using much leccy, then both the "on" time and "off" time increase up until infinity (i.e. using no power at all). When you see it do this again, try turning on a substantial appliance, like your immersion and it will soon be blinking away like crazy.

Christian.

As a purely academic question, does the meter draw the power for the light from the supply side, or does it charge you for the power it uses?

- Ian

Who pays for the leccy on the red light?

Eventually, you do, whether it is metered or not.

Christian.

More to the point, does it consume more or less energy than the spinning disc ?

Thanks to all who have replied. Now I know that little red light constantly on = a good thing. I'd imagine that the 2W this meter says it consumes is a lot less than the old spinning disc one it replaced (could hear that one grinding away from across the room with the cupboard door closed).

If the red light and green light above it both are constantly on, it means there is earthing leakage or some other problem in some circuit. Kindly consult an elecctrician.

I enjoyed this response on a number of levels... In true HoH tradition, it is:

Answers a question not asked (who mentioned a greed LED?)

Fails to grasp the whole concept of a DIY group

Incorrectly assumes that electricity meters have earth leakage detection and is basically wrong in every respect.

What else did you expect, from the brain dead members of HoH?

They are not even capable of sussing out that it is a commercial site, relying on their posts to fund itself from advertising.

Your comment shows that you have no grasp of the nuances of the language.

Bill