A smart meter has recently been installed at our place.
What does the VAr LED indicate? The explanatory paperwork which came with the meter does not mention the function of this LED and there is nothing about it on the supply authorities website.It seems to flash at random intervals.
VAr LED on smart meter
(13 posts) (8 voices)-
TomC
MemberPosted Thursday 9 May 2013 @ 7:32:57 am from IP # -
scott drew
MemberWithout actually seeing as Baldrick has said it is hard to tell exactly.
My led flashes at the rate the electricity is going in or out of the system.
For example during the day when I am producing electricity via my Net solar system and my house is consuming most of the electricity I am producing (therefore only exporting a small amount of electricity) it flashes say every 15 seconds.
Or if my house is not using much electricity but the solar system is producing and thus exporting it will flash say 1 every 5 seconds.
Or if it is the middle of the night and there is not much using the electricity at all it will flash say once every 15 seconds.
Or if it is dinner time and I have the oven on and the house is using lots of electricity and the solar not producing much if any it will flash once every 2 seconds.
I think the flashing is relative to the amount of electricity passing through the meter, either in export or import (but there is no way to tell from the flashing LED only if it is importing or exporting). There is an arrow on my meter which tells me I'm importing or exporting.
That's what my LED does on my meter. Perhaps yours is the same?
Posted Thursday 9 May 2013 @ 11:18:54 am from IP # -
TomC
MemberI am not sure how you post photos on this site.
The screed that came with the meter (supplied by Powercor in western Victoria) only refers to one LED, the one on the LHS of the meter.
This is the "power usage light" and "the faster the light flashes, the more power is being used"
This I am sure is the LED on which you can place a monitoring system which counts the flashes and relays the info to a power useage monitor remote from the meter.
The other LED is located to the right of the "power usage light" and is labelled VAr.
There is no description of this LED in the screed. It flashes occasionally but not in sequence with the power usage light.
We don't have any solar panels on the house so it is not measuring any power being returned to the grid.
VA, I would assume is short for Volt Amp, but VAr doesn't make any sense to me.Posted Thursday 9 May 2013 @ 12:44:05 pm from IP # -
Lance
Key MasterTo embed images and vids, there's an info page link on the front page of the forums, go to http://www.ata.org.au/forums/embedding.html
Posted Saturday 11 May 2013 @ 1:00:41 am from IP # -
alfresco24
MemberTomC, what is the brand & model of meter?
I think the Var LED flashes at some rate like 400 pulses per 1kVar.
The other LED has a flash rate per kWh, and should be written near the LED.Posted Saturday 11 May 2013 @ 6:20:58 am from IP # -
TomC
MemberThanks for the responses to my query.
Unfortunately I am traveling at the moment and am unable to post a photo of the actual meter.
A phone call home tells me that my original post was not quite correct, the LED is in fact labelled "varh"
The information pamphlet provided with the meter indicates it is made by Landis & Gyr and the model is E350 Type U1200.
A google search for Landis & Gyr shows:
http://www.landisgyr.com/webfoo/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/D000028193_E350_d_en11.pdf
The meter shown here is not the same as mine but it does have the LED indicator in a position similar to our meter labelled "kvarh", but there is nothing in the text which tells me, in words of two syllables, what is its function.Posted Sunday 12 May 2013 @ 10:53:40 am from IP # -
Benny
MemberTom - its not that easy to explain what reactive power is unless you really want to get in to technical details. Thats what varh means - volt-amps-reactive-hours. Like kWh (kilowatt hours) but its not dissipated power. You have to appreciate the phase relation of volts and current in AC electricity. If its a resistive load using real power like a heater, then its real power, volts x amps and consumes kWh - as shown by the main flashing LED on your meter.
If its a purely capacitive or inductive load, then it will draw current but not use any power. The current goes in to the capacitor for part of the cycle (charging it up) then back out of the capacitor for the rest of the cycle, discharging it, so there is no nett power use. There is still volts x amps but no power use.
Some loads like motors and fluoros are part resistive and part reactive, so they will use some "reactive" power. Thats what the extra LED is for. It has nothing to do with your power consumption or bills and I wouldn't bother about it.Posted Tuesday 14 May 2013 @ 1:58:52 am from IP # -
Lance
Key MasterThere's an explanation of power factor at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor that might help.
Posted Tuesday 14 May 2013 @ 3:33:40 am from IP #
