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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity meter | 9/9 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_meter | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:42:32.585250+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Regulation and legislation == Following the deregulation of electricity supply markets in many countries, the company responsible for an electricity meter may not be obvious. Depending on the arrangements in place, the meter may be the property of the meter Operator, electricity distributor, the retailer or for some large users of electricity the meter may belong to the customer. The company responsible for reading the meter may not always be the company which owns it. Meter reading is now sometimes subcontracted and in some areas the same person may read gas, water and electricity meters at the same time. The introduction of advanced meters in residential areas has produced additional privacy issues that may affect ordinary customers. These meters are often capable of recording energy usage every 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Some meters have one or two IR LEDs on the front: one used for testing and which acts as the equivalent of the timing mark on the older mechanical meters and the other as part of a two-way IR communications port for reading / programming the meter. These IR LEDs are visible with some night vision viewers and certain video cameras that are capable of sensing IR transmissions. These can be used for surveillance, revealing information about peoples' possessions and behaviour. For instance, it can show when the customer is away for extended periods. Nonintrusive load monitoring gives even more detail about what appliances people have and their living and use patterns. A more detailed and recent analysis of this issue was performed by the Illinois Security Lab.
== See also ==
Energy management software Energy monitoring and targeting Meter operator Utility submeter Zellweger off-peak Multimeter
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links == Media related to Electricity meters (kWh) at Wikimedia Commons