Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Restaurant Shuts Down Over Surprise $40K Electric Bill" video.

@Brian-db7ej That would settle the question of whether or not he got power from the other meter. Then there'd just be the matter of how much of the bill is still collectable.
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@Kevin-bl6lg I don't buy that, if there is no gas connection, an attorney should have been able to just send a letter to the gas company demanding some proof. Usually that puts a stop to things like this. Plus, there's supposed to be notification of any sort of court proceedings like this to respond to when placing a lien and then again when the property is foreclosed on. If that really happened, then they screwed up royally.
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@williamhanna4823 You're paying for maintaining the voltage, essentially. Any time a device is powered on, there's a voltage drop that then requires the grid to increase the voltage to put things back as they were. With small devices the fluctuation is minimal, but with larger devices you can get a visible flickering of the lights. As others have stated with AC current there's little to no movement of the electrons on and off the premises. Usually, there's more of a vibration.
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Around here the meters for residential installations have been outside for years. I can't remember if at this point the information is transferred directly to the utilities office or if they can just collect it by driving around the neighborhood without even getting out of their truck. Part of it is the sort of issue that you're talking about and part of it is just the efficiency of not needing so many readers. I think the water meter may be the only one we have where somebody still has to go around and look at every one. And those are generally right next to the sidewalk for single family houses and n a central location for larger buildings.
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@robertheinkel6225 That's extremely generous of the other rate payers. Anything that happens on the user side of the meter is their responsibility, typically. Especially when it comes to things that are screwed into a faucet.
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@vincei4252 Around here folks often have 3 meters. All of them are now outside, but when I was a kid, the gas meter was inside. I have no idea who thought that was a good idea, as that's the one meter with the least right to be inside a residential house. But, the gas company did eventually replace the meter with a new one and placed it outside where it belongs.
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@daninraleigh Not really. Around here, you're responsible for the pipes and anything connected on the customer side of the meter. Mostly because that is the property of the owner, and few people would want the water company coming inside to inspect things and approve fixtures and installations. Toilets can potentially use a lot of water if they're not sealing properly between flushes. Back before aerators were common on bathroom sinks, you could fill dozens of cups with the water if you left them on while brushing your teeth. Depending on how bad the toilet leak is, that can add up to a lot of wasted water.
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@waggtech4883 The meter for my parents used to be installed inside next to a window. A few years back the gas company came along and reinstalled all of those outside where they could be seen without going in. That being said, that was when they installed high pressure pipes and I think the new meters had wireless connections, so I think the only reason they moved them outside was for accessibility in case there was an emergency and they needed to cut the gas without going inside.
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@Absaalookemensch I used to work for a different state, and people can be downright petty. Everybody thinks they're your boss, and it can be difficult to take a break because you have to find some place that you're not going to have people watching. So rather than a reasonably 10-minute break, it either winds up being closer to 30 to get out of the public eye, or as much time being wasted by the supervisor explaining that we're entitled to breaks.
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