Old induction household electricity meters are no longer needed - they no longer provide accurate metering and are being replaced by electronic ones. Their fate is the trash heap or a shelf in the garage, “just in case.” We will try to give a second life to the hard worker.
I propose to make a portable lamp in a durable and lightweight meter housing.
Required materials and tools
To work, we will need the following tool: a screwdriver, pliers, a gimlet or a drill with a 4 - 4.5 mm drill. Made from materials: a piece of plywood or board, a lid from tin can, car headlight lamp with connector, wire with plug, switch, bolts and nuts.
Detailed job description
To do this, we disassemble the meter - take out the counting mechanism. The glass, terminals and top bracket can not be removed for now.
We mount a socket inside from an old car headlight. I drilled a plastic socket with a gimlet into the recess between the contacts. A thin brass strip with two holes from the inside of the meter was taken as a bracket, but you can use a similar part from a children's metal constructor. You will choose the specific location for drilling holes in the meter body after fitting, the housings may differ.
A shiny tin lid from a can of condensed milk, “drilled” in the middle, worked perfectly as a reflector. There is an abundance of fasteners (bolts and nuts) in the meter itself.
From the outside, we screw a handle cut from a piece of plywood or a thin board to the body. We attach the power cord to it, and if necessary, mount a power switch on it - a toggle switch, a button. If necessary, attach a hook bent from a piece of wire to the upper bracket.
Car headlight bulbs usually have 2 spirals. This will allow us to quickly connect a second spiral when the first one burns out or use light bulbs with one burnt out one.
Many experienced car enthusiasts have such car bulbs in stock - today incandescent lamps are “out of use” and have long been replaced by more modern ones.
We connect the terminals from the lamp holder to the meter terminals or twist them to the supply wire. In the second case, you can get rid of the terminals by passing the wires through the remaining holes.
Power can be provided by a small-sized electronic transformer, a regular 12-volt “iron” transformer, a garage Charger or the car's on-board network. Depending on this, we equip the power cord with an appropriate plug.
The resulting lamp has its advantages:
- lightweight and durable body of almost “vandal-proof” design
- good protection of the light bulb from damage
- quick connection of a backup coil
- using half-burnt lamps
- has a handle that does not heat up during operation
- produces a non-glare compact stream of light with a rectangular cross-section
And disadvantages:
- the case is not for the narrowest places of work
If you attach such a lamp instead of a regular reflector to a table lamp with flexible tube- be sure that this is so desk lamp will not disturb others when you stay up late reading your favorite book. To give a more aesthetic appearance, you can cut off the mounting “ears” and part of the terminal box from the case, and decorate the case itself in any way.
Often our citizens are faced with the dilemma of where to put the old electricity meter after installing a new one? Not everyone knows that throwing away metering devices along with household waste prohibited as they contain heavy metals that can cause environmental damage.
In this review, you will be able to familiarize yourself in detail with the options for recycling electric meters and you will be able to choose the most suitable one for yourself.
In any residential premises there is a measuring device installed that calculates electricity consumption. Like any high-precision equipment, electricity meters must be periodically verified. On it, using standards, the error in the readings given by the meter is revealed. If they exceed the standard, the device must be disposed of.
Reference! Induction electricity meters and devices with a class higher than 2.0 are not accepted for verification and must be replaced, since their accuracy class is very low. For modern devices it varies in the range from 0.5 to 2.0.
It is necessary to replace old metering devices (MU) with new ones in the following cases:
- the service life of the old-style meter has expired;
- the device is broken or has incorrect settings;
- scheduled work on electrical networks, involving replacement of the control unit.
Apartment owners have a question: what to do when replacing an electric meter and where to put the old one? Installation work carried out by electricians of an energy sales company, for example, Mosenergosbyt. This is due to the fact that the meters are sealed and only a specialized company has the right to remove or install the seal. The electrician takes readings from the old meter and then installs a new electric meter.
In this case, the old PU remains with the owner of the apartment. Experts recommend storing it for about 2-3 months, in case there are discrepancies in the transmitted readings with the accounting department of the energy sales company. After this, the electricity meter must be disposed of.
Is it possible to do something with an old electric meter?
Most Russian citizens either store broken and dismantled electric meters in garages, or throw them away with household waste in the nearest trash can. Both options are not correct.
There is no point in storing failed measuring instruments. They will only gather dust and take up space. But you shouldn’t throw them in the trash either. The fact is that electric meters contain heavy metals: mercury, lead and chromium. On outdoors and under the influence of changes in the environment (humidity, temperature changes, etc.), the device quickly deforms, and the metals contained in it actively interact with chlorine and hydrocarbon compounds contained in the plastic housing of the meter. The entire process leads to the formation of highly toxic substances that can cause irreparable damage to the environment and humans in particular.
Therefore, it is best to hand over the old electric meter or dispose of it as indicated in the device data sheet.
Some citizens do not agree to quickly part with dismantled launchers and find other uses for them. For example, some craftsmen use an old, but still working electric meter as measuring instrument. That is, a socket is installed on one side, and a plug on the other. Connect the device and calculate its energy consumption. And also some craftsmen make money boxes, lanterns from old meters, or disassemble the device into parts and remove the magnet (induction PU).
Where can I return my old electric meter?
Everyone has it measuring equipment, which include electricity meters, have a technical passport. In it, the manufacturer must indicate the disposal procedure. In addition, you can find out which companies in your city accept old devices and under what conditions.
Recycle electricity meters
Due to the fact that improper disposal of electricity meters can cause significant harm environment, then only specialized companies should carry out processing. Such organizations must have equipment for safe disposal and permission from government agencies.
The process of recycling electric meters is based on the separation of the component components of the device: capacitors, LEDs and transmitting contacts. Considering that electric meters contain a highly toxic substance - metallic mercury, companies must carry out a demercurization procedure, that is, removing it using a physical and chemical method. Therefore, you should not be negligent in the process of recycling electricity meters.
Sell or throw away
As mentioned above, it is prohibited to throw meters into a landfill. Therefore, the logical question arises: what to do with an unnecessary device? It turns out that you can get a small benefit from recycling. If you throw away the device, you get nothing from it. But in the case when you hand it over for a recycling program to specialized companies, you can get a little money for it. The fact is that electric meters contain metals that are removed in laboratory conditions and using special equipment.
The question remains: where can I sell my old electric meter for money? To do this, you can contact your energy supply company. Often they have special permission for recycling and can accept old PU. Metrology companies, that is, those who verify electric meters, also provide similar services.
From the above, we can conclude that a faulty and dismantled electric meter can bring small financial benefits if it is not simply thrown away, but disposed of according to all the rules.