Blown Breaker - Very Dangerous

ChattanoogaPhil · #51 06-21-2017, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muss Muggins

Well, there's an art to popping a meter. Do it wrong and you get blown back with a meter in your chest and a big loud flashing arc . . .

another hold my beer and watch this exercise...

Kanewpadle · #52 06-21-2017, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChattanoogaPhil

another hold my beer and watch this exercise...

If he was really good he could hold his own beer and do it one handed.

DWalt · #53 06-21-2017, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drm50

I have a South Wire , Circuit Breaker Finder/GFCI. Works like a
champ. In older homes helps locate what is on what circut. Most
of the older homes have replaced fuse box with breaker box but
not rewired. They tend to have a lot of receptacles, lights, ect
spliced in where ever it was handy. A PIA to find without one of
these. At $40 well worth the coin. Wised up and made case for
my 3rd, they won't take beating around.

As I said earlier, I plan to borrow my B-I-Ls circuit breaker. Even though my house is not from the depression era, there is no rhyme or reason to the circuitry layout. Different receptacles and lights in the same room can be on different circuit breakers, and rooms on opposite ends or levels of the house can be on the same circuit breaker. Some years ago, I semi-mapped what areas some of the CBs serve, and I still use that as a guide. But it's incomplete and I feel that I really need to pin down exactly what every CB controls. Over the years I have needed to replace three CBs as a result of lights flickering, etc., and it's nice to know which CB is going bad.

The only place I can find the CBs used in my house is off eBay. Apparently my CBs are not very common, and the local stores do not stock them. But there are many of them on eBay. I keep several replacement CBs handy in the event I need one in a hurry.

Drm50 · #54 06-21-2017, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muss Muggins

Well, there's an art to popping a meter. Do it wrong and you get blown back with a meter in your chest and a big loud flashing arc . . .

Meters don't explode. When removing while hot, you smartly
pull down and out. If you baby it , it will arc when breaking
contact. To slow it might arc enough to blow out some molten
metal in your face. The main danger of pulling meters on older
homes is the Lugs in meter socket may be degraded by years
of oxidation and when you pull meter it comes with it. Now
you have a problem, you can't put meter back in and you have
open meter socket hot. I pull them all the time, dealing with
utility companies is a pain. If you don't know what you are doing
call power co. The thing is most companies are now charging
for any service that they can. In my area the home owner is
charged $153.50 to have meter pulled. That causes a lot of guys
to pull meters themselves. Even though it's not legal to break the
meter seal.

wingriderz · #55 06-21-2017, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlawler

Lots of older homes have them mounted outside too.

Yes ours are too but they are pad locked too

vytoland · #56 06-21-2017, 02:47 PM

until now...i never new that fuse/circuit breaker boxes were kept outside the house...........the first house my parents bought was built in the 1920's and the fuse box was inside.....

Step N. Mud · #57 06-21-2017, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drm50

Meters don't explode. When removing while hot, you smartly
pull down and out. If you baby it , it will arc when breaking
contact. To slow it might arc enough to blow out some molten
metal in your face. The main danger of pulling meters on older
homes is the Lugs in meter socket may be degraded by years
of oxidation and when you pull meter it comes with it. Now
you have a problem, you can't put meter back in and you have
open meter socket hot. I pull them all the time, dealing with
utility companies is a pain. If you don't know what you are doing
call power co. The thing is most companies are now charging
for any service that they can. In my area the home owner is
charged $153.50 to have meter pulled. That causes a lot of guys
to pull meters themselves. Even though it's not legal to break the
meter seal.

Crazy uncle John turned my meter upside down and ran all the calibrations backwards, while he was doing some electric work for me. The electrical company didn't like it much and thought maybe they would just put a meter up high on a telephone pole if it happened again.

DWalt · #58 06-21-2017, 04:39 PM

I once had an uncle who had been a troubleshooter for the Ohio Power Co. He had lots of the little security seals for the meter boxes, and he gave me some. I had to use one of them about 40 years ago when I was adding a couple of rooms to my house to do a lot of wiring and needed to pull the meter to shut off all power. I probably still have them somewhere. As I earlier said, my electric and gas meters are now remote reading, no idea if they can be pulled out like the older visual reading meters. If so, maybe they are designed to send out a distress signal that someone was tampering with them.

Whitwabit · #59 06-21-2017, 06:18 PM

all the boxes are inside here .. least that I know of .. mine is in the cellar so not too worried about a Perp shutting it off !!

I too would let by GSD out the door first .. but she can't be called cuddly at her size .. though she did think she was a lap dog with the grand kids when she was a pup ..

They are usually mounted inside the wall the meter is on or directly below the meter in the basement cellar !!

Ivan the Butcher · #60 06-22-2017, 08:29 PM

Part of the circuit marking drift.

My church has pot luck dinners all the time, and would over load the breakers with Crock Pots. I used colored price tags (pink, orange, & purple) and coded every outlet and the breakers they went too so you knew which circuit to reset (after you moved one or two crock pots to a different circuit.)

After the coding I noticed one of the three circuits had 2 times as many outlets in the kitchen. So I removed two outlets and covered with blank covers. Saved a lot of headaches! (This is all post 2000 work done by a "professional & licensed electrician". When I was the Deacon in charge of building upkeep, I wouldn't let this guy touch any building I had any say over!)

Ivan

mod34 · #61 06-22-2017, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rastoff

Tonight we were watching TV when it died all of a sudden. Losing power here under extreme weather conditions (100 deg F today) isn't unheard of, but not extremely common either. However, the fan was still going. Hmmm, must be a single circuit breaker.

Before I go out, I arm myself and let the cuddly little 85lb GSD out first. The outside porch light is out as well so, I scan the area with a flash light and go around the garage to check the circuit breaker. Sure enough, just one blown; it won't reset. Turns out to be a faulty light fixture. Disconnect the light fixture and all is well.

That's not why I'm telling this story...

It is a technique of criminals to switch off a breaker in order to get you to come out of your house, unaware. This is why I sent the dog out first. This is why I armed myself.

Do not get caught by this trick. It is better to barricade yourself in the house, call 911 and wait for the sheriff or PD. There is no shame in taking this route. It's what I would have done if I hadn't had the cuddly fur-ball to assist me.

So I've got this straight: I lose power, I barricade myself in the house and call 911????

Rastoff · #62 06-23-2017, 12:45 AM

I've posted this in several places. It's interesting to see how different the responses are.

mod34,
That's not what I said. Maybe read it again.

Abbynormal · #63 06-23-2017, 11:28 PM

My folks retired to AZ in 1995. Once out there, they had a power outage and the main circuit breaker box was OUTSIDE! I found out later that electrical codes in the Mountain West were drasticly different that the metropolitan East and Midwest. I'd done over a hundred electrical jobs in IN, OH and Chicago and the codes were basically the same, except for Chitcago where it was DRASTICLY stricter! But the main box and or disconnect was still inside the building.

Out West, the codes require main and subpanel breaker panels to be outside for FD safety! Eastern & Midwest require the mains or disconnects within 10 feet of where the power supply enters the building.

DWalt · #64 06-24-2017, 10:51 AM

"I used colored price tags (pink, orange, & purple) and coded every outlet and the breakers they went too so you knew which circuit to reset (after you moved one or two crock pots to a different circuit.)"

I was thinking about doing much the same thing at my house using small multicolored adhesive dots on receptacle and switch plates. But I don't know if they come in enough colors for all my circuits.