More on Meters

Now we talked about the basic meter types last time, however there are a few other types of meters:

Day Meters: These opperate between 7am and 11pm.  They are like a night meter in reverse, however they are more expensive than an anytime meter. 

Day/Night Meter: These meters are more common in the South Island.  When a Day & a Night Meter are merged what it means is that different rates are charged during for the day to the night.  Power is supplied all the time (through the Day meter during the day, and the Night meter at night).  What this means is that if a lot of power usage occurs at night these meters wind up being cheaper than an anytime meter.

Night Boost: This is identical to a night meter except that during the day there is a 2 hour 'boost' of electricity supplied past the meter.  The time of this boost is determined by the network company. 

Composite Meters : Composite Meters are the most complex of all meter types.  They are a merger between controlled meters and anytime meters.  The best way to discribe them is imagine you have a house, most of your house is wired to an anytime meter, whilst your hot water is wired to a controlled meter.  In this situation you would have 2 meters, and your hot water would be controlled.  Your meter reader would take two readings.
A composite meter has the same situation but with only one meter.  Your hot water is controlled, and the rest of your house is uncontrolled.  However the Power Company does not know how much electricity you spent on your hot water, and how much on the rest of the house.  So they bill you at one flat rate, which is about 1c a kWh cheaper than the uncontrolled rate.  These meters were common in the 60s but are now almost obsolete. 

That should explain all the different meter types in New Zealand.  Tomorrow we'll explore ways that you can use this information to benefit you.