How electricity is stolen
Illegal connection to the public power grid is one of the most daring ways not to pay.
However, there are other popular methods to reduce utility bills by manipulating the readings of conventional meters:
- the zero contact of the meter is replaced by a grounded structure (plumbing or fittings);
- a separate line cuts into a branch to the meter - the device is simply excluded from the circuit;
- “zero” and “phase” of the counter change places - the device begins to “wind” in the opposite direction;
- A powerful neodymium magnet is placed on the meter body - the mechanism stops.
Here and there you can find outdated disk counters , which are stopped even easier: a match or thin metal wire is passed through a tiny hole in the case, as invisible as possible to the inspector, stopping the disk. In case of inspection, the stopper can be removed and the hole masked - and all hope remains for the inspector’s inattention.
Expert opinion
Viktor Pavlovich Strebizh, lighting and electrical expert
Any questions ask me, I will help!
The use of severe punishment in the form of imprisonment is applied on a fairly large scale; the crime is qualified according to the following criteria: it is committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or by an organized group. If there is something you don’t understand, write to me!
Calibration interval of electric meters
The verification period for the electric meter is indicated in the technical passport. Analysis of the document or attached certificates allows the owner of an apartment or private house to determine how often it is necessary to check the counting mechanisms located in the distribution boards. If you plan to install a new meter, then the date of issue indicated in the passport allows you to understand how long it will take to carry out the first official verification.
The timing between verification of electric meters depends on the design features and the number of installed phases:
- If the design of a single-phase counting mechanism does not have magnetic bearing supports, then the electric meter is verified once every 5 years.
- The use of a magnetic support, which prevents violation of the accuracy of movement due to voltage drops, allows you to increase the calibration interval to 20 years.
- Periodic verification of electronic electricity meters connected to an alternating current network with a voltage of 380 V and without magnetic protection is carried out every 4-8 years of operation (depending on the current strength in the circuit).
- If the three-phase meter is equipped with protective elements against voltage surges, then re-testing is carried out after 12 years.
The owner of a residential building or apartment located in Moscow, Lyubertsy or Mytishchi can find out the verification date in his personal account on the Mosenergosbyt website or by contacting the company’s office. For example, routine verification of Mercury 230 meters is carried out after 10 years of operation, and Mercury 201 or Energomera CE101 devices need testing after 16 years of operation (standard for the Russian market).
It should be taken into account that the interval between verifications also depends on the country of operation. For example, in Kazakhstan, the Mercury 201 electric meter is verified after 8 years of use, and in Belarus or Uzbekistan testing is required after 4 years. Electricity meters are designed for 20-30 years of service, after which the equipment is replaced.
Theft of electricity liability in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
- an application for (re)connection is submitted to the management company or directly to the electricity supplier;
- the owner receives permission from Rostechnadzor - only for facilities with a power of over 100 kW (for legal entities) or over 15 kW (for individuals);
- a new technical connection agreement is concluded with the service provider;
- The supplier's representative travels to the site that requires connection and performs work under the contract. Including installing meters (in case of absence);
- The network company supplies electricity to the consumer and draws up the corresponding act.
Who should deal with electricity thieves?
If you have definitely established the fact of theft, and you know which residents are responsible for it, all that remains is to contact the nearest law enforcement agencies and write a statement. As a rule, everything ends in fines, which can amount to tens of thousands of rubles. You can calculate the fine directly from your service provider, based on the amount of electricity stolen. In some cases, especially when theft becomes widespread, the perpetrators receive suspended or even real prison sentences.
How to punish for theft
Violation of the verification period by three months may lead to the fact that payment will be calculated based on the standard using a multiplying factor . It is currently set at 1.5. This is not considered a fine in the full sense of the word. But it will no longer be possible to return the overcharged payments, even if everything turns out to be in perfect order with the device.
As for completely faulty meters, owners face more serious sanctions. Owners are required to notify suppliers within a month if the metering device fails . Failure to fulfill this obligation may be perceived by the network company as concealing the fact of a breakdown. And this falls under unaccounted theft of electricity.
