Re: Measuring my electricity consumption.....

["David Buckley" <db@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, James Fidell <james@c...> wrote:

> Assuming I could just insert one between my existing meter and the
> CU, I'd be very tempted to do so.  Actually, I'd probably do it with
> several -- one for the feed to the granny annexe, one for my office
> and one for the total load.

Trouble with fitting an extra meter between the boards meter and the
CU is that you're either (a) working live, (b) paying to board to
isolate and reconnect, or (c) breaking seals.  All of which is not great.

But.....  in the CU you can either connect cabling directly to the
isolator, or get a wierdo terminal that goes into the isolator's
busbar screw that lets you connect cable.  So, you could place one or
more meters after the isolator, external to the CU, using meter tail
cable, and then come back to the bus bars like it were a split load
feed.  Easy-ish to do, no isolation necessary, all on the users side
of the isolator.

The real question is do you need to pass neutral through the meter, or
is the traditional way the meter is wired just for prettyness?  The
meter certainly needs a neutral reference.  Whatever, if there is no
need to pass neutral "through" the meter you've just neatend the
job
by 50%.