Anyone Removed an Electric Meter Temporarily?

[Possum]

I need to remove my Meralco meter for a few minutes to replace a rusted disconnect switch that connects to the meter. In the USA I would just do it and call them when I was finished so they could replace the seal. But here? So far here is where I am with Meralco. Signed on to my Meralco online account and sent an inquiry under my account number, name, address etc. Got a email saying they would contact me. Next day they did and said I had to email them a signed letter with my ID attached requesting interruption of service and the reason why. [I told them why in the original query]. Once I get my material ready I will do that, hopefully in a few days. However if it takes them a long time to get out here I am tempted to remove the meter myself and tell them it was an emergency.

Anyone ever removed their meter?

[Dave Hounddriver]

28 minutes ago, Possum said:

Anyone ever removed their meter?

I had an electrician remove one for a few minutes in my place near Dumaguete.  I had him replace the rain cover and he had to take the meter off to do that.  It seemed to be no big deal.

[Lee]

I wouldn't recommend doing this to anyone but a few years back I left the meter in place and replaced the houses main disconnect and never said a word to anyone. 

[Possum]

33 minutes ago, Lee said:

I wouldn't recommend doing this to anyone but a few years back I left the meter in place and replaced the houses main disconnect and never said a word to anyone. 

I would do that but the wire from the meter to the breaker needs replacing.  An additional issue is my meter is a net meter so I'm not sure what happens to the readings when it's disconnected.

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Possum said:

I need to remove my Meralco meter for a few minutes to replace a rusted disconnect switch that connects to the meter. In the USA I would just do it and call them when I was finished so they could replace the seal. But here? So far here is where I am with Meralco. Signed on to my Meralco online account and sent an inquiry under my account number, name, address etc. Got a email saying they would contact me. Next day they did and said I had to email them a signed letter with my ID attached requesting interruption of service and the reason why. [I told them why in the original query]. Once I get my material ready I will do that, hopefully in a few days. However if it takes them a long time to get out here I am tempted to remove the meter myself and tell them it was an emergency.

Anyone ever removed their meter?

This might be one of those situations where it would be have been better to ask for forgiveness than permission but that boat has sailed.  If you go ahead and they then send someone around to do it they may or may not kick up a fuss.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

10 hours ago, Possum said:

I would do that but the wire from the meter to the breaker needs replacing.  An additional issue is my meter is a net meter so I'm not sure what happens to the readings when it's disconnected.

Do you get scheduled brownouts?  Just sayin'

[Possum]

18 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Do you get scheduled brownouts?  Just sayin'

No, the power here is normally very reliable.

[Freebie]

I tried to get my Meralco account changed in name from property developer to my name. That was the easy part.

As I had about P10,000 in advance payments to Meralco that was the hard part..... only took 9 months and 7 visits to the main Makati office.

 

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, Freebie said:

I tried to get my Meralco account changed in name from property developer to my name. That was the easy part.

As I had about P10,000 in advance payments to Meralco that was the hard part..... only took 9 months and 7 visits to the main Makati office.

 

As I understand it the power companies have run into trouble over this and seem to be working on getting the refunds paid back much more quickly.  We were lucky - after the 3-year probation period we got our deposit back in just a few days - we had all the paperwork and no delinquency over the 3 years.

[Lee]

56 minutes ago, hk blues said:

after the 3-year probation period we got our deposit back in just a few days

When we had electric turned on a few yrs ago we didn't have to put any deposit down. I believe that we just provided a few receipts from our previous home.

My wife was questioned pretty hard as I recall.

She was asked about the foreigner that she was married to. Then the guy starts asking about her age, where she is from, finally concluding with that she looked pretty good for a 60 yr old (at the time). My wife shot right back at him in English every time as only a Filipina who lived in the US for 40 yrs will do. He didn't expect this and walked away.