ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion Pulling Meters?

Pulling meters is something I learned while a FF/EMT in KY for several years. I pulled hundreds of meters when responding to house fires to kill the power and had one :blow up" on me. I turned out to be the bigger of the emergency than the house fire. That was the last one I pulled and NEVER will I screw around with electricity again. By the way, I was getting my BS in Safety Engineering while I was a FF/EMT and only wish i had learned of LOTO sooner!!!!

Bryan www.SAFTENG.net

Hi there Bryan!!,
I just wondered if this was a practice that would be frowned upon by the Safety Authorities?.
Sounds pretty dangerous to me!.
I've pulled hundreds of Pillar box and Pole fuses for the Fire Service, the last thing you need when spraying water around in a house, is some live wires or a switch-board.

The maximum available fault current at the secondary terminals of a 25 kva transformer is about 7000 Amps. For a 37 1/2 kva the current is over 10,000 amps. Both these are the most common sizes used in residential areas. Besides the burn hazard don't forget the hazard due to broken glass. Always wear "grabit" gloves when handling whr meters.

Ichabod

I do.

Sometimes i'll cut the OH (if there is an OH) , sometimes i pull the meter.

That's about the only two options i have...

There are gizmos that limit the hazard of meter pulling and insertion, but they are primarily marketed to utility meter departments.
http://www.meterpuller.com/homemeterpuller.aspx

interesting device Bjarney.

have you used one?

No, I have not. The metering I have installed or serviced was in an institutional/research setting, {not in the conventional utility sense} and was universally instrument-rated. [That is, current and potential transformers served the meter nominally rated 120 volts and 5 amperes regardless of the metered-circuit voltage. In this case, the same rating of meter is used for everything from 208V to 115kV {and up to 765kV for bulk-power nodes.}

Except for transmission circuits, there were always current-limiting fuses installed upstream of the PTs, and an isolation/test switch in the meter enclosure or switchboard compartment was opened/bypassed before removing or installing a socketed meter, or the meter was “switchboard” cased, making it unremovable in the same way a socketed meter could be.