my neighbor is using my neutral wire, is he stealing my electricity?
Stan
combined to be a big house, and now it's a duplex again. So the
electricity at one point had 2 meters, then it had one meter, now it
has 2 meters again.
The electrical works perfect, but now I am trying to add another
electrical outlet. However, I found out that my neighbor, who is on a
different electrical meter, is feeding off my neutral wire. He is not
feeding off my hot wire, just the neutral. This has been going on for
over 15 years. I can move the neutral over to his meter, but it will
take me a few hours. As long as he is not feeding off my electricty,
I don't care, What do you think I should do?
Art
Call an electrician. You and your neighbor obviously need one.
Seriously, if you don't understand hot and neutral and they work you
need to get someone who does.
--
Art
Stan
I understand hot and neutral. I even changed a whole circuit breaker
from fuse to breakers. Let me tell you what I did so far.....
First, my meter and my neighbors meter are right next to each other. I
opened up my meter and noticed that I have 6 neutral wires running
out. (I should only have 3.) Then I opened my neighbors meter and he
had zero neutral wires running out. (He should have 3.) I followed 3
of the neutral wires and it went to his unit. However, to make sure, i
disconnected all six of my neutral wires. I then went to his unit and
found out that 1/4 of his circuit was dead. However, the other 3/4 are
still getting the neutral from somewhere. I don't know where. It's
strange because although 3/4 of his circuits are still working, all
the neutrals from both units are disconnected. I then checked my house
and all the electricity was dead. After this I hooked up his 3 neutral
wires all his electricity is back to normal. Then I hooked up my 3
neutral and my electricity is back to normal also.
PeterD
wrote:
And Stan:
Last I remember, neutral is not metered. Not to say what you have is
OK, it is not (in fact it is outragous to have it wired that way) but
I would not say it was stealing your power. Have an electrican come
and fix the wiring--no this is not a typical home improvement, and yes
you will be cutting his power when you do this.
Caution: if you do this yourself, you take the risk of causing serious
damage to electrical devices on the circuts in question. Use an
electrican, who must have access to both breaker panels, and
cooperation with the other resident(s).
Wayne Whitney
> However, to make sure, i disconnected all six of my neutral wires.
Don't do this again. If any of those neutrals were part of a
multi-wire branch circuit (Edison circuit), by disconnecting the
neutral while the circuit was still hot, you just fried all the
equipment on the circuit.
Cheers, Wayne
Grasshopper
news:f6f54eb2-b331-432d...@v15g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Entirely different universe than mine. In the universe I live, the
resident, servicing electrician or whoever, cannot open a meter that
measures the electrical use of a residence or business. The electricity
provider owns that equipment. Its all AC, there is no grounding or neutral
at the meter itself.
The universe I live in, the grounding and neutral are provided after the
meter.
What you're saying is all alien to me.
--
Dave
PeterD
You cannot open a meter in any location I know of, without violating
both the agreement between you and the supplier, and usually
local/state laws. Tampering with the meter (opening it constitutes
tampering) is a criminal offense. Not the best move.
>and noticed that I have 6 neutral wires running
>out. (I should only have 3.)
Why three? Two hot, one neutral.
>Then I opened my neighbors meter
See the above on tampering with power meters...
>and he
>had zero neutral wires running out. (He should have 3.)
See the above on why three.
> I followed 3
>of the neutral wires and it went to his unit. However, to make sure, i
>disconnected all six of my neutral wires.
OK, clearly you jumped off the deep end. And, into water the depth of
which was unknown to you. Disconnecting neutrals can easily damage the
applicances on the power system as there is nothing to ensure that
they receive the proper loads.
>I then went to his unit and
>found out that 1/4 of his circuit was dead.
How did you find 25% of his circuits were dead? Like breaking into the
meters, did you break into his house?
>However, the other 3/4 are
>still getting the neutral from somewhere.
There is nothing to indicate that. What you did was possibly damage
his appliances due to unbalanced voltages resulting from an open
neutral.
> I don't know where. It's
>strange because although 3/4 of his circuits are still working, all
>the neutrals from both units are disconnected.
The only thing clear here is that you have no clue how power supplied
to residential circuits works. You are dangerous, I do hope you don't
kill someone, or burn down someone's house.
> I then checked my house
>and all the electricity was dead. After this I hooked up his 3 neutral
>wires all his electricity is back to normal. Then I hooked up my 3
>neutral and my electricity is back to normal also.
Well, 'normal' is relative. You don't say what, where or how you
reconnected the neutrals.
You are a lucky man, you survived (I think) this little adventure.
Lifting the neutrals on a live circuit can be fatal, I hope you
realized that. They are only neutrals as long as they are connected
(properly) and once you lift them, they become hot conductors, and can
have line voltages on them.
>
>__________________________________________
>__________________________________________
>
>Entirely different universe than mine. In the universe I live, the
>resident, servicing electrician or whoever, cannot open a meter that
>measures the electrical use of a residence or business. The electricity
>provider owns that equipment. Its all AC, there is no grounding or neutral
>at the meter itself.
>
>The universe I live in, the grounding and neutral are provided after the
>meter.
>
>What you're saying is all alien to me.
Alien? Hell, the OP is one lucky bastard-I'm amazed he lived to tell
the story, and as soon as the meter reader sees the damaged meter
seals he'll regret opening the boxes. At a minimum they will send a
line truck to open, inspect for tampering, reseal, and recalibrate and
that will be a charge for item!
(Grasshopper: your newsreader needs to be properly configured to
handle quotes in replies... It is virtually impossible to see where
the OP posted, and you replied. There are standards for posting, sadly
it appears that MSFT hs violated these rules. I'd recommend you get a
copy of either Agent, or Thunderbird, and scrap OE...)
Art
You're question implies that you don't understand hot and neutral. You
certainly you don't understand how this is wired, you just admitted it.
Get an electrician.
--
Art
Cwatters
Tampering with someones electricity supply would get you in big trouble
where I live.
I supect you don't have the equipment to test the end result properly.
F Murtz
If someone gets killed in those units guess who goes to jail.
Alfonso1957
He is not stealing from you, he is just using your neutral to kill momentarily
his meter disconnecting its own neutral with a switchblade type device. As
soon as he disconnects the original meter's neutral using this device located
somewhere between the breakers box and the meter, he will still be getting
energy if replaced by your neutral but his meter won't detect the load. Smart
but illegal.
--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/construction/my-neighbor-is-using-my-neutral-wire-is-he-stealing-my-elec-17925-.htm
gdmellott
My understanding is that only the 2 hot lines (240 Volt system) are metered.
So the biggest concern with shared neutrals is that the line may become
overloaded where the more than one of the same 120V side or phase lines are
working the same neutral line since the neutral cannot have a circuit breaker
on it assuring it is not overloaded. That is where romex, or typical
multi-conductor wiring has its benefit. That is, it helps to assure there is
enough conductor available to carry the load that the fused side sees. And
always oversize the conductor's current carrying capacity compared to the
fuse, or breaker. If there is anything that makes me worried is the light
wiring often put in modern houses. A breaker can tend to fail to trip at
higher currents as it ages, it nothing else. The bi-metal thermal sensitive
materials get less sensitive. Note how a water heater often gets hotter with
age.