Recent content by Framton Nuttel

We just had a nearly identical situation, with voltage in one leg that was low and fluctuating, and it ended up being due to the service connection at the meter socket not being fully seated (there was a temporary jumper plate in place of the meter). It was especially annoying because all...

We'll never know who failed to fully seat the meter jumper plate, and it doesn't really matter. It might have been the electrician who worked on the customer side wiring, or it could have been the utility company guy looking at the socket when he came to install the meter. Even though the...

So in the end here's the deal - apparently the utility company came to the premises last year to install the new meter and connect the second set of feeder wires. The guy (utility company) who came didn't have a 320A meter, so he just took the old one and left without arranging any followup...

Thanks Dave*99 - that makes sense. The other week a neighbour was getting their service upgraded to 400A and I asked the linesman if there was any risk that other houses might not be able to do this kind of upgrade if the local grid capacity was exceeded. He was pretty clear in his opinion...

What's weird about this is that they were told they needed to upgrade their electrical capacity from 200A to 400A to handle the new heating installation, but apparently they've been running everything for the last year on the original feeder wires rated at 200A. Was it dangerous that they were...

Update: They got in touch with the original electrician who did the partially-completed wiring upgrades for the HVAC contractor. The second service mast was never connected, because this has to be done by the utility company and the electrician never contacted them to arrange it. Presumably...

Here the arrangement usually seems to be that a single trio of wires (2 hot + neutral) run from the utility pole wires to the residence, at which point each of the three lines may be split to run down two separate conduits (in my area virtually everything is overhead). Recently it seems to have...

Hoping to get in touch today with the original contractor and/or the Hydro company. Failing that, hopefully can find an electrician in the area who's not off for construction holiday. Another troubling scenario is that the two dangling lines from the second service mast were in fact hooked up...

Yep - needless to say, a lot of homeowners ignore this and the electric aisle at Home Depot remains a busy place. We all take risks in life and the important thing is to be honest about our own limits and risk tolerance. The industry is kind of broken here, with perpetual shortages of skilled...

In Quebec, homeowners in single family dwellings (houses) can do their own plumbing and framing etc. It's illegal here to do your own electrical work though, or any plumbing related to natural gas. As I mentioned earlier, the trade body for electricians tried years ago to ban the sale of any...

This is pretty common in my area. Not sure what terminology you would use to describe it. Second service drop is maybe not correct (a lot of construction work here takes place in French).

It may not have been accurate to call it a second service, but it's weird that they have the two masts with one set of wires dangling. As I mentioned above, a number of houses in my region are adding a second service mast but they are still getting power from a single pair of wires back to the...

A lot of people in my area are getting this, mainly to support EV charging. A Level 2 home charger works best on a dedicated 60A circuit, and many larger homes can't support this on the original 200A service. The houses will have two service masts, but the feeders running back to the pole are...

Yes I agree - I don't want to get involved, although I will follow from a distance and am interested in what the actual explanation and resolution will be. My only real input has been to say that this should urgently be looked at by an electrician and they shouldn't assume it's ok if the 240V...

It's possible their outdoor box has lugs that allow merging two service drops, which are bridged to the customer side via the meter or jumper. Maybe the customer side also allows two sets of feeder lines to be hooked up in parallel, and something is just loose.