The punishment for this is established by Article 7.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in the form of an administrative fine.
The size of the sanction depends on the status of the violator:
If the amount of proven damage to the network company amounts to more than 250 thousand rubles, the case may well reach criminal liability under Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It provides for a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles, up to a year in prison or up to two years of forced labor.
What is intentional damage?
Finally, modifications to the electrical network and manipulations, obviously intended to deceive the network company, do not leave the “frugal” owner any opportunity to justify himself. As a rule, the management company goes directly to court, demanding compensation for losses.
However, Russians are not afraid of such a prospect. According to Rosseti, up to 8% of people punished for unauthorized connection did so again within a year.
What kind of lighting do you prefer?
Built-in Chandelier
Meter verification methods
Self-propelled gun
If the device being tested is connected correctly, you should proceed to determining the presence of the so-called self-propelled device. This word denotes one of the malfunctions in which the device records non-existent electricity. Before checking the accuracy of the electric meter readings, you need to eliminate spontaneous movements of the disk, if any. To do this, you need to turn off all electrical appliances.
It is important to remember that you need to turn it off and not put it in standby mode.
A more correct result will be achieved by turning off the group machines that are located after the counter. However, they are not always present. It is also worth leaving the introductory machine running. Under these conditions, the counter indicator (if electronic) should not make more than 1 flash in 5–10 minutes of inactivity, and the induction device disk should not make more than one revolution. The longer this period of time, the better, but it is better to familiarize yourself with the documents supplied with the device, in which this time is indicated precisely.
Error
Next, the reading error is measured. To check the accuracy of the meter, you should use an incandescent lamp and a multimeter. It would be optimal to use the electronic version of the multimeter and not use household appliances as a load. The bottom line is that modern models of household appliances are capable of independently regulating power and therefore, given the use of their nameplate power in measurements, it will not be possible to reliably check the electric meter.
The “control measurement” process looks like this:
- mains voltage measurement;
- lamp current measurement;
- determination of the actual current strength in the lamp;
- measuring the time during which the disk of a meter connected to the network will spin 10 times while simultaneously monitoring the voltage in the network. For electronic models – 10 blinks of the indicator;
- determination of the counter constant, which is usually indicated on the front panel. For example, 3200 pulses/kWh;
- calculation of actual electricity consumption;
- calculation of the current consumed during the test;
- checking the meter for error using the formula 1000 * number of revolutions / meter constant;
- determination of the error value. Permissible error value – up to 10%
Magnetization
A counter of a simpler design can be checked as follows. You should take a thin needle and bring it to the panel - if it is attracted, this will indicate the magnetization of the counter. Usually 2-3 days after removing the magnet, this phenomenon disappears. If the magnetization does not go away on its own, you need to use a demagnetizer.
Which organizations should I contact?
If you do find out that your neighbors are stealing electricity, then try to talk to them, since it is not so easy to prove the fact of theft. If the method of theft is to connect to someone else's outlet, then they will blame it on the previous owners or unqualified electricians who repaired the wiring and mixed up the connections.
However, if you decide to call the experts who will determine the fact of theft, then your actions should be as follows:
- Write a statement to the management company, which is required to carry out regular inspections.
- Report the incident to energy sales specialists.
- After the assigned electrician verifies the fact of theft, you should photograph all the evidence and ensure that a theft report is drawn up. Also make sure that witnesses are present and collect supporting signatures from them.
- Write a statement to the appropriate authorities (court, prosecutor's office).
Qualified electricians detect theft not only by its general signs, but also using devices such as “Stork” or “Poisk”.
Expert opinion
Viktor Pavlovich Strebizh, lighting and electrical expert
Any questions ask me, I will help!
In panel-type houses, a direct connection is installed, then neighbors can run wires not only to the meters, but also to the distribution box. If there is something you don’t understand, write to me!
