No, you can't get unlimited electric service for free

[Food Lady]

I admit I got a couple of months behind this winter--my fault for not applying for assistance when I should have. But I paid it in full last week after getting my tax refund. I really need to get on the ball next year; I know I am going to struggle because I always do. I keep my thermostat at 55, but the bill still runs too high for me.

[notalwaysright]

they asked about going on an auto debit plan to prevent themselves getting into that problem again. Power company threw a fit and said no. Apparently they'll only do it for people who are irresponsible, not for people who are responsible.

They still asked to set up a payment plan so they would avoid getting into this situation again, but the power company said no.

Just noticed this! Doesn't seem to make much sense. I mean, isn't that what payment plans are for? I also know plenty of people who are on the "budget plan" where the company averages their usage over the year, so they pay the same amount each month. Not quite the same as a payment plan, but it's still helpful so that in the winter their bill doesn't suddenly skyrocket.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

However, because of the area's drug problem, the borough has started tearing down abandoned homes. Too many were being used a crack houses.

Totally off topic, but that made me think of this.

[mhkohne]

Just noticed this! Doesn't seem to make much sense. I mean, isn't that what payment plans are for? I also know plenty of people who are on the "budget plan" where the company averages their usage over the year, so they pay the same amount each month. Not quite the same as a payment plan, but it's still helpful so that in the winter their bill doesn't suddenly skyrocket.

Yea, this can be a real help sometimes. I used to use it bacause they sucked at reding my meter (fenced yard) and I'd get a massive bill every 6 or 9 months. Averaged billing smoothed that right out and made my bill predictable.

[WishfulSpirit]

municipality put a lock on the shut-off valve. Family cut it and turned water back on. This went on several times.

My MIL once had her water turned off because she'd forgotten to pay the bill or was having a rough month or something like that. There's no way anyone could have gotten the lock our water utility uses off. It's like a boot that entirely encases the handle. Well, maybe they could have gotten it off, but not before the noise that would have to be involved attracted the attention of the neighbors.

[WishfulSpirit]

I admit I got a couple of months behind this winter--my fault for not applying for assistance when I should have. But I paid it in full last week after getting my tax refund. I really need to get on the ball next year; I know I am going to struggle because I always do. I keep my thermostat at 55, but the bill still runs too high for me.

In many areas you can get help weatherizing your house. There are cheap ways you can keep heat and cold where you want them, like making thermal curtains out of sheets and space blankets. Let me know if you need help tracking down organizations that can assist.

[wolfie]

No, these were full on grow operations, whole houses full of plants. I may have the figure a little out (it was a while back) but I believe the biggest one we took down was worth somewhere in the region of £15 million.

From what I gather, the lights, fans, watering systems etc use a *lot* of power, if they paid the bill it would cut into profits. Not the smartest lot really.

Paying the bill would cut into profits. Not paying the bill gets the power company on their case, investigation finds the grow op, and (presumably) the police are brought in, so they lose everything. Wouldn't paying the bill, and therefore being the "dog that didn't bark" so that the power company doesn't have a need to investigate, be the cheaper route?

Some would bypass the meter so it didn't register the power in use, but then we'd send out an agent to check on the place because the (estimated) bills weren't being paid (agents would report back that properties were unoccupied so we could shut down the account) realise that the place was obviously in use somehow, realise that the meter hadn't moved and then send in the TOG or TOE department and usually find a tampered meter.

Again, if they paid the estimated bills they wouldn't attract attention. Keep the billing department happy and they'll ignore you.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Doesn't work that way here For electricity meters, they are opened up and the fuses are removed. Gas meters they remove the isolation handle completely (known as blanking) so it can't physically be turned back on unless the meter is repaired by a tech. If (as with the guy above) they manage to get the gas supply back on, either the meter will be removed or a section of pipe leading to it will be and the pipe capped.

Reminds me of some neighbors we had a few years ago a couple of streets behind me who weren't the brightest bulbs (more like burnt out from drug abuse, but I digress) who didn't pay their bills like they were supposed to (hard to be responsible when you're stoned off your ass all the time, but again I digress) and had at one point lost their water service.

Somehow, Brother (the pair were brother & sister) managed to pry open the meter lid and got some sort of tool to turn the water back on.

Needless to say, City of Greensboro's water department was NOT happy with this dude, so they sent someone out to turn the water back off AND fixed it so the lid could not be removed w/out a technician.

But Brother and Stoned Sis couldn't understand why they got slapped w/a $1000 fine as well as the back balance owed (their mother had to pay this so they could have water, otherwise they both would have had to move back in w/her and she wasn't going to live in a house where she had to keep everything under lock and key.)

