§ 9 Checking the counters

This information is more for general development. Each counter has a so-called inter-calibration interval (IPI), through which the inspector of the energy supervision should theoretically come to you and check the correctness of its inclusion and the accuracy of the measurement. I will not lie, I just will not say, but it seems like for induction meters it's 5 years, for electronic -10. At your home where in the furthest box there should be a passport of the counter in which the date of the next verification should be indicated. Do not look at the calibration interval specified in the passport - some particularly smart manufacturers, in order to show what good counters they have, overestimate this interval. This interval is determined not by manufacturers. And it is exactly in your interests that by this date everything was in the best shape - seals, correct connection, and the apartment did not go all sorts of left wires. If there is no seal, you can drive it to the ZhEKovsky electrician for sure. There was an emergency situation, he seized the seals and put his own - this is not forbidden. Of course, after a breakdown, surveillance should be notified, but there is such a mess that no one will be sure to find out who called or not. They and the emergency call you do not call.
If they do not come after the end of the verification period, it's not a sin to go and yourself. The explanation can be something like this: "The verification time has gone out and now your meter is not known what it is - it may be electricity, or wind speed in Antarctica." Therefore, until verification is completed, I will not pay for electricity. " It's kind of like with a car: no vehicle inspection - you can not drive. And any court will be on your side. An unverified meter is considered defective.

Checking the meters at the installation site is always performed without measuring transformers to which the meter is connected. For this purpose, the standard instruments are included in the secondary circuits of current transformers and voltage transformers. The verification can be performed either by the method of a wattmeter and a stopwatch, or by comparison with a standard meter.
The use of a standard meter is always preferable, since the load fluctuations are not reflected in the verification results. However, almost almost always the wattmeter method and the stopwatch are used as the more affordable (portable sample counters are not yet produced in our country). Prior to verification, depending on the accuracy class of the meter being checked, the standard instruments must be appropriately selected for accuracy class. According to the main requirement of GOST 14767-69, the standard instruments must provide for the measurement of electricity with an error not exceeding 1/4 of the permissible error of the meter being checked. So, for meters of class 2.0, the error in determining the electric power should not be more than 0.5%. It should be remembered that this error is the resultant error of all standard devices measuring energy, that is, one or two watts and a stopwatch.

In life, it all looks like this: an exemplary wattmeter is connected, or an ammeter with a voltmeter, an exemplary load is connected and the current power is measured for a certain period. That is, simply speaking is the number of revolutions of the disk (or pulses for the electronic) at some standard current and the voltage applied to the meter for some time. The number matched - fit, did not coincide - in the laboratory ...

PS Finally I will tell one funny story (real) of life. My friend had a dacha and a power line ran alongside her. But officially, he was not connected to her. Whether it was lazy to run to him about the connection, or the limits on the installed capacity were over and so they did not give any connection. In short this moment is dark and lost in the historical darkness.
Well, he did not hesitate, dug a trench to the nearest post, put a cable in it, picked it up and connected. Well, the catcher and the beast flee. Here, as here, checking and catching it as they say is red-handed. The cable is cut off at the root of the column and taken away. And comes after a while to it a claim - pay dear comrade electricity for half a year at a rate of 1.5 kW hourly and around the clock.
I do not remember exactly how much, but the amount turned out to be decent. Well, my intruder says: "Well, I'll pay for the energy, if you subtract the cost of my cut cable." Energetics immediately burned with righteous anger and said: "But have not you grown insolent at all?"
It came to court. Energy officials flatly refused to acknowledge the fact of cable cutoff, and in general its presence on the pole. A friend and says: "Well, if there never was a cable, then how could I steal electricity at all?".
The court won, no penalties were paid, half a year used electricity for free. Losses: 5 m of cable. True, then with an official connection, he had big, very big problems, but that's another story ...