Neutral issue. Don't be that person.

In the area of this installation:

The pedestal is the POCOs. They install it and anything prior to it. Their responsibility.

The customers EC installs the underground from pedestal to house. The EC terminates both ends. Once the meter is installed, the EC has no access to the meter base connections without POCOs permission. Typically the EC cannot remove the meter.

In the past, the inspector may happen to be there prior to meter installation, but not necessarily. IDK if that’s changed in the last few years. My inspectors at the time would normally say go ahead and cover and they would give POCO permission to energize.

Other POCOs in the State have their own rules.
 
Little Bill said:
That's the way I've always found them but the meter base in the picture has a sticker that says" bottom feed". I didn't know if that was just referring to it being an underground meter base, or meaning the POCO feed lands on the bottom.
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It means that there is enough space in the enclosure for the service conductors to pass the socket.
 
AC\DC said:
How can your crap even work they would be blowing thing in there home left and right— EC fault and power company—- and the inspector! Shows your money going to the government really pays
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grounding electrode/alternate paths via phone, cable, gas, water were carrying it, or at least carrying it up to a certain level of imbalance before voltages begin to vary significantly?
 
marmathsen said:
Our electrical inspectors do inspect our work inside the meters, as do the utility reps prior to energizing it.
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But if it looks intact they aren't going to go any further with any performance testing and is why others missed it as well. This likely needed to have fall of potential testing measurements while under load to expose the problem. Visual inspection fooled everyone that looked at it
 
Little Bill said:
Must be different in your area. We never connect line conductors on an underground service, POCO does. We would only connect line to meter on an overhead service.
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Many cases like OP's I would possibly connect both line and load side. Others POCO possibly connects line side, especially if they are the ones providing line side conductors and I connect load side that I likely provided.
 
If there was a good alternate path, even if the poco did a load test, they don't have the equipment with them to give it any kind of serious load test.

Would have been nice to amp clamp the GEC and bonding to everything else

Maybe a good idea to amp clamp that neutral.

Or even just put your meter in a receptacle anywhere and watch the v needle swing.
 
Joethemechanic said:
If there was a good alternate path, even if the poco did a load test, they don't have the equipment with them to give it any kind of serious load test.

Would have been nice to amp clamp the GEC and bonding to everything else

Maybe a good idea to amp clamp that neutral.

Or even just put your meter in a receptacle anywhere and watch the v needle swing.
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Problem I see is being in the meter socket, it would likely be easy to test at the service disconnect and be able to say it is upstream.

POCO pulls meter visual test looks good, they plug meter back in and possibly inspect connections in the transformer and then say it's not our problem. Yet they dropped the ball or at least needed to let the EC do some testing while meter pedestal is open, and likely need to allow some bypassing of the meter to be able to access that neutral terminal while testing it under load. Alligator clip pigtail with heat gun plugged in for a minute or two would likely been sufficient to find the problem they can afford the less than a cent of lost energy used during the test.
 
kwired said:
Problem I see is being in the meter socket, it would likely be easy to test at the service disconnect and be able to say it is upstream.

POCO pulls meter visual test looks good, they plug meter back in and possibly inspect connections in the transformer and then say it's not our problem. Yet they dropped the ball or at least needed to let the EC do some testing while meter pedestal is open, and likely need to allow some bypassing of the meter to be able to access that neutral terminal while testing it under load. Alligator clip pigtail with heat gun plugged in for a minute or two would likely been sufficient to find the problem they can afford the less than a cent of lost energy used during the test.
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Really lots of ball dropping. Should have been able to be diagnosed with a wiggy and a screwdriver
 
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