ESB meter recording units when main switch off

2011

Kevin McCloud wrote: »

What evidence no tampering has occured.

See post 25.
This meter should only measure the premesis owned by the bill payer, if it is not the system had been tampered with. I assume that your point is that the meter itself has not been interfered with, however the point is that it is likely that an offence has been committed.

punisher5112

Cilar wrote: »

It's spinning at different rate over the day. It a terrace of new houses built in 2006 and left vacant until this year with the crisis, so I think the problem must have been with the builder rather than my neighbor. We bought this summer at the same time as our neighbor. The house next door was the show house, not sure whether it might have been rented between 2006 and when my neighbor bought it this year, and something dodgy might have happened.

That is quite possible it was wired in for an external board or lighting for show house at the time. Or as houses been vacant could have left it open for someone to connectdefo worth getting checked as even if nobody has tapped in the meter has to be faulty.

frankmul

I'd say that the a temporary supply was hooked up during construction and never disconnected.

Kevin McCloud

2011 wrote: »

See post 25.
however the point is that it is likely that an offence has been committed.

One cannot assume that, what the op needs is get an rec to investigate the installation not the esbn.

Par1

ESB will not do anything for you because the cable connection is on the load (customer) side so contacting ESB is useless as they will tell you to hire a registered contractor. Also a contractor would not have to break any seal as badly advised by an earlier post. There is a customer isotation switch within that meter that isolates supply. If their is a seal on the customers side (which there is not as per photo) then that seal can be removed by any registered contractor.

Experienced posters here should know better than telling you to contact ESB as the issue is a civil matter because the connection is clearly made on the load side of the ESB meter. The ESB are paid for the electricity so electricity has not been unmetered.

You need to:

1. Get an independent witness to photo existing setup.
2. Contact registered electrical contractor and get a report.
3. Be very careful and make no assumptions until cause is found

If the cause is found not to be your fault then you may be entitled to have money reimbursed to you and at that stage you will be more enlightened.

frankmul has offered some very good advice in post 4

Best of luck with it and i hope all goes well.

2011

Kevin McCloud wrote: »

One cannot assume that

I have assumed nothing I stated what is "likely".

I'm going to lock this for the moment.
Some suggestions are not legal or safe.
OP send me a PM when it has been investigated and I will unlock.
I think we all want to know how you got on.

2011

Update due shortly

Stoner

2011 wrote: »

Update due shortly

Hurry up, tools down at 16:30

2011

I contacted ESB Networks, who immediately put me through to a very helpful individual in their Revenue Protection Department.

I was asked to email the thread link to them, following this I was advised as follows:

• The photo looks very suspicious and they would like to investigate immediately.
• If the second cable shown in the OP’s photo feeds another premises and this is used to avoid payment of an electricity bill by a third party this falls under the definition of meter tampering and therefore would be an offence.
• The correct course of action is to report suspected cases of meter tampering directly to ESB Networks who will put you in touch with their Revenue Protection Department. Alternatively this department can be contacted directly on 1850211827
• Contacting a Registered Electrical Contractor (REC) first is not the correct course of action.
• Reporting suspicious instances such as this will trigger an investigation. The customer will not be charged for this investigation regardless of the outcome of said investigation.
• Disconnecting, switching off or touching anything in the meter cabinet is contrary to the advice given by ESB Networks and could impede an investigation.



Shortly afterwards ESB Networks contacted me and told me that the OP took the correct course of action by contacting ESB Networks and an investigation has started.

2011

Thread unlocked.
Enjoy

Stoner

Par1 wrote: »

Experienced posters here should know better than telling you to contact ESB as the issue is a civil matter because the connection is clearly made on the load side of the ESB meter. The ESB are paid for the electricity so electricity has not been unmetered.

Good call 2011, used your experience for the good of the forum.

Cerco

There is a good lesson to be learned here.
All shades of opinion can be posted here on an open forum. Some more definitive than others.
I am sure all are posted with the best of intentions to answer the questions.
When a strong difference of opinion arises, it is difficult for the casual reader to decide which is right. It is only by following regular posters you can get an understanding of their experience and then form your own opinion.
Well done 2011 in resolving this issue.

Bruthal

The actual OP question might not be completely resolved just yet, as we dont actually know where the cable is going.

But advising someone who has 2 cables leaving the metered side of the meter, and who say their meter is still spinning with all power in the house off, and who`s bills appear excessive, to contact esb networks, as there may possibly be some sort of fraud, was a sensible course of advice imo.

