Electricity Meter rating (Again!)

I checked the load on the meter, and the maximum I saw on the meter (I didn't watch it all day!) was 58A I expect when the kettle, fridge, the three water coolers/heaters, all the lights, the microwave, all the PC's, and the new A/C in the computer room (When it is installed) are on this figure would be greater.

The Meter states "Max 40A"

I rang Powergen (our supplier) and they kept asking if there have been any power related problems, they only seem to want to change the meter if we actually experience problems with it - I responded with "So we have to wait until the meter actually fails, or catches fire until you will do something" to which they responded with "Well if you really want it changed I can arrange it for you" I thought this was a bit strange, when we are clearly over loading the meter! Am I just being over cautious??

Another thing I noticed was... During the day I put my clamp meter around the main earth (the cable that comes from an earthing block where all the earths from the CU, Gas pipe, etc connect to, to the main incoming supply cable) This was showing between 800mA and 1A (Again, I didn't watch it that long) This reading seems to be originating from the second CU, I need to open it up to see what is causing this - I assume this is not normal!? The CU that it was coming from has the servers, including an APC Smart-UPS SU2200 connected to it, if that makes any difference?)

Sparks...

Reply to
Sparks
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I just had my meter replaced and noticed this on the old one, despite having a 100A service fuse...!

Remember that clampmeters are not ultra-accurate, especially if you are measuring near the low end of the range. If you really do have this much earth current then it's definately not good..!

Large numbers of PCs can cause significant earth leakage via their mains filters but

800mA seems a bit much even for a big server room...!
Reply to
Mike Harrison

Well the server room has a grand total of 3 servers! There is also the PBX and a few switches & Routers, but nothing big!

The clamp meter attaches to my Fluke meter, you set the meter to read Amps, then evey mA = 1A

I have tested it on known loads, and it seems accurate!

Sparks...

Reply to
Sparks

What does it read when you turn the main switch off ??

Reply to
Stephen Dawson

0.01 like it does when the clamp is not around anything (but closed)

when it is then around the earth, it reads between 0.80 and 1.10

When it is around the Live or Neutral it will show anywhere between 10.00 and 60.00 depending how much we are using!

Sparks...

Reply to
Sparks

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