My Nissan Leaf Forum

I got a couple of electric meters recently, and before I buy the box and setting everything up, I was wondering if there was some way to test them and make sure they work.

I tried to see if there was a video somewhere, but mostly they are testing installed electric company meters for accuracy. All I want to do is see if the meters I have will even register, prior to doing anything else with them.

Thanks.

What kind of electric meter - a utility style kWh meter?

A 120V 12A space heater works well for this or other resistive loads (100W lightbulb, etc). You could even charge your car on L1. You can use a Kill-A-Watt to verify or a voltmeter + clamp-on ampmeter.

drees wrote:What kind of electric meter - a utility style kWh meter?

Yes, a 240v utility kWh meter, round (in case they all aren't round) with the four big prongs sticking out the back. A Sensus iCon MXU Model 530-E to be exact.

So I have checked, but you have to modify the meter if you want to measure 120v usage. I was hoping to keep it and monitor 240v usage.

Thanks for the help.

In case that doesn't work out, pretty hard to go wrong with this "old school" meter for 15 bucks...No configuration needed...

http://www.hialeahmeter.com/spwm.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Your meter will monitor 120V just fine. Drop the meter into a meter box and attach your 120V load to one hot and a neutral.

If you want to pull power across both leads plug in two identical loads on opposite hots and neutral.

Looks like you picked these up here, eh?

http://forum.solar-electric.com/forum/s ... our-meters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The above methods would work to determine accurate reads however if the meter is being used for collecting $ ie rental suite or similar, you may want to have it certified by an independent certification agency to avoid disputes in the future.