KWH Meters [RE-wrenches]

[Kurt Nelson, SunWise]

Does anyone know the accuracy of the standard KWH meter of the type plugged
into meter bases all across the country?  I decided to put one on my frig
and purchased one the A.E.E. that was suposedly 240vac or 120vac.  I could
tell right away that it was not reading properly (perhaps half actualy
KW's).  I called the re-manufacturer (Hialeah Co of Haleah, Fl.) and they
said that the modified square wave should not be an issue for the meter, but
that I needed a two wire 120 meter rather than the three wire 240 meter AEE
was selling (even though I had it wired up correctly for 120 operation).  I
purchased 8 of their 120v, 2 wire meters and they seem to be operating fine
(accuracy?).  

Bigger questions... what about the accuracy of all those grid-tied systems
out there that are feeding back into a three wire 240v meter and doing so
"unbalanced?" at 120vac only?  
Also on perhaps an interesting note, I have been putting a lot of these
120v/2wire meters on systems in a variety of applications and noted that
while my old U series Trace sleeps fine with the meter, SW series inverters
have to have their search bumped up to 32 watts, as the inverters stay up at
a 16 watt search setting with one of these meters on line (meters is listed
as being 2 watts).

Any experience with these meters out there???

Final word.... In single meter grid-tied systems, just because the
(disk/Stator/I'm verbally challanged) rotates backwards does not necessarily
mean that the accumulative dials will also rotate backwards.  Some utilities
actually do use meters that have to be unratcheted.

Kurt Nelson

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