1) In your jurisdiction, what is the prescribed procedure for getting your meter base inspected ?
Phone in and ask to make an appointment to meet a District Operator on site to pull the meter.
1a) Who does what ? (Utility vs. electrical contractor vs. homeowner)
The only thing possible to do as a maintenance issue inside a meter box is check the connections and do a visual check to make sure nothing is askew such as a broken standoff insulator or (for example) that the cables are getting pulled down and are starting to cut through the insulation where they enter the box from an underground service. You can try to tighten the connectors if you are steady and don't flail around and run your tool into the hot lugs and ground at the same time and cause damage to the equipment and you don't electrocute yourself but I would do it for the customer because I was experienced doing hot work and they wouldn't be and I expect that would be what all the District Staff everywhere would do for the same reason. I know all the D.O.s I worked with would.
2) What are the costs involved (Utility fees, typ. contractor charge).
Here in Saskatchewan, we would eat the costs. No charge to the customer.
3) If your meter base catches fire, what is an insurance companies stance on this ?
You would have to make an inquire to the insurance companies for that answer, I can't speak about their policies.
I have never seen a meter box catch
on fire per se. I've seen them short out so bad they blew the meter off the meter box and out of the retaining ring half way to the back fence. This would be because of high heat from a bad connection causing the insulation to outgas and fill the meter box up with highly combustible gases. A bad connection usually arcs and that arc ingites the gases and ka-boom. I've seen them arc and smoke inside so bad they are totally covered internally with soot. That makes them tough to clean adequately enough to prevent tracking (shorting to ground) but usually there is so much other damage that it requires replacement of parts and since parts for older boxes are usually non existent that means a new meter box that meets present day code.
4) If the utility company is the only entity that is allowed to remove a meter, why is there no legal, professional, or ethical requirement for the utility to inspect the meter base ?
When you compare the number of meters in service and the number of years they have been in service to the number of times a meter box gives problems it is not cost effective to inspect them. Don't forget, the meter boxes are designed to contain the problems that can happen, which they do very well. I have never seen one instance, nor heard of any, where any damage happened to anything outside of the meter box. I have removed and replaced literally thousands of meters over the years (for testing purposes and replacement of defective meters) and I've only seen a hand full of those meter boxes that had issues and they were repaired or replaced as the case may be. The most common trouble was the female connectors overheating and losing their spring grip on the meters male tabs. The second most was the connector itself failing for varied reasons. This would result in flickering lights, etc, and customers would call us to check it out and of course the first thing we would do is inspect the meter box, so we would find the boxes that were actually having issues. Meter boxes just do not give very much trouble and when they do, by my experience, they just do not cause damage that customers have to worry about,
ergo inspections are really a moot issue.
I'd say you have much more to worry about with problems in your house's wiring. When was the last time you checked every connection in every switch box, receptical box, junction box and breaker panel plus all the connections internally in your appliances such as your electric stove, washer, electric dryer, etc? I suspect you have a real chance of your house burning down because of issues with those items.
Gotta run to another site now, as I'm hearing that tinfoil is carcinogenic.....
(I'm only using a bit of humour to sign-off here, in good spirits. Questions 1-4 above are asked in all seriousness).
Rgds, D.
