Limp Arbor wrote:
Recently finished upgrading to a 200A panel and replacing all the
wiring in the house. Instead of Al entrance cable I used 2" conduit
to get from the meter to the panel and ran copper feeds to the panel.
The electric company replaced my old ham slicer meter with a digital
meter.

First, can I putty or caulk around the wires inside the conduit to
stop the cold air from coming in?

This is actually required by the NEC (300.7-A). Mix of warm and cold air
can condense the moisture out of the warm air producing water. The
common building entry is for conduit down from the meter can to an LB
fitting and conduit out the back into the building. Common practice is
to pack "Duct seal" (a UL listed a commercial product) around the wires
inside the LB where they go into the conduit into the building. Also
common practice around here to hacksaw a small slot in the bottom of the
LB to drain water if any accumulates.


Second, my electric bill is up about 15% since I started. The only
additional load I added was six 75watt bulbs on two dimmers that
replaced one 100watt table lamp, these run 16 hours a day. Also three
hard-wired smoke detectors. Are the digital meters more accurate? Is
there a way I can test the meter?

The digital and mechanical meters should both be very accurate. You can
shut everything off except for a known wattage and read the meter before
and after a timed interval. A 1,000 W load for 1 hour will register 1
KWH. For real accuracy you would probably have to check the "known" load
with something like a "Kill A Watt" meter
http://www.p3international.com/produ.../P4400-CE.html

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