Is it true or just myth that placing a magnet on a prepayment metre slows it down?

Question

I've heard somewhere that you can use magnets to slow down the countdown of a gas or electricity prepayment metre, therefor meaning you don't have to top up with money as often. true or false? fiction or real? I'm very curious (and tight! haha)

Answer 1

The watt-hour meters contain coils or potential/current transformers that sample all the parameters needed to calculate the customer's energy usage. In mechanical meters, the energy is found by integrating the parameters with various gears and other gizmos. Obviously, in the newer digital meters things are done with electronics. In any case, the coils rely on magnetic fields to accurately sample the customer's usage. If one could manipulate said magnetic fields (with say a large permanent magnet as you suggest), one could alter the meter's reading.

BUT, electric companies are wise to this and thus use meters with security features built in. Check out this Wikipedia article and look at the section called Tampering and Security.

Answer 2

Myth. This one's been around a while.

I believe it was started because of the way older speedometers used to work in an automobile. A magnet or two would spin inside of a slotted metal hub connected to the indicator. There was no need for extra shielding since there was no other magnetic fields present.

When the magnet(s) spun, the hub would be rotated slightly against the spring tension because it was attracted to the rotating magnetic field, and the pointer would indicate the rate of spin in MPH or KPH. The faster the magnetic field spun, the greater the pointer deflection.

A strategically placed, strong magnet would interfere with this and slow or speed up the hub.
Yes, I said....slow OR speed up the hub. This depended on the attraction or repulsion and interaction of the magnetic poles involved.

You can be sure that this "trick" was well known by the companies that designed any of the prepaid metres that were magnetically rotated.

Answer 3

If it was true, you can be sure that by now, all such devices that would be so affected would have been replaced by units that are immune to magnetic fields.
For the record, an electrical meter uses magnetism, in the form of an electric motor, to run. It is thus designed in such a way as to not perturb itself, and at the very least, any magnet positioned further would have even less of an effect.
So, short answer: no.

Answer 4

If something messing with stay electricity, in some form or yet another, isn't a sturdy thought. That, and you ought to truly piss off the electrical powered employer, thereby best to stiff fines, and so on. no longer even worth looking into... Now, in case you want loose CABLE, all you ought to do is slide a enjoying card interior the crack on the suitable of the converter... Oh, sorry, that become already completed... My undesirable.