Volvoair

Cerco wrote: »

There is a good lesson to be learned here.
All shades of opinion can be posted here on an open forum. Some more definitive than others.
I am sure all are posted with the best of intentions to answer the questions.
When a strong difference of opinion arises, it is difficult for the casual reader to decide which is right. It is only by following regular posters you can get an understanding of their experience and then form your own opinion.
Well done 2011 in resolving this issue.

nothing is resolved yet.....
we still don't know who is connected to what meter .
or who made the illegal connection

Cerco

Volvoair wrote: »

nothing is resolved yet.....
we still don't know who is connected to what meter .
or who made the illegal connection

You are correct but the issue as to who to contact and who will investigate is certainly resolved.it is only a matter of time before the OP will get the final answer. There is no debate about that.

punisher5112

It feels like Christmas eve. I can't wait to see what has been going on op.

Hopefully if it is a tap the person that is stealing your electricity gets slapped with a nice fine. Also some componsation would be nice.

Cilar

I sent an email last night with the picture to REVP.esbnetworks@esb.ie . I've not got any response back to the mail, but I phoned the ESB customer service this afternoon and now I'm waiting for their 'scheduling' team to contact me to come see the meter, hopefully this week as the meter is still running quite fast and I'd like to avoid another big bill, so it's quite stressful.. Thanks everybody for the help. I also contacted the builder on the situation, but they've been quite slow in the past on other problems, so not very hopeful to get this solved quickly through them.

TheBody

It's very dodgy looking.

The cable must have been put in when it was built. Very odd.

fred funk }{

My guess would be that the original builder wired in a temporary supply for street lighting or on site traffo and someone at a latter stage probably found the cable in their garden and connected it up.

frankmul

Cerco wrote: »

You are correct but the issue as to who to contact and who will investigate is certainly resolved.it is only a matter of time before the OP will get the final answer. There is no debate about that.

Well done to 2011 for sorting out who to contact but I still think that the ESB won't get to the bottom of this. I feel that they may have lost out revenue from stand charges but there was no theft of electricity from the ESB. I hope they get the bills sorted out for the op. It's just a case of wait and see.

blindsider

Well done 2011!

It's a shame that some posters here could not wait to give inaccurate advice.

Ah well!

lynchieboy

If this is supplying another house then they are riding you bareback, I hope they get hit with new connection fee and plenty of civil works to put in new pipe etc. for new cable, where did they think their electricity was coming from?

enda1

A friend rented a house in London which had this problem. Turned out the neighbouring house was wired up to them and set up as a grow house! Thought a bunch of shared house lads wouldn't notice the lecky bill being high - little did they know one of them was Scottish!

Deagol

Heard a story once about an American hiring an apartment in Florence, Italy. His first electric bill was very high so he started removing fuses from the board one by one to see what was connected to each.

First fuse out, the apartment light go off. Second one, the sockets go off, third one the cooker goes off. Fourth one, every light in the street outside goes out

Bruthal

Deagol wrote: »

Heard a story once about an American hiring an apartment in Florence, Italy. His first electric bill was very high so he started removing fuses from the board one by one to see what was connected to each.

First fuse out, the apartment light go off. Second one, the sockets go off, third one the cooker goes off. Fourth one, every light in the street outside goes out

At least his apartment wasnt in champ de mars.

arse..biscuits

If it's the neighbour's house, things might get a little awkward.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Something very very strange going on there! I'd love too wait till around 10 o clock at night and go out and chop the phase (with the correct tools etc) just too see what it powers down but obviosly that's no good in the long run for the investigation AND ITS 100% DANGEROUS AND COUKD RESULT IN INJURY!

Cilar

ESB is coming tomorrow to look at the meter, I'll get more details.

Estate agent who sold the houses came back saying the neighbor house had issues "getting registered" with ESB (not more details) when they moved in in October (same week as we moved in). Agent is saying the house next door was rented during the crisis prior to being sold this year (former show house) and something dodgy must have happened with a former tenant. Not sure if that's the reality tough, my meter was reading 1200 units when I moved in in October, and is at 3000 now two and an half month later. 1200 units does not look very high if a tenant was living in the house next door for several months and using electricity through our house meter. It feels like the builder is trying to get away from the issue.

2011

Whatever happens this will be interesting.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Is there a well on the property?? Perhaps the pump is running constantly? Or an outside pump house/ boiler house for the central heating?