What's the big dial on the electric meter for? (1 Viewer)

[Todd Hochard]

All,
Since collectively amongst the lot of us, we know everything, I thought I would throw this out there:
What does the big dial on my house electric meter show me? Is one revolution equal to one watt hour? I've never stood there and counted to 1000 to see if that's true.
Anyone?
Todd
P.S. I'm trying to isolate a bunch of idle loads. They really add up!

 

[Deane Johnson]

I think it functions as part of the motor that drives the dials to record the amount of electricy used.

Deane

 

[Danny R]

Yeah, I think its simply the fastest moving gear in the whole meter chain. Its marked so that there is an easy visual means of determining if electricity is flowing.
It doesn't always represent a nice even number, such as 1/1000 of a kiloWatt-hour however, and the exact amount of energy used per disk rotation should be printed on the meter somewhere.
For an interesting idea on monitoring your meter usage (more than just the "grand total"):
Electric meter reader

 

[Ryan Wright]

No no no, it's the little dial on the left you should be interested in. THAT is the one you turn back. The big one is just for show.