Energy and power
kWh, kW, kVA, kvarh, and power factor — the quantities on a commercial bill.
Demand and capacity
Maximum demand, MIC, load factor, and diversity across a portfolio.
What the meter is for
A kilowatt-hour is the energy used by 1,000 W running for one hour. That is the unit on an electricity bill. The meter does not store a list of appliances. It measures instantaneous voltage and current, multiplies them to get instantaneous power, and integrates that over time to energy. Traditional meters only keep a running total. Smart meters keep the same total and also store usage in settlement intervals (typically half-hourly in GB) and send it back to the supplier. That interval record is what makes time-of-use and day/night registers possible. A cumulative register alone cannot tell you when the energy was used.How it sits in VoltView
Interval data and the register are not two truths. Over a clean period, the sum of interval kWh should match
current reading − previous reading, after any billing multiplier.
Traditional vs smart
A smart read is still a register value. It is not a substitute for the interval series when you need a load curve or a peak.
How the meter is connected
Most VoltView sites are one of these. You do not need the wiring diagram; you do need to know which case you are in, because it changes the multiplier and the capacity.
Whole-current meters are installed in the load circuit. CT-metered supplies step current (and on HV, voltage) down so the meter itself is a standard 5 A / 110–120 V instrument. The ratio is printed on the meter or the CT chamber, and again on the invoice.
What this is not
- A catalogue of historic meter movements (induction discs, electrolytic cells, clock meters). Those are how older hardware worked. VoltView does not model them.
- A field-test or calibration manual. Accuracy disputes go to the supplier and the meter operator, not into a VoltView correction factor.
- Gas. Gas uses an MPRN, a correction factor, and a calorific value. That is a different conversion, documented on the invoice fields, not here.