mjf
Senior Member
Found this at a house a friend just bought. 
What the...........
- Thread starter mjf
- Start date
- Status
Found this at a house a friend just bought. 
Sierrasparky
Senior Member
- Location
- USA
- Occupation
- Electrician ,contractor
Look like a A base meter stuck over a new meter socket !
Pretty creative
NOT!
Pretty creative
NOT!
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
2 points for creative, -5 for stupid. At least it still has the "Danger" sticker.
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
It appears that someone did a service upgrade and the meter you see was inside of an old A base can, when we get these we tie them in at the weather head so no one can reach them but now our utility allows us just to call the service in without installing the old meter, and they just guest-a-mate the bill, we have meter jumper covers with the clips to turn the power back on, and when they set a new meter they will leave the jumper cover on the top of the meter for us to pick up, they will even call us if we have our company card and number on it.
This is a 15 amp rated meter @ 240 volts, not much power back in them days, I have seen some of these A base meters so over loaded that the insulation on the hard drawn conductors between the meter and the jumper block burned completely off.
This is a 15 amp rated meter @ 240 volts, not much power back in them days, I have seen some of these A base meters so over loaded that the insulation on the hard drawn conductors between the meter and the jumper block burned completely off.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
It's just an adapter to use an old 4-wire meter (where the SEC's connected directly to set-screw lugs in the meter itself) with a modern plug in meter enclosure. We us them all of the time for service upgrades and they're given to us by the POCO. They even make a 120 volt version for really old services but we haven't used one of them in about 20 years.
mjf
Senior Member
mjf
Senior Member
It's just an adapter to use an old 4-wire meter (where the SEC's connected directly to set-screw lugs in the meter itself) with a modern plug in meter enclosure. We us them all of the time for service upgrades and they're given to us by the POCO. They even make a 120 volt version for really old services but we haven't used one of them in about 20 years.
Ah ha..... Never seen one of these before. It came from POCO.....I thought someone rigged it all up. Plexiglass and all. It's not supposed to be a permanent install, is it? Just temp to provide power after upgrade until POCO installs proper meter, right?
donselectric
Senior Member
- Location
- nh
are those unfused from the load lugs ??? wow that would be a big liability i would think...nothing i would do besides it looks like chit..:jawdrop:
Johnmcca
Senior Member
- Location
- Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
CH allows that or was it NYSEG?:jawdrop:
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
mike7330
Senior Member
- Location
- North America
yup. You get them from the power company for service upgrades. No free electric for the customer.
mjf
Senior Member
I don't think CH allows it.....probably why I've never seen it before. And anyone who does allow it sure wouldn't allow it with duct tape in lieu of the cover. Who needs permits, inspections or safe installations anyway? They're way over-rated. Cold water pipe is not properly bonded, gas line not bonded. No sticker on the panel or meter pan.
mike7330
Senior Member
- Location
- North America
I remember using madison bars
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
we have plastic meter covers with the jumpers built in, I also have meter jumpers without the cover, I have about 3 different styles but other them temp work I use the covers with my business card that is laminated and glued inside of it, they will install new meter and call me to pick up the cover, I never leave a job with anything exposed like it is in these photos, that is just asking for a law suit.
those A base meters are what the utility used to install back when our utility did the service themselves on a house, they are never supplied by the utility on an upgrade (and why would they as they can just as easily give you a new meter), there are a couple types of the A Base meters and some have a retrofit meter base that the old meter can be just removed from the A base and plugged into the new meter, the bolt ins are the one we use to hang at the weather head, but we never mounted one to the exterior of the new meter, now we just install the plastic covers with the jumpers seal the meter ( yea they keep us stocked with meter seals) and call it in so they can start estimating the bill till it gets a meter, we also have to read the meter at the time of disconnection.
Most contractors here have a good working relation with the utility, but there are some tailgate slammers not allowed to even cut a meter tag, if a cut meter tag is cut and not called in it goes to investigation and you can be nailed for meter tampering here.
those A base meters are what the utility used to install back when our utility did the service themselves on a house, they are never supplied by the utility on an upgrade (and why would they as they can just as easily give you a new meter), there are a couple types of the A Base meters and some have a retrofit meter base that the old meter can be just removed from the A base and plugged into the new meter, the bolt ins are the one we use to hang at the weather head, but we never mounted one to the exterior of the new meter, now we just install the plastic covers with the jumpers seal the meter ( yea they keep us stocked with meter seals) and call it in so they can start estimating the bill till it gets a meter, we also have to read the meter at the time of disconnection.
Most contractors here have a good working relation with the utility, but there are some tailgate slammers not allowed to even cut a meter tag, if a cut meter tag is cut and not called in it goes to investigation and you can be nailed for meter tampering here.
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meternerd
Senior Member
- Location
- Athol, ID
- Occupation
- retired water & electric utility electrician, meter/relay tech
That is a meter and base for a CT service. You can tell by the shorting bars inside the cover (the small brass slide bars). They are there to allow you to short the CT's prior to removing the meter. Most meters of this type are rated 10 amps or 20 amps. There are supposed to be CT's inside the enclosure. If they are not there, the whole installation is a fire trap. Not rated for direct connect to load.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Why don't they just give you the right meter instead of that accident waiting to happen? They can still come out whenever it is they decide to come out and inspect it and seal it, not like you will do anything more wrong with one or the other.
Like plugging in the jumpers is much more safer from arc flash potential than plugging in the meter
Why put all this where it is exposed?? All CT meters I have ever seen have this inside the cover where no one can get to it without removing the cover.
I sure hope if this is all POCO's doing they have good liability insurance. None of what has been mentioned so far is even going to be considered by all the POCO I have ever dealt with. They are usually very particular about anything on supply side and including the meter and its enclosure as far as liability from them may be. Once they seal it - and you open it - it is you that are trespassing so to speak in their equipment.
meternerd
Senior Member
- Location
- Athol, ID
- Occupation
- retired water & electric utility electrician, meter/relay tech
I sure hope if this is all POCO's doing they have good liability insurance. None of what has been mentioned so far is even going to be considered by all the POCO I have ever dealt with. They are usually very particular about anything on supply side and including the meter and its enclosure as far as liability from them may be. Once they seal it - and you open it - it is you that are trespassing so to speak in their equipment.[/QUOTE]
I'm surprised a POCO even has these meters still around. Most are in museums by now. Definitely not something that I have ever seen done, and I've worked utilities most of my 63 year long (so far) life. How do you spell stupid?
I'm surprised a POCO even has these meters still around. Most are in museums by now. Definitely not something that I have ever seen done, and I've worked utilities most of my 63 year long (so far) life. How do you spell stupid?
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