I have Progress Energy here in Florida. About a year ago they installed a new digital power meter made by Itron (model CL200 *1647852*) which is read remotely via RF. We have been getting screwy bills the last couple of months which prompted us to go out and read the display. It turns out the display is totally blank. It used to flash "8888s" and then the accrued reading. Now there is nothing reading on the display.
Questions
1) Do these meters retain the data even if the display fails? I assume there is a lithium battery powering the entire works, hopefully they were bright enough to maintain the memory in flash.3) Can they install a battery in the field and show me the reading without "doing magic" back at the shop?
3) What recourse do I have if the utility has no accurate reading of the meter? I have been using the average billing method and we have been making improvements to reduce consumption, yet the past bills seem high and erroneous?When the installer came out to first install the digital meters in my neighborhood a year ago, he somehow "lost" my meter when I asked him to show it to me for the final reading. I had to convince the utility that the last reading was wrong impossible. (digits were transposed by the reader)