leangreen.org recycled renovation on a low-budget ration

We made a great stride yesterday getting off of the temporary power pole and on to our new and improved main panel. The day started with PG&E replacing a transformer around the corner which was deemed unable to match the power demand that Jen and I will be levying upon it. Now, a neighborhood wide power outage caused by us my have been difficult to trace back to its roots had they not scheduled our job directly following the completion of the transformer upgrade. Any doubts of who caused the blackout were quashed with the presence of 3 trucks, one with the big bucket and a crew of 5 in our front yard, some of whom seemed to be tasked with standing, pointing and watching.

When they showed up I walked out to get the scoop and was given this gem: “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news…”. Apparently the order to hook up our power was missing the force tag for the meter set (I made them repeat that a lot so I could correctly reference it in my calls to my only point of contact) and without said tag it would be impossible to put the meter in. I was told that they would “hot it up but then glass it over”, which means connect the wires but cover the meter receptacle. After some deep breathes I was able to convince the guy to make some more calls and after about an hour the force tag was found and our power was flowing. The extension cord era has thankfully come to an end!