A mess...

[Open Neutral]

First, I want to say I have nothing to do with this, but later got sent the imagery.

This is at a residence. The fused disconnect is upstream of the meter. It's never been sealed by the POCO.
I've never heard of such. It's fed from the bottom, up through the fuses.

The house lost one phase. The electrician that came in found of the fuses blown. With the PB main off, a replacement also blew.
He said "call the POCO" and the homeowner did.

They came out, and told the wife "This is not our problem, call an electrician..."

So Sparky came back, and thinks the meter base is shorted phase to phase. I'd concur; it looks melted.

Sparky's planning to replace the meter base.

(I looked, and there's a POCO-approved list of meter bases. Interestingly, they have a POCO-anointed sticker on them and a unique POCO part# suffix. Never saw that before, either, but this is not my arena.)

The POCO was out within the last decade to swap in a remote-reading meter and didn't flag the unsealed box.
Go figure.

 

[tthh]

That is a mess for sure.

Probably most of the meter swap guys just want to get in and out.

 

[VirutalElectrician]

The POCO was out within the last decade to swap in a remote-reading meter and didn't flag the unsealed box.
Go figure.

POCO probably hired a contract crew to do all that work, so they didn't give a....

 

[hbiss]

POCO probably hired a contract crew to do all that work, so they didn't give a....

There was a YouTube video of the guys that go around and swap out those old style meters for new "smart" ones. There is an adapter. I don't remember what that old style is called.

-Hal

 

[jaggedben]

You're looking at an "A base" meter replacement socket. The original meter would have had a housing of similar shape to the socket. The socket converts the install so it can accept an S-form meter.

POCO possibly is not supposed to seal anything because then how would you replace fuses? The original installation from 80 years ago would have been approved in that configuration, so there's likely nothing to 'flag'. Seen this half a dozen times.

The replacement socket is utility supplied, so that's wrong of the utility not to replace it, if that's indeed where the problem lies.

 

[ptonsparky]

We, customer, would be responsible for replacing the meter socket in this area. POCO service techs would have scavenged spare parts but that A base would not be repaired even temporarily.

 

[jaggedben]

We, customer, would be responsible for replacing the meter socket in this area. POCO service techs would have scavenged spare parts but that A base would not be repaired even temporarily.

I'd say with an A base meter it's a grey area. Before they put in the adapter then the A-base meter would just have been the utility's meter. There was no socket, and the whole unit was their responsibility. Now that they replaced the meter with an adapter and socket (their choice, not something customer requested) it suddenly becomes a divided responsibility?

Not that I'm suggesting it's worth the time to argue with them. And that old junk stands to be upgraded anyway.

 

[ptonsparky]

I'd say with an A base meter it's a grey area. Before they put in the adapter then the A-base meter would just have been the utility's meter. There was no socket, and the whole unit was their responsibility. Now that they replaced the meter with an adapter and socket (their choice, not something customer requested) it suddenly becomes a divided responsibility?

Not that I'm suggesting it's worth the time to argue with them. And that old junk stands to be upgraded anyway.

It's been patched often enough.