How the electricity meter and its electronics were invented- Zhejiang Yongtailong Electronic Co., Ltd

George Westinghouse was a pioneer in the world of electrical energy. In the late 1880s, he discovered that the electricity produced by an alternating current (AC) generator could power lights that were a mile away. It didn’t take him long to realize that this was a golden, profitable opportunity. People were excited to use electricity to light up their homes, and they would pay him for the power he provided. All he needed to do was figure out how much electricity they were using, so he would know how much to charge.

Then along came Oliver Shallenberger. He was electronic energy meter a graduate of the US Naval Academy and was interested in AC generation and where it was headed. He’d recognized the need for an AC meter, and began working on one. He ran some of his ideas by Thomas Edison, but Edison was only interested in direct current electricity, which General Electric was generating.Undaunted, Shallenberger took his AC meter drawings to Westinghouse. Westinghouse did not understand exactly what Shallenberger was showing him, but he knew enough to offer him a job as a chief electrician with his company.

Shallenberger quit the navy and set to work. Four years later, he was tinkering with a new AC lamp when a spring dropped inside the lamp. He noticed that the spring was rotating inside the lamp and the electrical fields were causing this motion. He spent three weeks frantically working to harness this motion and came up with a working model of an AC meter. It was a huge success, and even today electricity meters use the same basic technology. To keep track of your energy usage, a meter measures the voltage (or potential energy) and amperage (current) in the electrical circuit that is the connection of your house to the utility power source. One volt multiplied by one amp is one watt.

An analog meter uses the same electrical field effect that made Shallenberger’s spring rotate to make a disc spin, counting the watts used. A digital meter puts the volt and amp input through a digital signal processor. Either way, the meter precisely measures how many watts are used over time, the utility company gets the information, and you get the bill. In fact, today’s meters are so smart that many are sending the information via wi-fi so that you no longer have a person going and looking at the actual meter.

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