ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Power Theft:: Is it in Your Designs?

You Couldn't Make It Up Department:

"My neighbour has hooked his electric up to a lamp post. Can you do this work yourself or do you need a certified electrician?

[From a UK Forum.]

Reno:
I had an office bldg that was much modified over the years by 'who did it & ran'! Going thru one vacant 'suite' with the owner; found the lights & switch in the next suite, & the 'vacant' suite had the HVAC t'stat. Nightmare & a half. Both suites were tapped from the 'house' panel, & the HVAC RTU was fed from a second floor tenant panel; gas from the first floor childcare tenant.

well out in God's 2nd home country, it's outside GFI's

some folks only visit their hokmes up here when the skinig is good

so, i 'design' all the outside GFI's to be load side from the one under the panel

a dedicated circuit, if room for it

then they (owner, caretaker) can simply pop the test button, and not need to worry about 300' extention cords via larry, daryl and daryl...

~S~

I have seen where the service mast went through the roof overhang and then down to the meter. Unknown to many people in that roof overhang was a splice box. The splice box tapped the service line and went to a separate panel up stairs. This whole panel was before the electrical meter and therefore "free". That is until they got found out and turned over to the proper authorities.

Another story that this reminded me of, in Canada there is a show called Holmes on Homes. He went into a house that was a pot growing factory. He showed where the tenants of the house tapped into the main service and installed all sorts of temp. lights with grow bulbs in the basement. It was a major mess.