# Old Service



## firelient (Dec 15, 2010)




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## firelient (Dec 15, 2010)

This is a 110v service was in upstair hallway. The owner said his meter hasn't been read in years


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

The free-flying fuseholder is wired backwards. :whistling2:


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## Tackdriver (Dec 3, 2010)

I dont understand why any POCO would ever let a person put a meter INSIDE a house? I also dont understand why any HO would want a meter inside the house. "Free and clear access" clauses.....


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Tackdriver said:


> I dont understand why any POCO would ever let a person put a meter INSIDE a house? I also dont understand why any HO would want a meter inside the house. "Free and clear access" clauses.....



Electric utilities have been around for well over 100 years. "Free and clear access" hasn't.


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## firelient (Dec 15, 2010)

There use to be a lot of them kinda like this. Bad thing power thru attic straight from poco. No proction at all till fuses


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## sparky.jp (May 1, 2009)

Yup. It's amazing how far electrical safety has come in the past century.

I have a 1940s version of Motor automotive shop manual that explains how to make a continuity tester for testing starter armature windings using a 120VAC cord, a light bulb and socket, and two nails and they even show pictures of it (I'll have to scan that and upload it sometime).

My grandparents (both sets) had exposed knife switches similar to the one shown that were in use up into the 1980s on their property, and it was typical in wet western WA to be standing on muddy ground while operating them (one on a concrete mixer, other was a well pump control).


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

480sparky said:


> The free-flying fuseholder is wired backwards. :whistling2:


I've never even seen something like that before, and you say it's wired backwards. Cripes 480, you've seen some stuff man!


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

In the northeast, there are still tons of services that look EXACTLY like that. They're generally in the attic, but sometimes in the basement. The meter readers have keys to those houses. They just go on in and read the meter.


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

kaboler said:


> I've never even seen something like that before, and you say it's wired backwards. Cripes 480, you've seen some stuff man!



Not hard to figure out... the white wire is hooked up to the hot side of the [email protected]($. That means the shell of the lampholder is hot, which is a violation of 240.50(E).


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

480sparky said:


> Not hard to figure out... the white wire is hooked up to the hot side of the [email protected]($. That means the shell of the lampholder is hot, which is a violation of 240.50(E).


Just using the lampholder as a fuse holder is a basic violation, but I see that all the time in parking lot lights.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

firelient said:


> There use to be a lot of them kinda like this. Bad thing power thru attic straight from poco. No proction at all till fuses


Yeah but that small-guage wire will burn open quickly under fault conditions. :smartass:


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## doubleoh7 (Dec 5, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> In the northeast, there are still tons of services that look EXACTLY like that. They're generally in the attic, but sometimes in the basement. The meter readers have keys to those houses. They just go on in and read the meter.


 

Things like that never cease to amaze me. Who would want a meter reader coming in your house???? I'm surprised the poco hasn't make them do something. Maybe send them a letter and give them a fair amount of time to get it done.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

doubleoh7 said:


> Things like that never cease to amaze me. Who would want a meter reader coming in your house???? I'm surprised the poco hasn't make them do something. Maybe send them a letter and give them a fair amount of time to get it done.


No, they generally work it different, and in the 90's it was a good bit of work for ME! They send them a letter and tell them they're doing a service upgrade for them. Then the POCO contracts people like me to do the work. There's a good many that fell through the cracks, however. Hell, on Monday I did work in an apartment building that still had a mess of 120V meters and open knife switches in the basement.


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## doubleoh7 (Dec 5, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> No, they generally work it different, and in the 90's it was a good bit of work for ME! They send them a letter and tell them they're doing a service upgrade for them. Then the POCO contracts people like me to do the work. There's a good many that fell through the cracks, however. Hell, on Monday I did work in an apartment building that still had a mess of 120V meters and open knife switches in the basement.


 

The poco paid for their service upgrades????


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

doubleoh7 said:


> Things like that never cease to amaze me. Who would want a meter reader coming in your house????


Considering these meters have been in that location since the 20's or 30's, and the owners of these houses are generally quite elderly and know nothing different.... ??

Heck, when I was first married, the home we bought was built in the early 70's and had the gas meter in the basement. To our surprise, we were eating lunch one day, and some man keyed in the back door, at the kitchen, and went right down to the basement. He did yell out, "Gas man!", as he walked down the stairs. I just looked at my wife and said, "Well, I guess we know now how they read the gas meter".


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

doubleoh7 said:


> Things like that never cease to amaze me. Who would want a meter reader coming in your house???? I'm surprised the poco hasn't make them do something. Maybe send them a letter and give them a fair amount of time to get it done.



Nah. Just install a remote-read meter. I'd say that's what 75% of the meters 'round here are. I haven't seen a bona-fide POCO meter reader in years.


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## CJE (Oct 10, 2010)

480sparky said:


> Nah. Just install a remote-read meter. I'd say that's what 75% of the meters 'round here are. I haven't seen a bona-fide POCO meter reader in years.


 Ameren still has meter readers here. They drive around in little Colorado trucks and walk a block or two at a time.
Where I grew up, you read your own meter. You wrote the current reading on your bill when you sent the payment in. AFAIK they still do it that way.


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

Yet another classic 


firelient said:


>


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

MDShunk said:


> No, they generally work it different, and in the 90's it was a good bit of work for ME! They send them a letter and tell them they're doing a service upgrade for them. Then the POCO contracts people like me to do the work. There's a good many that fell through the cracks, however. Hell, on Monday I did work in an apartment building that still had a mess of 120V meters and open knife switches in the basement.


that's awesome...


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

Better not let the safety authorities hear about them knife switchs,
they would probably shut the building down !!!
SCCH !




BuzzKill said:


> that's awesome...


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

dmxtothemax said:


> Better not let the safety authorities hear about them knife switchs,
> they would probably shut the building down !!!
> SCCH !


I'm not so sure. It's one of those things that is what they call "existing nonconforming". No one is likely to care, particularly since it was a legal install back in the day. What building code guys get most concerned about are things that were never legal in the history of ever. About the only thing that might compel them to upgrade some day is the insurance company.


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## sparky.jp (May 1, 2009)

Yes, it would more likely be the insurance company that would have an issue with that on two fronts - property fire safety and liability due to the shock hazard.


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## Magnettica (Jan 23, 2007)

MDShunk;362665What building code guys get most concerned about are things that were never legal [color=red said:


> *in the history of ever.*[/color]



:laughing:


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

firelient said:


> This is a 110v service was in upstair hallway. The owner said his meter hasn't been read in years


Where in Va. are you? When I did residential work I saw a few of these, had an old 4 circuit panel 110 VAC made by Colt with a porcelain four fuse block, no main.


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## s.kelly (Mar 20, 2009)

I took what was probaby a same or similar colt panel out of an old house in Richmond. Sadly,the guts were long ago removed and it was a hack job junction box.


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## firelient (Dec 15, 2010)

In Staunton. There are still right many old services around here. I get an old one about twice a year


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