Electric Meters now having Automatic Meter Reading System

With the development of modernized electronics, machines and equipments people have become more dependent on them as they have lot of advantages to offer. One such example is the development of Electric meters which are easy to install, maintain, read, purchase and have Automatic Meter Reading system as well. Because of which these meters are seen most prominently in the offices, apartments, marinas, industries and RV parks etc. 

These meters are available online and have the system of automatic electric meter reading. The meters posses three types of Automatic Meter Reading i.e. Pulse Output, Serial Communication and None.  Each meter that uses serial communication AMR has an RS-485 port or an RS-232 port that can be connected to a wired or wireless network because of which the ports are electrically isolated. This allows the meter to register the kilowatt hours as well as volts, amps, watts, hertz and polarity. The Pulse Output AMR closes a dry contact switch every time it notices a kilowatt hour and the pulse counting system detects it, records it and transmits the total count to the data accumulator. Since the data accumulator is costly, this type of AMR is rarely used. The None AMR is most widely employed as it is cheap and non breakable.  

The products of electric submeters are made up of components that come with the warranty of surviving the voltage shocks but do not provide warranty for withstanding the natural disasters such as lightening strikes, physical damage, floods etc. The Electronic Module, Current Transformers, Display counters etc is what makes an Electric Submeter.

Software for Automatic Meter Reading now available in Electric Submetering Systems

Basically ,Software is anything that links the internal components of a device to the outside world .Since the outside world  does not have the access to the internal components, also known as hardware  therefore software has a big role to play in linking the two.  Every device requires some or the other software for its proper working and functioning.

Electric Submetering System has various softwares embedded in them which make them useful for such wider applications. This software includes Current Transformers, which measures the current carried by the wire that passes through the center of the CT. They come in different sizes to handle almost any current up to 1600 amps, Display Counters with an LCD which will register a 50ms; 12 volt pulse can also be used with any EZ Meter, and Automatic Meter Reading (AMR).

 

Automatic Meter Reading Software in the EZ Meters can implement 3 types:

•     Pulsed Output
•   Serial Communication
•       None

In Serial Communication the meter reports kilowatt hours as well as volts, amps, watts, power factor, phase angle, hertz and polarity. The meters can be connected together either by a wired network, a wireless network, or a combination of both. The meter network itself can be connected either to a local computer, to a LAN, or to the internet. Each meter has either an RS-485 port or an RS-232 port.

  In Pulsed Output A third party pulse counting system such as the Inovonics Tap Watch product line is needed, Because of which it is somewhat costly and is used rarely. The downside to this type of AMR is that KWH is all you get. The upside is that it can be installed as part of a system that includes water and gas meters. 

The none AMR is most widely used one as it is cheap and it rarely breaks, but the downside is that it requires the manual reading of the billing period and the number of KWH used.