Same here in NJ. I've seen meters swapped exactly as you say. Pull old one out, put new one in. At least for residential service. Even the maker of the meter box George points to says the tabs are there to allow for the option of not interrupting the service. You'd think if they were critical to preventing some fatal arc-over, they would say so.
I also note that the above clearly talks about this feature only in the context of being used to avoid service interruption during the meter removal. That makes sense. You would think if it was an important safety issue for meter removal that they would say so. Also, with all the meter's out there without this feature, we should be hearing about serious accidents where the meter is just pulled. Have any of those?
This thread has taken a life of its own. I'm surprised no one has quite Aristotle, or Confucious.
Confucious say man who pull meter without jumper in for a shock.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
But that says nothing about a horrific accident being likely to happen because someone pulls a residential meter without jumpering across it.
wOw, you don't often get to see a display of ignorance as displayed in this thread, especially when it's to easy to get the answer from the/a horse's mouth, not one of the asses here. A few of you were brave enough to feed the troll, but ... in general he's just a waste of skin without bones in it.
So, of course you chimed in because you wanted to add to the ignorance and we know you can contribute a lot. Thanks for stopping by.
I would be more worried about a horrific accident screwing around with jumper wires in tight spaces with 5000-10000 available fault amps.
replying to Evan, Kristi wrote: All our electrical panels are behind locked doors and signed off by fire dept. That way as long as all managers in the building have a key to the door or the manager on duty at the time I don't think you know what you're talking about
replying to TomR, Kristi wrote: Breakaway locks are approved by many local fire departments for locking up areas they need to access without the help a building occupants. however, this is in California and each fire department has their own standards. Some are more strict than others.
Firemen will get in if they need to. There may be significant damage tho. Usually they just pull the meter. (mort accurately, break the ring and pop it out with an axe)
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com posted for all of us...
Heh heh heh
We had a stop and rob (convenience) store meter produce an arc blast when doing this. Major electrical fault. Two sent to ER with minor flash burns due to having the protective gear in use.
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