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#49745 03/22/05 08:22 PM
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,064
D
Member
OK, one for the books here.

Went there to meet the tennant, 3 room apartment. Bedroom, living room and kitchen. Very small. Guy is of Arabic background.
Very hard to understand.

Anyhoot, I shut down the panel, and go out back to look at the meters, One is stopped, the other 2 are still running.

First off, I thought there should be 4 meters for a 3 apartment building, 3 for the apartments, 1 for the house loads.

There is a door in the back where the all the service entrances apear to go. I figure it was a common area where I would find the grouping of the panels, and to my delight I was met by a older woman with a plank in her hand yelling at me to get out of her apartment.

Needless to say, there was the 3 main panels I was looking for, in her apartment. 3 SE cables in, 3 100a disconnects, 3 Se cables out.
After we calmed her down and did some explaining, it comes down to the orginal tennant was not paying for someone elses electric, he was reading his bill wrong.
He recieves one bill from the township for his electric usage, his water usage, his sewer usage all on the same bill.
The older woman with the plank is paying for all the common stuff, the outside lighting, washer and dryers and such.

Now a couple questions come to mind here.

1. should there be 4 meters outside?
2. should the SE (3) wire change over to 4 wire (SER) from the main disconnects to the sub panels in the apartments?
3. shouldn't the main panels be in a common area, not in a location, considered her apartment?
4.also, there was only one main panel with an electrode grounding conductor in it?


I should take my camera with me, you never know what you'll find........

They are going to talk to the landlord, who happens to be a lawyer, and electrician, and the plumber.

#49746 03/22/05 09:14 PM
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
E
e57 Offline
Member
Get paid! Wash hands. (Of situation) Run... Shut phone off, that order.

"landlord, who happens to be a lawyer, and electrician, and the plumber" AKA Slumlord.

I doubt it is legal anywhere to use what was probhably originally intended to be a Panel rm, or Utility Rm as a dwelling. Or for that matter have this person pay for common area useage. Seeing that there are 3 meters, and 3 units, she is paying one? Who is paying the other two? Two of the three tenants?


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
#49747 03/22/05 10:51 PM
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 524
Member
...Couldn't you throw an amprobe on the load side of the meter,with the tenants panel shut down??..That way,if even the slightest load is present,you got your problem solved..
Russ


.."if it ain't fixed,don't break it...call a Licensed Electrician"
#49748 03/23/05 07:54 AM
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,064
D
Member
Borough owns the elctric meter, and will not allow you to pull it without them there. They are the only ones allow to pull meters.

I called them before I went out.

After 5 minutes or so the meter never moved and after looking at the disconnects in the other apartment, it was time to go.

You can't break the seal either, was advised against doing that too.




[This message has been edited by Dnkldorf (edited 03-23-2005).]

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