Hit the power before it reaches the meter....how....Well,you have a p/n cable coming into your roof.....5mtr of cable before the box....2 nails...insulated gloves....wire....e/tape.If you cop an inspection,pull the nails and the rubber wiill fill in!!!Don't divert all power,or your fucked and BE CAREFUL
that's gotta be the worst piece of advice I've seen in a while.
Besides the danger attached to tapping live cables, there's the unexplainable power losses that accompany any stealing of power.
Many years ago we lived on a farm, which was company owned (like a tenants in common arrangement) but at that time there was only one family there (apart from us). One very rainy afternoon the owner asked if I could assist him while he fixed a fuse.
It was seriously pissing down, so I was more than alarmed when we got to the rickety old rusty fuse box, dangling off a pole at an angle. The owner lifted the lid and sat it on his head, with the rain still soaking him as he stood underneath it. I said I wasn't touching anything but would stand ready to jump kick him out should he start to shake!!
When he opened the fuse panel I nearly died. There was a big short across the meter. He claimed it had been installed by a former lodger, but he didn't mind it because in the 10 + years it had been there, his power bill was never more than the min supply charge. He ran ~800m of cables to his house and workshop.
I remarked that sooner or later the power authorities would come looking. He shrugged it off until when, a year or so later, exactly that happened. The power dept had apparently been looking for this power loss for some time, thinking it must have been a "leaky" or downed line. It was eventually traced to the fuse box. My friend received a bill for over 20K, but luckily he was able to negotiate a lower figure. However, he was also required to replace all the wiring to the w/shop and house which naturally set him back a bit.
The point is that power losses over certain distances are factored in to various monitoring systems. Any unexplained loss is checked out fairly quickly, particularly if this is a substantial amount.
There are many ways to steal power, but none is immune to the above monitoring system. A local up this way once tapped off the residual emission from a high voltage line by running a cables of the appropriate length (to the wavelength of 50Hz) parallel to the power lines. Because of the resonance induction he could draw quite a large amount from the system. He was caught fairly quickly by helicopter inspection of the line.
Another method which has potential to trick the
house meter is to increase the capacitance of the load. This can in theory be achieved by wiring a large bank of big capacitors to a plug, which simply plugged in to the mains. In practice, the major problem associated with this method is usually related to the power the capacitors consume, which can offset any advantage. It works because the capacitance causes the current to lead the voltage (relative to time). Usually voltage and current are in phase - required for the meter to accurately monitor power consumption.
The opposite affect results from a non corrected inductive load and is why tube fluorescent light fittings have such a capacitor (other than the starter). The capacitor corrects the effect from the series starting ballast. These capacitors often dry out, resulting in the consumer paying more for his/her power.
Just to finish I'll mention something that has stayed with me all my adult life. During an apprenticeship in electronics in the late 70's, I was working at a local hospital installing TV antennas and new TV's. The hospital employed full time electricians and they were a bunch of jokers, always fooling around and playing practical jokes in their spare time - which they normally had lots of. This particular day they were busy finishing the final wiring hookups of a newly installed Kitchen, which had to be fed with enormous cables that junctioned at a control board fitted in their workshop. My mate and I were strolling towards the workshop for morning smoko when a bunch of the guys came running out followed by billowing clouds of black smoke. One vomited and the others were practically speechless and very shook up. That smell was something else. Before anyone could say anything I'd noticed one old guy was missing. I went inside to find a back charred mess attached to a junction box. It was later revealed that he had mistakenly touched a live high voltage point.
So, while I've had my share of lucky escapes from electricity I have never become complacent. I always double check everything before touching.
I certainly don't advise anyone to play with or attempt to steal power from the mains. The power available from a single phase power pole feed is normally around 19,000 watts; pole fuse being rated at ~80 amps. No earth leakage detectors (balanced core relays) are fitted the pole side of the fuse/meter box which means a person could well and truly fry before any fuse would blow.