Experts?

12 years ago

For your amusement, this about one of the contractors that one of our local POCOs uses to check meters. I was at one of my properties this week when a mid-size pickup from Scope Meter Services pulled into the adjoining property, which I also own. Driver sits there talking on cell phone for a while, then gets out and walks toward the meter. I am outside and he later approaches asking me about the occupants at the property. I hedge my answer. He says meter is not running. So I told him I owned the property and would go in and turn on large load briefly. I did and he said the meter is fine. Then he said the meter for the property where I was working was just replaced because the previous one was "dead". He said that the meter was not running and he pulled it and checked the draw at 6.3 amps. What I knew is that the main for that property service was turned off and no loads existed. The "new" meter was not running when we looked at it (naturally!). So I asked him if he had the reading on the "new" one at the time he installed it. He did not. I wanted to compare with the present reading. I checked the "new" meter reading again today- unchanged. They walk among us.

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Comments (5)

terribletom
12 years ago
They walk among us.

:-) :-) Now that was worth the price of admission.

I'm tempted to flip the main the next time I see the meter reader coming. I could use a new meter because the old one has a few paint smears on it.
ionized_gw
12 years ago
Maybe he gets paid for every meter replaced.
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texasredhead
12 years ago
We have one of the new meters that is read remotly. when it is read it sounds like someone on a cell phone in the middle of the night.

Sometime back, a Dallas inspector asked us why we had so many circuits in a house on which we were working. Asked him how many he thought we sould have. He didn't know but he thought we had a lot of wires!
bus_driver
Original Author
12 years ago
At least this meter mess did not cost me out of pocket- except as part of the electric rate structure.
spencer_electrician
12 years ago
KCP&L in my area has been testing a new digital meter but they can't make up their mind. They installed these tandem meter base adapters that stick out from the meter can 10 inches with a turn dial meter and a digital meter. One morning I woke up to no power so I called it in as I left for work. I came back at lunch and a lineman was there, he asked me to help catch the meter assembly as he pulled it (I'm a normal homeowner for all he knows, electing me to help with no safety gear hah). He then said, "got 240 at the can, you must have a bad main breaker." I went inside and checked for power, none. He then said, "Well your main service wire is probably broken." I said, "Are you sure it is not the meter assembly?" He threw in shorting bars and the lights came on. He then said, "I'm not messing with that crazy thing (the duplex adapter)." He went to the truck and got a regular meter and left the duplex attachment with the digital and regular meter sitting on the patio table.

If I were just a regular homeowner with no electrical knowledge, I would of come home to a note that says, "Power is fine, call an electrician." Can't believe he thought the service entry cable was probably broken. I'm sure I would of noticed a service entry cable breaking in the middle of the night, if not at least notice the smoke alarms hah.