Cross linking electrical meters

[Roger Feeley]

Back in the mid-80's, I had left teaching and was sort of 'at liberty' while looking for my first computer programming job. To make ends meet, I did some work for a local electrical contractor who wanted an accounts receivable system.

This guy was a crook.

He had a list of fixed-prices services for me to code into the system and one of them was "Cross-linking Electrical Meters". He said that he did this for duplex landlords where they would somehow connect two electrical meters together and reduce the overall bill.

The fact that he was blatent enough to have me put it into his billing system aside, I've always wondered if this is really something that can be done. Mind you, I am just curious. I would NEVER do it.

Another trick he had me put in involved a Yellow Pages Gold coupon (remember those). They required that you present the coupons before receiving the estimate. His non-coupon price was 15% lower than his coupon price. I challenged him on that one and he replied, "I have to pay for the coupons somehow."

I didn't work for him very long.

[Jim Koepke]

It sounds like an urban legend. Most utilities put a seal on their meters and will know if someone has tampered with them. I am sure there are those who think they can 'beat the system.'

If it is on a duplex, aren't the tenants the ones paying the bill?

Some people expend more energy trying to commit fraud than the energy required to just work within the system.

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

I don't know exactly what is meant by "Cross linking electric meters". If you take the output from the two meters and and hook them together, the meters will still read the actual amount of power used. But one side might be using a lot of electricity and some of that could likely be registering on the other person's meter.

It would also be dangerous because someone would expect that if they pulled the meter (or turned off the main breaker) that the power would be "off". But it would be feeding from the other side.

Maybe that's what he told the landlord to do. Turn off your main breaker and the power you use will be charged to your tenant.

Mike

[Rich Riddle]

This almost sounds like urban myth. Some people actually purchase a "device" to place in an outlet near the meter that is supposed to cause the meter to spin improperly.

[Roger Feeley]

The guy could only do it on a duplex where there were two meters side by side.

This was for equally unscrupulous landlords who included utilities in their rent and were therefore motivated to cut utility costs. It sounded fishy to me on a number of levels. The replies imply that this guy may have been selling his greedy customers snake oil. The essence of a con is to take advantage of greed. If it doesn't save the customer money, what are they going to do? Call the cops?

[Myk Rian]

Most utilities put a seal on their meters and will know if someone has tampered with them.

Like those really matter. Ever hear of anyone getting arrested for it?

[Brian Elfert]

Like those really matter. Ever hear of anyone getting arrested for it?

Arrested, probably not unless accused of theft. Electric company here fines you $175 if you don't call first before removing the seal. They still do meter reading the old fashioned way so they will see a missing seal.

[william watts]

There's a lot of strange made up layman terms in the electronics / electricity fields " crosslinked" sounds like one. Mike hit the nail on the head ( that's woodworking terminology).

[Art Mann]

I read in the local newspaper several years ago of a person who had to pay a heavy fine and restitution for theft of services. Does that count?

Like those really matter. Ever hear of anyone getting arrested for it?