Utility Co. blowing smoke

...And that's when you ask the person on the phone if you can speak with someone who's not an idiot.

btharmy said:

I have a family friend who lost the neutral to his rental when a limb fell on the service drop during the snow storm. It broke the neutral loose at the pole and put 240 to the house. The tenants surge protectors caught fire and other electronics were damaged. Now the utility is saying "If the house was properly grounded, nothing in it should have been damaged by the loss of the neutral".

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That is a statement from an ignorant person. The POCO is making stupid excuses to not pay.

Time to lawyer up.

The POCO is trying to pass the blame onto the Landlord hoping they won't have to pay.

Big John said:

...And that's when you ask the person on the phone if you can speak with someone who's not an idiot.

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Best answer yet.:laughing:

btharmy said:

I have a family friend who lost the neutral to his rental when a limb fell on the service drop during the snow storm. It broke the neutral loose at the pole and put 240 to the house. The tenants surge protectors caught fire and other electronics were damaged. Now the utility is saying "If the house was properly grounded, nothing in it should have been damaged by the loss of the neutral".

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I will agree the person who made that statement is an idiot BUT I don't see how the utility is responsible for a broken limb. This would be an issue for home owners or in this case renters insurance. The only way I would see the utility would be responsible would be if the danger of the limbs falling on the line had been reported and they took no action.

ceb58 said:

I will agree the person who made that statement is an idiot BUT I don't see how the utility is responsible for a broken limb. This would be an issue for home owners or in this case renters insurance....

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Seems like a fair assessment.

I agree I cannot see the issue with power company if the tree was on the home owner land. It seems home owner insurance should cover it.

Of course the power company guys really don't understand what a broken neutral does. I can't tell you how many times I have diagnosed a bad neutral and have had to call the power company engineer to finally get someone to fix the problem. The service guys are mostly clueless and not even power company employees.

In Vermontese that's translated as 'If the dog didn't stop to take a leak, he woulda caught the wabbit'

~CS~

Long story short... A house I used to own had a service drop that had a broken neutral due to a tree it had been rubbing against for some time.

I called the POCO.. they quickly informed me that it was my problem.

I broke out the Stihl... trimmed the offending tree very close to the ground.. ripped the drop off of my house.

Called the POCO back and informed them that a line was down in my yard. The linemen showed up, put a new drop to the house and all was good.

Pete

Hozabout if it was in a neighborhood with proper grounding/bonding, and all the water lines were metal?

bobelectric said:

Hozabout if it was in a neighborhood with proper grounding/bonding, and all the water lines were metal?

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Good point... my power was fine. Only due to the proper grounding and bonding and the metallic water mains. It just frosted me that the POCO was very "It's not our problem" attitude that I did a stupid thing to get it fixed.

Pete

I don't think the utility is responsible for any damages, I was just amazed at what they told the homeowner. They just seemed quick to lay blame elsewhere no matter how absurd. It would be (I would hope) covered under his landlord policy for his stuff. Hopefully his tenants have a renters policy.

btharmy said:

I have a family friend who lost the neutral to his rental when a limb fell on the service drop during the snow storm. It broke the neutral loose at the pole and put 240 to the house. The tenants surge protectors caught fire and other electronics were damaged. Now the utility is saying "If the house was properly grounded, nothing in it should have been damaged by the loss of the neutral".

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Based on what you know why would the utility be wrong?

I always like to have 240 coming to my house

POCOs will do anything not to pay up. Be prepared for every hurdling excuse as to why the tree is not their issue... which it might not be if one the tenants property.

RIVETER said:

Based on what you know why would the utility be wrong?

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Because straight 240v fed to 120 appliances is a bad thing. Who would even consider that the return path to the xfmr through the earth between the ground rod and the utility xfmr ground is a better path than feeding through another load on the opposing leg of the same panel. That's just ignorance.

btharmy said:

Because straight 240v fed to 120 appliances is a bad thing. Who would even consider that the return path to the xfmr through the earth between the ground rod and the utility xfmr ground is a better path than feeding through another load on the opposing leg of the same panel. That's just ignorance.

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POCOs love using what ever they can find as a neutral conductor.
After all, according to any line man if it aint groundid right da earth anna gonna soak up dem extra lectrons. :laughing::no:

someonespecial said:

I always like to have 240 coming to my house

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120/240 = good
240 = bad