Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
me.

http://tinyurl.com/magnetled

They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
small magnet built into the base.

I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
the corner of my house.

Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
proximity to the meter?

On Apr 23, 2:18=A0pm, DerbyDad03  wrote:
> Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
> me.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/magnetled
>
> They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
> small magnet built into the base.
>
> I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
> housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
> the corner of my house.
>
> Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> proximity to the meter?

What did your power company say? They can get rather upset if they
discover it undocumented. Since by 'housing' you likely mean meter
base, the magnets should have no effect at all, and the power company
ought to confirm that. If they balk at having anything on the
enclosure, then Plan B should be a piece of sheet metal nailed to the
siding to mount the device. Cheers,

Joe

On Apr 23, 3:46=A0pm, Joe  wrote:
> On Apr 23, 2:18=A0pm, DerbyDad03  wrote:
>
> > Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
> > me.
>
> >http://tinyurl.com/magnetled
>
> > They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
> > small magnet built into the base.
>
> > I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
> > housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
> > the corner of my house.
>
> > Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> > proximity to the meter?
>
> What did your power company say? They can get rather upset if they
> discover it undocumented. Since by 'housing' you likely mean meter
> base, the magnets should have no effect at all, and the power company
> ought to confirm that. If they balk at having anything on the
> enclosure, then Plan B should be a piece of sheet metal nailed to the
> siding to mount the device. Cheers,
>
> Joe

Thanks for the response.

I didn't ask the power company 'cuz I know what they'll say. They'll
say "No!" just as a CYA.

Yes, I mean the meter base, and No I'm not nailing a piece of sheet
metal to the siding. 

I've been in the house for over 20 years and never really needed a
light along this walkway, but I've always been on the lookout for
something real easy to install just for the fun of it.  Where I've
actually needed/wanted light, I've done a proper installation, per
code.

As soon as I saw that these were battery operated and had a magnetic
mount, I knew right where I wanted to try one. I may like it but I may
not even replace the batteries when they die. That's how unimportant
this installation is.

DerbyDad03 wrote:
...
> I didn't ask the power company 'cuz I know what they'll say. They'll
> say "No!" just as a CYA.
...

So, remember "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" and go 
on--what they gonna' do other than take if off or tell you to if they 
don't like it?

If as you asy you don't care about losing it, I'd go for the magnet and 
see if it helps for the short term then probably use the tape if decided 
to leave it there.

As long as it doesn't interfere w/ the meter until it gets replaced or 
there's other reason to actually do something other than read it I'd 
suspect they would let it go, especially if it is the tape rather than a 
magnet that could conceivably be thought a (rather farfetched) attempt 
at skewing readings.

imo, $0.02, ymmv, etc., etc., ...

--

DerbyDad03 wrote:
> Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
> me.
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/magnetled
> 
> They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
> small magnet built into the base.
> 
> I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
> housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
> the corner of my house.
> 
> Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> proximity to the meter?


Shouldn't cause a problem if it's stuck to the metal housing. The 
housing will confine the magnetic field.

Brings to mind what some cheats used to do way back when...Used a great 
big old alnico magnet taped onto the meter glass to slow down the shaded 
pole motor action of the disk.

Jeff

Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

DerbyDad03 wrote:
> Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
> me.
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/magnetled
> 
> They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
> small magnet built into the base.
> 
> I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
> housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
> the corner of my house.
> 
> Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> proximity to the meter?

Don't you think they thought of that when they built the meter? You 
can't get the magnet close enough to the right area with the glass 
bubble around it.

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:18:19 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
<t...@eznet.net> wrote:

>Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
>proximity to the meter?

I don't see an issue.

You can test the magnet in proximity to the spinning dial, on the
meter. Any reduction in speed? If so move it away.

New gadgets, let you read your own meter from the comfort of the
desktop PC. They are mounted at or near the meter.

Catch the meter reader, and tell what the gadget is for.

On Apr 23, 8:33=A0pm, Oren  wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:18:19 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
>
>  wrote:
> >Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> >proximity to the meter?
>
> I don't see an issue.
>
> You can test the magnet in proximity to the spinning dial, on the
> meter. Any reduction in speed? If so move it away.
>
> New gadgets, let you read your own meter from the comfort of the
> desktop PC. They are mounted at or near the meter.
>
> Catch the meter reader, and tell what the gadget is for.

In the UK, following WWII (which is when the magnetron was invented by
Sir Robert Watson Watt as a device to generate substantial amounts of
microwave energy; he being another Scotsman, like alexander Graham
Bell, by the way), surplus magnets were available and could often be
bought for as little as few English shillings!

Magnets iin those days were much larger and these 'ex-radar' magnets
were in the form a large 'horsehoe'. Today microwave oven magnetrons
have smaller powerful magnets.

Someone bought one of the surplus magenets and on the way home dropped
into his 'local'. Many in the pub were intrigued and spent time
picking up or attracting anything around that was magnetic.

Until closing time! When several found that their watches had stopped.
Not many pocket or wrist watches in those days were 'non-magnetic'. So
they weren't very pleased to have to have their watches de-magnetized!

BTW early basic (non-microwave) radar was in use in 1939/1940 and
helped greatly to defend Britain against air attacks.

And yes 'talk' was that those magnets could stop rotary disc type
meters; which in those days were often mounted inside the house!

In article 
<1...@y7g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>,
 DerbyDad03 <t...@eznet.net> wrote:

> Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and gave them to
> me.
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/magnetled
> 
> They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape and a
> small magnet built into the base.
> 
> I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my electrical meter
> housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as I round
> the corner of my house.
> 
> Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in such close
> proximity to the meter?



Hmmm... seems to me I remember seeing somewhere that meters have anti 
tamper 'flags' that magnets can/will trigger...

A quick quick at Wikipedia produced this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_meter#Tampering_and_security

Erik

I can't imagine that having any effect on the meter.

-- 
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
  www.lds.org
.


"DerbyDad03" <t...@eznet.net> wrote in message 
news:1...@y7g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
Grandma won a twin-pack of these at a church function and 
gave them to
me.

http://tinyurl.com/magnetled

They have 3 ways of being mounted: screws, double stick tape 
and a
small magnet built into the base.

I was thinking of slapping one on the bottom of my 
electrical meter
housing just to see how well it will light up the walkway as 
I round
the corner of my house.

Does anybody see any issues with having a small magnet in 
such close
proximity to the meter?