Evan wrote:
On May 13, 10:58 am, bud-- wrote:
Evan wrote:
On May 12, 8:01 pm, "John Gilmer" wrote:
Beyond a point, they have nothing to gain by making a fuss. They can't
claim "theft of services" because you are paying. It's at most a technical
violation of their service teriffs. Since they are in the business of
selling electricity, it's silly to disconnect a paying customer just for
spite.
They won't make a fuss with the customer, other than assessing
any fees authorized by the public utility overseers in your state...
However, they can and will go after the professional with the
electrical license with the public utility people or the state
electrical board and have his "ticket" punched... That is not
out of spite... It is out of a desire to protect the integrity of
their metering equipment and distribution of services...
Not "wanting" to call ahead to have power company employees
come out and pull the meter and making a bogus claim of
"it was an emergency" won't fly after the second time...
~~ Evan
You are generalizing from what may (or may not) be the practice where
you are.

I cut seals when needed and called the utility metering department
within a day or two. The utility had no problem with that.

I doubt utilities would have problems with licensed electricians cutting
seals and then telling them. A licensed electrician is going to be
involved in a fraud?

--
bud--


It is trespassing, not fraud, the customer whose house the electric
meter is installed in does not own or control the meter cabinet once
the meter is installed... It is sealed with a tamper evident seal and
once closed you need to call and obtain permission from the power
company to access what is inside of the meter cabinet...

Just because your local utility company has made a practice of
not making a major case out of it in the past has no bearing on
whether they can if they wanted to...

Why do you think some of the utility companies out there use
those high security metal bands and medeco locks on their
meter enclosures ? It is to keep everybody but the power
company out... Electricians have the ability to cut into the
service drop lines if they need to kill the power where they
can reconnect them without trespassing in power company
enclosures...

Just because the power company has not resorted to using
the metal bands around the meter and the medeco high security
pin locks on the cabinet box doesn't mean you should cut the
meter seal off and do whatever you want -- your customer does
not have the right to give you permission to open that locked
enclosure while the power company seal is in place and intact...

~~ Evan

This 'does too- does not' argument is pointless. It obviously varies by
area. IANAL, but I do not think the term 'trespass' applies- more like
'violating terms of service'. My recommendation to anyone, home owner or
licensed electrician, would be to pick up the phone and CALL the power
company. A local tradesman is likely known to them from previous jobs,
so they will say 'okay, got it', and move on. A homeowner, on the other
hand, they may want to send a truck out to pull the meter, since they
have no way of knowing if the homeowner knows what he is doing, even if
he uses all the right words on the phone. And in my limited experience,
some of those meters are surprisingly heavy, and the prongs can grab
awful hard sometimes. If you don't pull it out or put it back squarely
and firmly, some scary noises are possible. (I used to set up and take
down temporary poles on the job sites as a kid. They didn't always have
a working or unlocked kill switch on the pole. Somebody breaks the feed
from temporary pole to house, sometimes pulling the meter was the only
way to kill power before stepping into the mud puddle to recover the
loose wire.)

--
aem sends...