Just make sure that you cut the meter seal in a way that it won't be visible when you put it back on. At least, that's what I've heard anyway.I do not know, was trying to get some shut eye when they were here. It was late and they didn't spend much time... I will probably open lid and perhaps snap a pic this week if I get time. I am also curious. Don't call the PowCo police.
I had a similar problem at my house. Wife called and said half the lights were out in the house. When I came home they all worked fine. Happened a few more time over several weeks. I called power company and they came out once but when they got there it would be back on. Finally it stopped working all together. Power company came out and it turned out that 4 years earlier I had nicked one leg with an auger while installing fence posts. I had it marked before I dug and made sure I was 4 feet either side of the painted line. (not marked well at all!!!) Evidently it would cool of and "reconnect" and power company would not touch it until it was burned out completely and wasn't working when they arrived. No charge at the time. This was over 20 years ago.
Our good friends at Amazon have a solution for that. Pick your color and you're good to go. $0,25 per good deed.
complete with power co name embossed or inked on it? doubt it
Nope. Who cares! They don't get close enough to them anymore.
I have a few left from about 30 that an old timer lineman "accidentally" dropped at an apartment where I needed a meter pulled to replace a main. He was grumbling about how we used to be able to pull the meters ourselves right before they hit the ground, then something to the effect of being too old to bend over that far and asked me to make sure I got them picked up.
Of course, those only cover one of the six POCO's in my service area, but it is by far the largest.I happened to pick up 2 that the POCO dropped....I have a few left from about 30 that an old timer lineman "accidentally" dropped at an apartment where I needed a meter pulled to replace a main. He was grumbling about how we used to be able to pull the meters ourselves right before they hit the ground, then something to the effect of being too old to bend over that far and asked me to make sure I got them picked up.
lol they do here. they have motion and tamper sensors in the meters. if you mess with them they know about it because they get an alarm. then they come out and check the tag
I may have heard that if you have a smart meter, leave the top jaws engaged. Rotate the bottom out and put a thick piece of cardboard between the bottom jaws and the socket. If the top gets disengaged, the POCO will know about the power loss before you do.
Interesting! I can see how that works. Here are pics of the 200A meter can at my house from 9/22 when they upgraded the meter to a smart meter. PCO feed on the right and sure enough, it feeds the top of the meter first and then passes thru to the house SEU on the bottom.
I looked out the other day and my power company was pulling my meter. Asked the guy what was up and he was doing a random meter test.
That sounds burned, from being loose
Hypothetically, of course. Never will have a chance to prove that out, I'm sure
I had the same noise outside my bedroom window. That thing made quite a racket.
It wasn't burnt black and it wasn't loose.
Meters do have to get changed out to verify accuracy at some established frequency. Same is true for gas and water. The 2 POCO's I deal with don't have a problem with residential meters getting pulled/replaced on up to 120/240vac, 200A services. One requests a call beforehand.
Twice I disconnected or pulled a Smart Meter, nothing happened, once was a Sunday panel swap because the idiot never used a gasket on the hub, & it was required on that panel, leading to water damaging the AL bus, second time was disconnecting the OH service drop to s swap out the roof jack because the roof was being replaced, not able to do that anymore due to health reasons now.
That's the way it used to be here with the big POCO that I deal with 95% of the time. Pull the meter, do what needs done then call them and they will come put a seal on. For some reason, they decided that nobody other than a lineman was qualified to pull/install a meter beginning Jan. 1 of I think 2011. It just happens to be that those are the seals I have, and they don't have smart meters yet. I had to have a lineman come to a commercial building twice yesterday for me. Once to take the locked meter rings off the three meter stack so I could get the cover off and get a part # of a bad 150 amp breaker, then again to pull the meter when I found the new breaker. It was the same guy both times, and he actually helped get the cover off and back on.
I pulled one before I'd even heard of a smart meter. It was in the middle of absolute nowhere with a bad main on a pole for an REC and I figured they'd never know. There just happened to be a couple of line crews at the closest neighbors about two miles away and they showed up about the time I was putting the cover back on. The office knew something wasn't right as soon as the meter came out. The old guys thought it was funny, but the young guy that was with them sure didn't.
Barrel keys are somewhat easy to come by!!
That is SEU not SER.... yes the smart meters have a battery so they can still transmit data when there is an outage....
Do you have a pic of the inside of the panel in the shop just out of curiosity?Off work during daylight due to a funeral. Oddly enough, it looks like the power company lock was brittle or something and broke when a chunk of ice? contacted it...Anyways took opportunity to take a quick pic:
The idea place to disconnect is at the meter but you would have to ring it out using the neutral to determine which is the offending hot leg. Probably not a place where you should be and lacking needed PPE/tools.
