- Location
- Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
- Occupation
- Service Manager
I've got a little (long) story for ya, I could use some advice. I recognize as I begin, that one permutation of responses to this could be, "seek a lawyer." As a moderator I recognize that I cannot seek legal advice on this forum, and this is not offered in that vein; getting a lawyer could be one reaction to the events I have experienced, but I am not sure that is the appropriate response.
A man who works with a friend of mine called me to address a problem with his rental property. The customer is a lineman, but did not feel qualified to address the problem himself, so he called me. I agreed to take a look.
What I found was an old farmhouse panel, it's contents melted beyond recogition, mounted inside a kitchen cabinet long ago. It was so bad inside I was afraid to mess with it, I decided the best course of action was to leave it be until I could replace the panel. Obviously, I cannot replace the panel in place, 110.26 violation.
The panel is serving as the service equipment, mounted directly behind the ancient a-base meter socket. My plan was to reuse the old overhead service conductors and replace the riser, metersocket and install the panel outside. I plan to refeed the old homeruns by installing a handful of j-boxes in he basement and attic. This was wednesday night, and I was hoping to have this completed by Friday night.
The next morning, I fired off an email to the poco requesting a specification for an overhead service mounted to a house. I got a reply within a couple hours thatthey would not allow the service to be mounted on the house, regardless of the circumstances. I would need to mount a service disconnect on the pole, and then run underground. The engineer asked me to meet him onsite, and we met there an hour later.
I showed him the old meter. I showed him the frozen ground. I asked him nicely to reconsider, he declined. He left, I called in locates and began making preparations for running the feeder underground. I let the customer know that the poco would not allow my original design, and that the price was going to go up because of the trenching.
I had originally told him a ballpark of up to $1500. By the time I figured everything in, the price had risen to $2660. I sent him a bid to look over, and called it a night.
The next afternoon, I get a call from the customer. He says he talked to he engineer and that now the engineer is willing to mount the meter on the house, and reuse the old overhead that he originally dismissed as damaged, running through the tree that he was now willing to cut down.
I was on my way back over to the house anyway, so I dropped in to get a clearer picture as to what I was now to install. When I arrived, he asked me if I could leave he existing metersocket and just replace the panel. I was confused, and said that it wouldn't be smart or possible to replace the panel without disturbing the existing meter.
He went on to tell me that the friendly engineer told him that if we just changed the panel in place, inside the house, that the poco would not be involved and no inspection would be necessary. With no inspector breathing down my neck, I could just replace the panel in place.
Oh, and the friendly engineer intimated that my price to trench it in the way he was making me to in the first place was too high, the customer should seek a different estimate.
So, essentially, there's someone at the power company telling my customer that I am overcharging, doing more work than is necessary ostensibly to drive up that bill, and that I should have illegally performed a panel change on the quiet with no inspection.
How would you react?
A man who works with a friend of mine called me to address a problem with his rental property. The customer is a lineman, but did not feel qualified to address the problem himself, so he called me. I agreed to take a look.
What I found was an old farmhouse panel, it's contents melted beyond recogition, mounted inside a kitchen cabinet long ago. It was so bad inside I was afraid to mess with it, I decided the best course of action was to leave it be until I could replace the panel. Obviously, I cannot replace the panel in place, 110.26 violation.
The panel is serving as the service equipment, mounted directly behind the ancient a-base meter socket. My plan was to reuse the old overhead service conductors and replace the riser, metersocket and install the panel outside. I plan to refeed the old homeruns by installing a handful of j-boxes in he basement and attic. This was wednesday night, and I was hoping to have this completed by Friday night.
The next morning, I fired off an email to the poco requesting a specification for an overhead service mounted to a house. I got a reply within a couple hours thatthey would not allow the service to be mounted on the house, regardless of the circumstances. I would need to mount a service disconnect on the pole, and then run underground. The engineer asked me to meet him onsite, and we met there an hour later.
I showed him the old meter. I showed him the frozen ground. I asked him nicely to reconsider, he declined. He left, I called in locates and began making preparations for running the feeder underground. I let the customer know that the poco would not allow my original design, and that the price was going to go up because of the trenching.
I had originally told him a ballpark of up to $1500. By the time I figured everything in, the price had risen to $2660. I sent him a bid to look over, and called it a night.
The next afternoon, I get a call from the customer. He says he talked to he engineer and that now the engineer is willing to mount the meter on the house, and reuse the old overhead that he originally dismissed as damaged, running through the tree that he was now willing to cut down.
I was on my way back over to the house anyway, so I dropped in to get a clearer picture as to what I was now to install. When I arrived, he asked me if I could leave he existing metersocket and just replace the panel. I was confused, and said that it wouldn't be smart or possible to replace the panel without disturbing the existing meter.
He went on to tell me that the friendly engineer told him that if we just changed the panel in place, inside the house, that the poco would not be involved and no inspection would be necessary. With no inspector breathing down my neck, I could just replace the panel in place.
Oh, and the friendly engineer intimated that my price to trench it in the way he was making me to in the first place was too high, the customer should seek a different estimate.
So, essentially, there's someone at the power company telling my customer that I am overcharging, doing more work than is necessary ostensibly to drive up that bill, and that I should have illegally performed a panel change on the quiet with no inspection.
How would you react?
Last edited:
