How to Lower Electric Bills With a Whole House Meter
Whole house meters have been available for a few years, but not many consumers know that much about them. A whole house meter is an ingenious device that tracks your energy usage, allowing you to have a better idea of how much electricity you are wasting or conserving. Installation is pretty straightforward--here is what to do. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Remove the panel cover. If you have a large electrical panel, you should have someone available to help you remove the cover, as they can be quite heavy.
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Locate the two feed lines coming into the panel. These will be connected to your main breaker and will be much larger than all of the other wires in the electric panel. Now, there are many different types of whole house meters, but the two most common either get plugged into an existing outlet or wired to a spare circuit breaker.
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If you have a whole house meter that gets plugged into the wall receptacle, there should be one in close proximity to the electric panel. For this installation, clamp one of the supplied wired clamps over one of the feed legs, then secure the other clamp over the other feed wire. Now just plug the unit into the electrical outlet.
For a wired installation, follow the same instructions for connecting the clamps to the feed lines, then connect the black wire to a spare breaker (make sure it is OFF when connecting) and the white wire to the neutral bar.
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Both units feature a remote monitor that you can keep anywhere in your home. It gets plugged into a regular receptacle and will keep track of your electric use. Some models will even calculate your electric bill in real time, so you'll know what your bill will be long before you get it in the mail.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are afraid of working around electricity, have someone who is more adept at it perform the installation instead.
Exercise extreme caution when performing this installation, as the panel will be energized. Otherwise, have your electric company perform a temporary disconnect.
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Comments
View all 82 Comments-
Addie Protivnak. boatst
Jan 26, 2009
I'm going to look into getting this meter. Thanks for article. -
Addie Protivnak. boatst
Jan 26, 2009
I'm going to look into getting this meter. Thanks for article.
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jay88310
Jan 16, 2009
Please note to consumers that up to 40% of the power used in their home can be caused by "phantom" power, (the power used by transformers for electronics, i.e.: chargers for cell phones, your computer, TV, etc.) that are still drawing power even when off!
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jay88310
Jan 16, 2009
Please note to consumers that up to 40% of the power used in their home can be caused by "phantom" power, (the power used by transformers for electronics, i.e.: chargers for cell phones, your computer, TV, etc.) that are still drawing power even when off!
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Dave Donovan
Jan 16, 2009
It tracks this amount over the course of the month, so if you look at the device on the 10th of the month and it says you've used $156.46 in electricity so far, you know you either should start cutting back on your use or you may have a faulty appliance somewhere that's drawing a ton of amperage. Education is the key to conserving and this device educates people by putting their electric use into dollars and cents.
