Electricity guy fixes meter in the dark

For reasons best known to themselves, our electricity company decided that they wanted to change our meter. Fair enough, it's their property after all I suppose. So the engineer turned up yesterday. The meter is inside a cupboard under the stairs, and although it was daylight outside it was pretty dark in there.

Figuring that the first thing he was going to do was to shut the power off, I was slightly surprised that he showed no signs of producing a light of any kind. Thinking that here was a situation where one of my lights might come in handy, I offered to lend him one - but no, he said that he was quite happy to work in the dark ! Now I would have thought it quite important when working on electrical stuff to be able to see what you are doing - connecting the right colours of wires and that sort of thing .

Unbelievable - not only did he turn up for work unprepared, but he even refused the appropriate tool when offered. For someone who works most of the time with the power shut off ( I hope !! oo: ) I would have thought some sort of a light was essential.

Suicidal tendencies in the power guy huh?

Maybe he secretly feels very guilty about the power rates. :laughing:

unbelievable.

and terrifying.

i wouldnt dare to live in such house that is wired eyes wide shut!

hope he knows his stuff and made sure all the connections are safe.

-i probably would of still stood there with flashlight in hand.. liked he or not.. its my house and i stand where i want, doing what i want.. hahahhhh

You offered him a flashlight? Batteries are their competition! That's like offering the Coke delivery driver a Pepsi.

Wow.. I would have told him to leave and have the electric company send another guy. I really don't want him to blow every electronic device in my house cause he wired it the wrong way.

Yes, I did have half a mind to chuck him out.

What I did in the event was to take a photograph of the unit before I let him start - that way I was able to check it over myself afterwards to make sure everything had gone back correctly. Also means I've got before-and-after shots in case of any problems down the road.

The good news is that nothing seems to have gone and the house hasn't burned down yet . . . but if I stop posting suddenly, you'll know why !!!

Thats madness, strange he wouldnt accept your light lol. glad it turned out okay.

IlluminatedOne said:

Thats madness, strange he wouldnt accept your light lol. glad it turned out okay.

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In my experience this is a very common reaction of most tradesmen when caught not having the right tool. By refusing yours they can 'save face' by making you think that they didn't need it or else they would own it themselves. This compounded by 'Like this knuckleheads dollar store light is better than squinting' and you have that situation being repeated daily all over the place.

Not every situation needs a light =p

GarageBoy said:

Not every situation needs a light =p

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true, but in this case it was. working on live wires in pitch black is not my idea of a good time.

LOL, that sounds like a similiar situation to me at work in the past! In his defense, in most cases, turning on the hallway light and letting your eyes adjust is perfectly satisfactory.
I've recently purchased an Ultrafire A10 though :candle: Running off a lithium-ion cell and using ceiling bounce certainly improves things! I test and inspect electrical installations btw and that probably explains why you find properties with reversed polarity from time to time?

Paul.

. . .turning on the hallway light and letting your eyes adjust . . .

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If he'd just been changing a fuse you'd probably be right, but he was replacing the meter so all the power was off: lights, microwave, the lot. To be fair, it wasn't pitch black in there, but it was dark enough . . .

sorry, should've included "or open front door", that's normally enough.
I'd have taken the torch offered btw, I'm not that daft! Did he decline a cup of T too?

I wouldn't let someone like that even touch the twist wire used to keep the bag closed for a loaf of bread. Working on the mains in the dark proves he's an idiot even if he's done it 1,000 times before.

dilbert said:

You offered him a flashlight? Batteries are their competition! That's like offering the Coke delivery driver a Pepsi.

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That's priceless.

madness lol

I have a brother in law who is a spark!

Even he aint silly enough to work in the dark!

OP, changing the meter???

Unplug the old, plug in the new. Eyes open, eyes closed. Lights on, lights off. NBD. Hardest part of the job is carrying the new meter in and the old meter out.

maybe there was instructions stamped on the unit in braille

Glasstream15 said:

OP, changing the meter???

Unplug the old, plug in the new. Eyes open, eyes closed. Lights on, lights off. NBD. Hardest part of the job is carrying the new meter in and the old meter out.

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I thought the hardest part was attaching the little anti-tamper seal.

O'Neille said:

I thought the hardest part was attaching the little anti-tamper seal.

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Those meters weigh about 20 lbs or more and it's along walk out to the truck.