Old 2 gang vertical meter socket

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nizak

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Recently went to look at giving a price for residential upgrades.

Found that the existing service consists of a quite old 2 gang vertical meter socket with the top portion housing the meter and the bottom blanked off with a glass plate and utility lock ring.

I can see two copper strips that are about 1/16" thick x 1/4" wide jumpering the lower meter jaws.

One leg of the 120/24O volt service cable feeding the panel is landed on the load side of the bottom meter .

I can't see how the other leg is attached because it's behind the meter in the upper socket.

Without someone making modifications to the socket , is it pretty safe to assume that one leg of the power supply is free to the homeowner?

It looks like the bus comes down from the top and would assume it doesn't pass through the metering.
 
nizak said:
Recently went to look at giving a price for residential upgrades.

Found that the existing service consists of a quite old 2 gang vertical meter socket with the top portion housing the meter and the bottom blanked off with a glass plate and utility lock ring.

I can see two copper strips that are about 1/16" thick x 1/4" wide jumpering the lower meter jaws.

One leg of the 120/24O volt service cable feeding the panel is landed on the load side of the bottom meter .

I can't see how the other leg is attached because it's behind the meter in the upper socket.

Without someone making modifications to the socket , is it pretty safe to assume that one leg of the power supply is free to the homeowner?

It looks like the bus comes down from the top and would assume it doesn't pass through the metering.
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Not safe to assume. Sounds like the one leg you describe seeing is feeding the line side of the bussing through the jumper bar. If the actual load legs are connected to the load side of the socket which has the meter, then nothing is going to the house for free. It's just a really odd way to feed that one meter.

Perhaps the line side lug for the bussing was damaged and this was done as a cheap and non-compliant work around?

Are you 100% sure that's the line (service cable) connected to that lug, and not the load?
 
It's the load. It's the service entrance cable feeding the indoor load center.

I'm thinking that it's free power
 
nizak said:
It's the load. It's the service entrance cable feeding the indoor load center.

I'm thinking that it's free power
Click to expand...
That's what I was getting from your description. But what really is happening in the physical assembly?. . . well, that's another matter. A PoCo seal on a socket (any socket) without a meter almost certainly has been tampered with if the socket load side lugs are energized.

All bets are off on what is ACTUALLY happening until a thorough examination is done.
 
Something we occasionally find is where two services have been combined - like a duplex converted to a single family dwelling or where there was a separate meter for the water heater that had been converted to gas. In this case, your line side connections would hit the top meter socket (line side). The bus work from the top meter socket (line side) to the bottom meter socket (line side) is removed. Bus work (or wire jumpers) are installed from the load side of the top meter socket to the line side of the bottom meter socket. The bottom meter socket has jumpers installed (line to load) on both sides. Both services now pass through the same meter (installed on the top side). We don't necessarily "like" this approach, and I'm not sure about code on this issue. However, the fact that the bottom meter socket is blanked and has a PoCo seal installed would seem to indicate that this is what happened. But, I agree that it's never a good idea to "assume" anything. A call to the local utility would probably be best to confirm if there were two accounts previously.
 
Just one panel. The bottom meter was originally used for the hot water tank. The install was new in the mid 50's.
 
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