ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Smith coin meter (UK)

PaulUK:

Wow, that's an amazing thread and set of pics. I can't imagine a "parking meter" type electric meter in these parts, but the concept makes perfect sense. What a great way for the power company to protect themselves from shady customers.

I do have one question though: Here, most meters are plug-in (I am sure that you have seen many, many, many photos of services here). Is the UK still using this same hard-wired in-out wiring? I believe that you actually forwarded us a pic of a new UK service that still seemed to maintain that typical 4-terminals at the lower left corner concept.

I can't imagine a meter around these parts rated for only 40 amps, but then again, that meter was obviously pretty old. I believe that all meters here are now rated at 320 amps and it's CT's beyond that.

To be honest as an Austrian I expected that meter to be 20A max... to this day, the largest Ferraris or digital meter you can get here is 60A 3ph, anything beyond is CT.

The only time I've seen a coun meter in Austria was at a Museum and I giess it dated from prior to 1900. So that thing looks pretty peculiar to me too.

Yes, the hard-wired meter is still the norm here. I believe you refer to them as "A-base" over there?

Click here for a modern regular-type credit meter

These days, many new residential services are 100 amps, but there are a lot of 60 and 80A services still in use, and even some 40A. A few years ago I even came across an old 30-amp service, and it was feeding a sizeable Victorian house.

Paul: A-base was very common here in the US until about 60 years ago (guess), but once demand beyond 100 amps became normal, things changed. I am sure that there are thousands of them still in use in older cities here, but I haven't encountered one in at least 25 years.

I know that my grandmother's house, which was built in 1952, had the original 100 amp service and had a plug-in meter, so I can't say for sure when A-base went out of style here.

I would imagine that hard-wired meters, especially located indoors would be a huge problem for non-payment disconnections.

Actually, the vast majority of US single-phase meters are rated 200A. Although there are still some 100A meters out there, they would likely be more than forty years old, and their numbers are dwindling.

Nor is Class 320 the largest self-contained meter. K-base meters are self-contained up to 480A, I believe, but are not used by all utilities. Rumor is the utility in my area will be adopting them soon. Right now, we use CTs for anything over 320.

Class 320, Class 200, and Class 100 all fit the same four-terminal sockets (although not all sockets will safely carry 320A!) K-base is a different socket with bolt-on busbars. I've installed 320A meterbases in different utility areas and it's interesting how their policies differ. One utility just reinstalled the old Class 200 meter!

Nearest I can tell, single-phase A-base meters declined in popularity during the '50s and were discontinued in the '60s. This probably has to do with the rising popularity of 200A services, since the maximum rating of an A-base is 100A.

Incidentally, coin meters were once used in North America.

Well, that's what (in countries more paranoid than Austria sealed) fused disconnects ahead of the meter have been invented for!

In the typical Vienna install the PoCo unscrews the main fuses (Neozed or Diazed) and puts a sticker over the base saying: "Disconnected by Wienstrom, don't remove!" If the sticker should be gone/torn/whatever in theory you'd be in trouble. In practice, no one cares...
At an older thread in this forum (the one about the hefty old wiring) you can see such stickers.

Yes, a normal disconnection here would be done by pulling the service fuse, then replacing the empty carrier and resealing it. Remember that all services here have a main fuse at the point of entry and ahead of the meter (or, of course, three fuses in the case of 3-ph).

If the PoCo couldn't gain access to the inside of the house, I suppose that ultimately they could isolate in the street -- Fairly straightforward if it's overhead distribution but not so simple in most urban areas with underground feeders.

I think there used to be some law that they could apply to the court to gain access to their equipment if all else failed (everything up to and including the meter is their property). I'm not sure how that's altered now that it's all private companies and the old regional "Electricity Boards" have lost their former official status.

If my memory serves me correctly Paul,
there used to be one of them meters on the wall in the Lounge on Steptoe and Son.

Where would this meter be used??

Traditionally, they were found in places which had a quick turnaround of occupants (e.g. student accommodations) or in any circumstances in which the PoCo didn't consider the customer cerditworthy enough to have a regular account. For example, if a customer got into difficulty and made a habit of not paying bills on time the PoCo might insist that he go over to a coin meter (which was generally set to charge a higher rate per unit than for someone with a normal credit account).

As I mentioned above, coin meters were also sometimes found in places such as holiday cottages which were just rented out for a week or two at a time. It could be either a PoCo coin meter in such a case, or a privately installed one so that the property owner collected the money but paid the power bill in the usual way.

Coin meters gradually fell out of favor with the PoCos in more recent years, and the card meter is the modern equivalent.

I think you may be right. It might have been a gas meter though, can't remember for sure.
Yes, we had coin-operated gas meters at one time as well!

If you watch enough old British movies, eventually you're bound to see one where somebody gets sent off to put a shilling in the gas or electric meter.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-18-2007).]