But this gets better . . . they lost their electric (can't recall if it was before, around the same time or after the water debacle) service and Duke Energy came out to lock the meter.

Brother figured out how to rig it back on (he was a former lineman for Duke before he lost an eye, rendering him legally disabled), so they in turn came and took the meter out of the shell.

So that was another $1000 something fine PLUS the back balance owed PLUS reconnect fee for them.

So they resorted to running a long orange grounded cable to their neighbor's house across the street and piggybacked electric off them until their Mom came to the rescue again.

But then they did other stuff like the time they slapped a bogus license plate on their POS car b/c the one they originally had on the car expired and Stoned Sis was pulled over for expired tag . . . tag was removed and turned in and she had to not only renw registration, but also the inspection/taxes and insurance (which had lapsed) and her license was revoked on top of that.

Yet they blamed everyone else for their troubles. They'd been burned out of the last place they lived due to a electric space heater (somebody passed out and a bedspread got in contact w/the heater, sparking off a blaze that resulted in a total loss of the house and they along w/Stoned Sis' then 8 year old son homeless.)

Don't miss that level of entertainment at all.

[Golden Phoenix]

Paying the bill would cut into profits. Not paying the bill gets the power company on their case, investigation finds the grow op, and (presumably) the police are brought in, so they lose everything. Wouldn't paying the bill, and therefore being the "dog that didn't bark" so that the power company doesn't have a need to investigate, be the cheaper route?



Again, if they paid the estimated bills they wouldn't attract attention. Keep the billing department happy and they'll ignore you.

I'm sure that there are some smarter ones who do manage to make themselves invisible, but for the ones we caught: see the "not too smart" comment, lol.

Of course, a tiny house using enough power to overload a major city centre hospital is also a slight clue that something may be off about the place, even if they did pay the bills.

[taxguykarl]

who weren't the brightest bulbs (more like burnt out from drug abuse

It's called dope for a reason

[earl colby pottinger]

Limits

I'm sure that there are some smarter ones who do manage to make themselves invisible, but for the ones we caught: see the "not too smart" comment, lol.

Of course, a tiny house using enough power to overload a major city centre hospital is also a slight clue that something may be off about the place, even if they did pay the bills.

I am sure there is a limit to how much a house can use before people start asking questions (if only for safety reasons), but below that limit I am sure you can use the power for whatever you want and not questions would be asked, and probably it would not be legal to enter the home to investigate.

But for some reason (too much dope?) the grow-op people always try to get the maximum out of the places they run instead of running at lower levels that not only would not draw attention but probably could run for decades without anyone knowing there is anything going on.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[wolfie]

Admittedly the late Mr. Clancy's novels are not an authoritative source, but in Rainbow Six a Russian "troubleshooter" gone private is found (through other sources - the card itself was never "flagged" as suspicious) to have been using a fake (not counterfeit - surreptitiously created in the system under a false name) American Express card, and he had been using it for years without Amex realizing anything was wrong. How was this possible? Simple - he paid the bill on time every month.

Of course, part of the reason you always hear about grow-ops stealing electricity, and never about ones that stay small enough that their usage pattern seems normal and that pay their bill, is probably that the latter group don't get found in a search for missing electricity.

Any competent power company is going to have "internal" meters to monitor power consumption from a particular substation, and for various "runs" out of that substation. If one "internal" meter shows more power is used than the sum of the "internal" meters that it feeds, they'll start looking downstream from each of the subsiduary meters to see which one has the "leakage". Lather, rinse, repeat until they're dealing with one "internal" feeding a bunch of customer meters - at which point visual inspections become feasable, and the grow op with the bypassed meter is found and reported to police.

[dougall]

Round here the police helicopter finds grow ops with it's night vision camera.

[Aria]

Admittedly the late Mr. Clancy's novels are not an authoritative source, but in Rainbow Six a Russian "troubleshooter" gone private is found (through other sources - the card itself was never "flagged" as suspicious) to have been using a fake (not counterfeit - surreptitiously created in the system under a false name) American Express card, and he had been using it for years without Amex realizing anything was wrong. How was this possible? Simple - he paid the bill on time every month.

That reminds me of a dealer call I got recently! A customer was in store with his ID, according to the dealer. There was already an account under his name. It was fully paid, with a balance of zero and had been working for a year and a half. The customer claimed his ID was stolen a year and a half ago and we should take that line out. My response to the dealer: "So someone stole his ID... to pay the bills on time and build up good credit for him?" Anyway, I told them to go to the fraud department because I wasn't yanking out a good account. The dealer didn't like that answer much but I wasn't budging.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This has become an...interesting...diversion.