Um… now. Now would be that point in time.
True story. My uncle used to work in fraud prevention for a utility. One year, he and his are driving around looking at the cool Christmas lights. There was a particularly famous one that actually had traffic control, parking, etc. Walking around the display, he gets curious as to what the meter’s doing and wonders if they had to install a special one. Walks to the side and the meter is ticking over like normal - tvs, maybe stove, house lights, etc - nothing spectacular.
Long story short - the guy was a builder (and must have bribed at least one inspector and possibly a utility employee although the utility could never prove it) and had DOUBLE wired the house. Regular sockets and a few other things ran through the meter so he had and paid a bill every month. Everything else ran to a split in the (underground) power feed before the meter. They ended up ripping out almost all of the drywall in his house to remove the illegal wiring (and he lost his GC and went to jail).
My uncle said they probably never would have caught him (or only by blind luck) if he hadn’t had such an ostentatious Christmas display.
His nephew lives in the downstairs apartment and sees him regularly so he must know what’s going on. Really, it shouldn’t all fall on me.
So, why is double wiring illegal? I understand that bypassing the meter is a no go, but why would they rip it all out?
If you look at that schematic, you see that the two ungrounded (hot) wires run through the meter, while the grounded (neutral) conductor passes through.
If you look in a meter base, you will see four lugs: two fed from the company and two that feed your main breaker. The meter actually makes the connection on both legs and completes the circuit. Note that this doesn’t apply to larger commercial services that use inline transformers to power the meter so it doesn’t need to handle 500+ amps of current.
The power company can bypass the meter with metal slugs that complete the circuit for each leg without a meter in place.
I also had PECO service, but had the opposite happen to me.
A couple of years ago they replaced the gas meters. They had a 12-month graph on the bill of how much gas you used for each month of the previous year.
The previous Sept I used 61 units of gas, the previous Feb (dead of winter) I used 160 units of gas, this Sept I supposedly used 162 units of gas. I called them up & said I think you reset the meter off by 100 units. They agreed, said to ignore the bill, that they’d send me a new one to pay & have someone come out & fix the meter. A few days later I get a revised bill & pay it.
The next month my bill comes & it’s approx. 100 units higher than a year ago. I call them up, explain what happened & that it looks like no one came out to adjust the meter. ey agreed, said to ignore the bill, that they’d send me a new one to pay & have someone come out & fix the meter. A few days later I get a revised bill & pay it.
*The next month my bill comes & it’s approx. 100 units higher than a year ago. I call them up, explain what happened & that it looks like no one came out to adjust the meter. ey agreed, said to ignore the bill, that they’d send me a new one to pay & have someone come out & fix the meter. A few days later I get a revised bill & pay it. *
The next month my bill comes & it’s approx. 100 units higher than a year ago. I call them up, explain what happened & that it looks like no one came out to adjust the meter. ey agreed, said to ignore the bill, that they’d send me a new one to pay & have someone come out & fix the meter. A few days later I get a revised bill & pay it. (no I didn’t accidentally type the same thing over & over; this went on for months!)
It is amazing that when threatened with a PUC (Utility Commission) complaint they were finally able to have someone come out & correct my meter.
That’s why you never let any utility/phone co auto-deduct from your account. Had they done that, my second bill would have been right & it would have been up to me to remember to constantly call them even though the amount seemed normal.
While they can, if it’s not passing inspection, I’m surprised they would. In fact, I’d think they’d install a plate where the meter was and seal the whole thing shut again, just to make sure no one jumps the meter. I can’t think of a reason why the electric company would say ‘well, you didn’t pass inspection, so we’re pulling your meter, but you still have power, don’t worry about it’.
You mentioned a duplex, I have to wonder if there’s some cross wiring going on.
Secondly, the energy won’t be free, as others have said, they’ll back bill you with an estimate. One way or another, if they know you’ve been using power, they’ll charge you. If they installed lugs to keep you going, they’ll estimate what you’ve been using based on past bills. If your electrician did it (illegally), you’ll get hit with fines as well.
Lastly, some meter sockets have ‘horns’. They’re the little tabs sticking up (that the guy is pointing to, here). They’re designed so the meter can be swapped out by putting jumpers from one to the other so the power keeps flowing when the meter is removed. If your socket has this (and they use them), they can install the new one without you even realizing it.
Around here, pulling the meter is the standard way to temporarily disconnect power, provided there’s nothing wrong on the utility side.
How do you get jumpers between those horns without pulling the meter first?
Honestly, I only know this because I watched them do it at my location. When they came out to swap one of the meters at my work, I told them to give me a few minutes to go shut down all the computers and he said I didn’t need to since it had bypass horns.
Anyways, those horns the guy is pointing at, can have jumpers attached to while the meter is still on, they stick out a bit. So, at that point, power is flowing both through the meter and the jumpers. When you pull the meter, it’s all going through the jumpers. Drop the new meter in, pull the jumpers and it’s like nothing happened…as long as he doesn’t accidentally pull one of the jumpers off when the meter comes out.
Looks like this. If I had to WAG, the part your missing is that the entire front panel of the box has to be opened, they don’t just pull the meter straight out through the circular opening.
These are the jumpers they used, since they have big rubber boots (like a spark plug wire) they can be installed and removed without an excess of protection.
Ah, I get it now. Nifty.
I’m glad it clicked for you since the words ‘bypass’ and ‘horn’ brought up mostly unrelated videos about fixing cars and stealing electricity…thought I would have posted one about stealing electricity had it used the horns in a way that demonstrated it the way I wanted to show it.
