I have worked with electricity all my life and I still find the inside of a meter box too scary to deal with. The street side of the box can source many hundreds or even thousands of amps. An accidental short would be spectacular.
The meter can should
never be worked on. Call the power company for that. Even replacing the ground lead, I coiled it below the can and called the power company. Removing the meter is bad enough, if
anything gets inside, even a wet leaf, there is trouble ahead. Working on a residential power panel is dangerous. A couple of times, I have replaced a late model fuse panel with a breaker box for friends. Each time I
personally pulled the meter and
kept it with me while I worked.
Someone mentioned pulling the jack on the pole. While it would be handy for recrimping the line above the meter, a lineman could come along and put the jack back in while the man was in the house. A small chance, true. But
any chance is too great unless someone stands there the entire time to be sure no one puts the jack back in.
There are many "
iffy" conditions when I will do something edgy. But I have
never told anyone else to do the same thing. When I do something edgy, it is based on many years of experience. Knowing what I can get away with versus what needs to be left alone. Doing something edgy has usually been in a plant to keep the production machines running. Anyone from maintenance staff will understand why edgy stunts are tried there. Every one else needs to just leave it alone.
Safety tags are sometimes used where lockouts cannot be fitted. I have had safety tags removed by production supervisors. If I ever
saw it done, it was a guaranteed death sentence from a 36" pipe wrench. No reprieve. . . And I have had a voltage tester break a lead and lie to me. In a hurry to keep the mill running, I didn't check the tester on a seperate circuit. I just trusted it, a bad move, I took 480 across the chest. I'm still alive, more or less, after all those shenanigans because God has something for me to do some day. I have no other answer.
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