SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
Today I had the inspectors called on me. One of my neighbors must have seen me replacing the light on the patio. (No not the bulb, the entire fixture.) and called it in as being dangerous.
I was done by the time the inspector arrived, unfortunately I was now working on replacing the top of my Pole Light out front. He comes strolling up and looks at what I'm doing before asking me if I knew what I was doing. I told I had known what I was doing riht up until I looked in the pole. There were a lot of extra wires in there.
He didn't understand what I meant until he looked in himself. Eeks, instead of the usual two or three there were about a dozen, most of them not leading to the lamp. As he was looking at these I started getting an idea. You see my Electric Bill is high, much higher than I can explain. There are also several high Amp Breakers in my Circuit Box that I just can't identify. Six of them as a matter of fact. I asked him to do me a favor. I wanted him to hook up his voltmeter to those wires and watch what they did. (He has one of those nice Inference Meters.) He did and I went inside and shut off the breakers. About a minute later I turned them back on and went back outside.
Yep those wires were supplied by the mystery breakers. What's more he informed me that when those wires lost power so did half a half the Pole Lights along the street. We're talking the kind of lights that would make Trump Drool. Multi Bulb ones that truly light up the night. I made a note of what places those lights were in front of and finished changing my light. (He told me his son, who is apprenticed to him, does worse work.)
When I was done I wandered down to the front office and explained what I had found. I asked them to be kind enough to pass the word to those people whose lights I was powering that they had a week to find another source of power before I disconected the breakers. The guy in the office told me I couldn't do that, it was in my lease to make sure the light in front of my place was on at night. I pointed out to him that I wasn't going to turn off the light in front of my place, just those who were mooching off of me. I also pointed out to him that these people and the park were paying me for the electricity they were using.
He must have passed the word as this afternoon one of my neighbors came storming over demanding to know what the hell I though I was doing. How dare I say I was going to shut off his light? He had after all paid to put that light in, hell he had paid for the light. I agreed that he most likely had, but that he wasn't paying for the electricity to power it, I was. He started to get even more upset, telling me there was no way he could calculate how much electricity the light used, and besides it couldn't use much. (Yeah right, it has six 60 watt bulbs that burn 24/7.) I told him he could easily call the electric company and they would gladly and for free tell him how much juice he used.
I received one other complaint, but surprisingly most of the people didn't seem to realise how their lights were powered and promised to have them changed over to their own systems.
I relented though. I gave them two weeks, but in 14 days the lights go out.
Cat
Oh and if you don't think they are sucking the juice out of me, take my neighbor with the six 60 watt bulbs. They burn 24/7. Figure out how many watts that single lamp uses in 30 days. Multiply that by 12.
I was done by the time the inspector arrived, unfortunately I was now working on replacing the top of my Pole Light out front. He comes strolling up and looks at what I'm doing before asking me if I knew what I was doing. I told I had known what I was doing riht up until I looked in the pole. There were a lot of extra wires in there.
He didn't understand what I meant until he looked in himself. Eeks, instead of the usual two or three there were about a dozen, most of them not leading to the lamp. As he was looking at these I started getting an idea. You see my Electric Bill is high, much higher than I can explain. There are also several high Amp Breakers in my Circuit Box that I just can't identify. Six of them as a matter of fact. I asked him to do me a favor. I wanted him to hook up his voltmeter to those wires and watch what they did. (He has one of those nice Inference Meters.) He did and I went inside and shut off the breakers. About a minute later I turned them back on and went back outside.
Yep those wires were supplied by the mystery breakers. What's more he informed me that when those wires lost power so did half a half the Pole Lights along the street. We're talking the kind of lights that would make Trump Drool. Multi Bulb ones that truly light up the night. I made a note of what places those lights were in front of and finished changing my light. (He told me his son, who is apprenticed to him, does worse work.)
When I was done I wandered down to the front office and explained what I had found. I asked them to be kind enough to pass the word to those people whose lights I was powering that they had a week to find another source of power before I disconected the breakers. The guy in the office told me I couldn't do that, it was in my lease to make sure the light in front of my place was on at night. I pointed out to him that I wasn't going to turn off the light in front of my place, just those who were mooching off of me. I also pointed out to him that these people and the park were paying me for the electricity they were using.
He must have passed the word as this afternoon one of my neighbors came storming over demanding to know what the hell I though I was doing. How dare I say I was going to shut off his light? He had after all paid to put that light in, hell he had paid for the light. I agreed that he most likely had, but that he wasn't paying for the electricity to power it, I was. He started to get even more upset, telling me there was no way he could calculate how much electricity the light used, and besides it couldn't use much. (Yeah right, it has six 60 watt bulbs that burn 24/7.) I told him he could easily call the electric company and they would gladly and for free tell him how much juice he used.
I received one other complaint, but surprisingly most of the people didn't seem to realise how their lights were powered and promised to have them changed over to their own systems.
I relented though. I gave them two weeks, but in 14 days the lights go out.
Cat
Oh and if you don't think they are sucking the juice out of me, take my neighbor with the six 60 watt bulbs. They burn 24/7. Figure out how many watts that single lamp uses in 30 days. Multiply that by 12.
