ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades FUSES

Trumpy the newer Din Rail boards in NZ may not have a 2 pole main switch because the ripple relay is fed from an MCB in the board via a 2 core cable and then returns to feed the HWC circuit.

The old system had the meter and ripple relay at the switchboard and a 2 pole main switch.

Back then the meter readers had keys to your house ( if Mum was working ) and would let themselves in once a month to read the indoor meter.

Once a month??? Here they come once a year!
They put up a note on the front door or house bulletin board (yes, the wooden kind, most apartment buildings still have that) a few weeks before the reading, stating the date and "between 8 and 11 AM". Then you have to be at home and wait or call for an extra reading at your own expenses. Or you can read it yourself and send the PoCo a postcard.
And in Vienna we have something that doesn't exist any more anywhere else - the gas man! He comes round with a big black wallet and collects the gas and electricity bills - cash. You _can_ pay via bank account, but you don't have to.

They've moved from reading every 2 months here to 3 times a year.

If you want your bills more accurate you phone up and dial in the meter reading or submit it online as often as you like.

Honesty must still exist in some parts of the world for that to work! What's to stop you submitting a lesser number of kwh?

Here, the meters are read quarterly, the interim months estimated. You can call in readings if you want, for disputr resolution.

https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000920.html

3rd pic down, the new panel, showing colored FPE breakers,

Being a Canterbury supporter myself, I like the idea of Red Isolators and Black MCB toggles.
What more could you want?.
Apart from a picture of Merts or Toddy on the front of the switch-board, of course.

Ah... Those colored FPE breakers in that other thread make sense now.

On meter reading, it's every 3 months here. In my area though, meter readers only come round every 6 months, and the PoCo just sends an estimated bill on the interim billing periods.

If you miss the reader, he just leaves a card and you can write in the readings yourself and leave it for him to see when he comes back in a day or two, or you can phone in the readings (it's all computerized now -- You just use a TouchTone phone to enter your account number and the readings). You can phone in the actual readings upon receipt of an estimated bill if you wish, too.


Absolutely nothing, although they would probably query the readings if they seemed very low. People calling in their own readings will sometimes reduce them a little on the heavy winter bill and then "make it up" on a spring bill.

I don't think my meter has actually been read by the PoCo for at least 2 years.

In newer services where the meter is outside in a cabinet, obviously the reader can always get there. In some areas they're now using telemetry, so the reader just has to drive slowly along the street and pick up the readings.

If you have found a 40A Edison plug fuse, I want it for my collection.

Blue, red, and green are correct, and several breaker manufacturers have used these colors for their handles. I'm remembering Bryant before their breaker business was bought by Cutler-Hammer.

On our last renovation we moved both electrical meters out to the common hallway so they're accessible to the reader. The gas meter is still inside though, so it's not really an advantage. We just didn't care for completely replumbing everything... which would be required for a meter relocation. (Old gas pipes are left alone, but as soon as any change of adding or removing more than 50cm of pipe is done everything has to be brought up to current standards, which means replacement of our original 1913 pipework...)