What is going on???

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
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I rented a house. The electric meter is a new digital one. Following the lines it appears that everything is connected correctly. Below the meter is a circuit breaker. When I switch it off, power goes off in all of the house except for a few areas in the back of the house. There is no other meter or meter circuit breaker. There are no other visible cables going to the house.

My only thought is that when the house was built, the owner paid someone to run an electric cable underground and connect to somewhere else where he must be drawing free electricity to the back of the house.

I turned on all the lights at the back of the house to see if the meter moves even though the circuit breaker is turned off. Will let you know later what I find.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?
 
G

gary short

Guest
Identify those outlets that are hot when you turn off the main and then move all your appliances to those outlets and see how long it takes your neighbour to catch on.
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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This is in a nice neighborhood with very large homes. You think he tapped into his neighbors line? I was thinking he in some way went around the meter with part of his home. That perhaps when they were hooking him up he simply paid the crew to wire around the meter. That is not farfetched and no one would be the wiser.
 
G

gary short

Guest
They may have bypassed the meter, in which case do not overload the circuit as there won't be any protection (circuit breaker) ahead of it.
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
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Snuffy said:
This is in a nice neighborhood with very large homes. You think he tapped into his neighbors line?

I live in a good part of Santo Domingo and we have had one person in our building dig holes in the wall to get at the neighbors cabling and fuse box so he could illegally tap into their electricity.

Don't under estimate how low some people will go despite their perceived social status.
 

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
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It appears that the meter is reading everything as the meter moved with the lights in back... ON. I now think it is just a poor design in wiring. The circuit breaker should shut everything off. Instead it only shuts half the house off yet it appears the meter is seeing the power used.

Anyway, thanks for all help.

Yea, what do you do if you discover your rented house is borrowing power from the next door neighbor? I guess you go to the landlord and tell him to disconnect it. He would probably think I was crazy.