But, like I said, I’d never seen it until the last time we got our one of our meters at work swapped. It was pretty nice to not have to worry about all our computers and phones and HVAC etc equipment going down for 30 seconds. I think another reason they do (those horns can be added on) is because it prevents arcing when the meter is pulled. However, I did see a nice spark when he yanked the meter, he did look a bit nervous when he did it. I’m guessing he was somewhat new, he grabbed that that thing and just about rolled on to his back trying to get it out in one smooth movement.
Either way, it can be done if your socket is equipped for it. But I/we digress.
To get somewhat back on point, I’d be really surprised if the power company put lugs in. That just doesn’t make sense. If you aren’t passing the inspection ISTM they aren’t going to want you to have power, if you can have power, why would they stick lugs in instead of a meter. But it behooves you, the OP, the person who will end up being stuck with the bill, regardless of what you think, to resolve it sooner rather than later.
Call the inspector, get the permits signed off, call PECO, talk to a person tell them you need the meter install today, complain about ‘the heat’ and offer to fax/email over the singed permits to get this taken care of so someone can get out there today yet. Then, before they get there, shut off the main breaker so it at least looks like you haven’t been using any power. If they mention the lugs, you can play dumb.
But I still wonder if your getting power from the other part of the duplex. If you’re on good terms with them, you should find out what their monthly bill is, see if it’s considerably higher than yours.
Of course, I really don’t know much about how electrical permits work in this situation (and nothing at all in your area). It’s possible that even with the meter pulled, the electrician is allowed to temporarily install lugs so they can check their work and yours left them in so you can run your AC, fridge, lights etc since you’re still living there, but that’s just a WAG.
I’d still make the calls, tell PECO you want/need the power turned back on ASAP and shut off the breaker before they get there. Again, if they say ‘you had power this whole time’ or something like that, you can come back with ‘well, that would have been nice to know, I’ve been living at a friend’s house’. Might even ask him to make some kind of note of that.
Right, so it’s not an integral part of the circuit, it is not required/easily bypassed. An integral part would be the return line, for instance. If it is not there, the circuit doesn’t work. The post I responded to said “I didn’t know you could have power to a structure without a meter…”. One absolutely can - and legally, too, if one supplies their own power via wind, solar, etc.
Another way to steal electricity: “Electromagnetic Harvesters: Free Lunch or Theft!”
I think I would have cancelled my account and asked for a $5K refund.
Bingo! Make them double-down on their own stupidity.
It is NOT coming from the other part of the duplex. He and I are both in the same situation. Both breaker panels were replaced, both of us had no power for over a week, and both of us now have power but neither of us have a meter. I thought I mentioned that, but I suppose not.
We have both talked to PECO and they know that we have power. I’ve spoken to everybody involved and supposedly all of the paperwork will be taken care of shortly.
I see that in the OP now. I assume the meter box has a tag on it so you can’t open it. If it doesn’t, personally, I’d open it and see what’s going on. There must be some kind of jumper in there, it would be interesting to see if there’s any kind of identifying tag(s) that say who installed the them (ie “PROPERTY OF PECO, DO NOT REMOVE”).
It seems to odd that they’ve given you the okay to have power, but not installed a meter.
I’d be documenting the calls (who, when, short summary) and during one of these calls, when they acknowledge that you do, in fact, have power and that you do not, in fact, have a meter, I’d say 'how are you planning to charge me for my usage without a meter?“. When they most likely say ‘we’ll estimate if from your past usage’, I’d come back with 'well, that’s not fair, why didn’t they install a meter when they turned it back on, the guy was there, is there a reason he didn’t just drop a meter in?”.
Of course, in the end, it probably won’t matter. You’re going to pay, they’re going to estimate your usage, it’s going to be off by a few dollars. No matter how much you argue, they’re not going to say ‘well, you’re right, we just won’t bill you’. I mean, maybe they will but I kind of doubt it. However, I would keep hounding them about getting a meter installed. Also, once they do get it installed, if they send you one huge bill, if you don’t want to or can’t pay it all at once, IME, if you ask them to split the past due part up over a few months, they’ll usually do that, without any kind of service charges, interest or hits to your credit report. As long as you’re making payments, utilities tend to be pretty forgiving.
Similar story but gas, not electricity
The model railroad club I belonged to years ago was in a former SP (small) passenger station which, being by the tracks, was the only structure of that side of the street. The juice was from PG&E but the gas for the heater was from Santa Clara. The treasurer noticed that we hadn’t gotten a gas bill in a while, like a year, so he was tasked with getting it started again before we got into trouble. Next month he reported the conversation went something like,
“Hi, I’m calling to get the gas bill for umpty-ump-odd Bassett Street.”
<pause> “We have no odd-numbered addresses on Bassett Street, just even.”
“Well, there’s one odd number and it’s us. We’re in the train station on the other side of the street from everybody else.”
“Sir, there are no odd numbers on Bassett Street.”
“O-o-o-kay.” and he hung up.
We went about another six months before the bill started up again. They made no attempt to collect on the back-bill.
Just an update to all of this. The situation as it currently stands is that code enforcement says they sent the paperwork to PECO weeks ago and that I need to speak to PECO. When I called PECO they told me that they have not received anything and that I need to speak to code enforcement. This all sounds remarkably similar to the clusterfuck that occurred between the specialty pharmacy and my insurance when I tried to get a crucial medicine refilled. Each was insisting that the other was at fault.
PECO also told me that they have also not received the paperwork from the electrician with the request to restart service at this address. The electrician told me a week ago that they were sending it in. I called the electrician today and got their answering service, apparently they closed at lunchtime; on a Monday! So I left a message for them.
I also contacted the offices of both my state rep and my state senator. Both of their offices responded promptly and said that they would contact their “PECO liaison” and get it taken care of. My senator said that it sounds “incredibly frustrating”, which is an understatement.
So now that I’ve resorted to the big guns, maybe something will be done. It really shouldn’t be this much work to get a corporation to bill me for their services!