Your electricity bill explained – Meter constant

A common question from customers in industrial, commercial or strata apartments is ” What is a meter constant?”

A meter constant (sometimes call meter coefficient or meter multiplier) is used in two contexts. These are :

• To measure power consumption indirectly, for example, by measuring the amount of hot water flowing through a pipe (the embodied energy in the hot water can be worked out with a reasonable level of accuracy). This is common in unit blocks and strata properties that share a central water heating facility or cooling plant.
• To reduce the amount of ‘spins’ displayed on a meter for each unit of electricity, to stop the meter from quickly reaching 99999 etc. With a constant of 40, the meter is set to spin once for every 40kWh