We calculate the theft of electricity. Fraud schemes
Hello! Today I would like to talk about popular methods of stealing electricity in an apartment and house, which are used by electrician thieves.
ways to save energy
Basically, unscrupulous consumers are pushed to steal electricity by: low level of income, constant increase in tariff coupled with high energy consumption, misuse of the resource. But there are also individuals for whom such manipulations are a way of self-affirmation in the eyes of friends and themselves.
The result of such actions may be a significant fine from the supplying organization. Often, unauthorized wedging into the electrical network leads to short circuits and subsequent fires.
Where do they usually steal?
Theft of electricity in SNT
A garden non-profit partnership is a settlement that is commonly called a dacha village .
Electricity wires in these places often fall prey to unscrupulous citizens.
Other people are also connected to the wires, so conscientious payers pay bills for electricity, which, in fact, they did not use.
It is very simple to determine this offense within the framework of a gardening non-profit partnership.
You just need to watch the wires to see homemade connections and forks.
If there are such defects on the wires , you know that someone is illegally using the electricity you paid for.
It is possible to stop such an act only if you contact the appropriate structures in a timely manner.
Watch a video about how residents of DNT Mechta fought with the chairman for electricity, and he accused them of theft:
Expert opinion
Viktor Pavlovich Strebizh, lighting and electrical expert
Any questions ask me, I will help!
If theft is proven, the fine is determined by the court based on the maximum potential use that is available in the production of electrical appliances during the period of detection of differences in the readings of the joint meter on the power line and the joint readings of customers' electricity meters. If there is something you don’t understand, write to me!
What to do if neighbors steal electricity
Wanting to save money, people are rich in all sorts of inventions. These methods may be legal and well justified by one’s financial situation, or they may simply be theft.
If you think that your neighbors are stealing electricity, it won’t be difficult to catch them.
Verification methods
Before you make sure that your neighbors are increasing your electricity bill and do something, you should check the fact of theft, and preferably by all means.
There are several ways:
- Checking the integrity of the seals on the meter;
- Checking for extra or missing wires;
- Detection of extra wires bypassing the metering device;
- Turn off the panel and check the light in the apartment;
- Checking voltage at sockets;
- Checking voltage on radiators and heating risers;
- Turn off all appliances in the house.
Not all of these methods may be available for execution, since you will have to check the pipes not only in your apartment, but also in your neighbors. And this is their private territory, where neighbors have the right not to let anyone in. Let's take a closer look at the methods of theft and what to do to detect them in an apartment building.
Definition by wire
There are more and more ways of stealing electricity every day; even transformer boxes and new-style meters are subject to the activities of swindlers. Before you sort things out with your neighbors, you should check all possible options and act strictly according to the law.
The first thing to do is inspect the meter on the site.
In short: two wires go to the meter and two wires go from it, like the load on the apartment. The first two are input. These two wires are phase and neutral. At the input, the phase always comes first, and zero is the third among the wires on the meter. The output is phase two, zero four. To steal electricity, it is enough to swap phase and zero on a single-phase meter.
Another piece of evidence in your favor is the absence of seals or violation of their integrity. Meter readings are considered reliable only if the seals on the device are intact.
Methods of theft and methods of their detection
There are several ways to steal electricity.
Of course, a person who does not understand anything about wiring and the basics of engineering is unlikely to understand that a crime is being committed.
to connect to electrical networks .
For example, you can make a transverse connection to networks, a longitudinal connection, and even a repeated one.
Depending on the connection, the criminal can regulate the amount of electricity supplied to his electrical network, and therefore control his costs.
As a rule, such connections look suspicious due to the heterogeneity of the wires contained nearby.
How to calculate an energy thief
After all, anonymous businessmen expose all citizens to serious dangers. Since the beginning of the year, energy workers have identified more than 10 cases of non-contractual electricity consumption. The list of violators included individual entrepreneurs, car repair shops, hotels, and shops.
So, on the mountain, one enterprising man adapted a garage box for two cars into a car wash, and when it was declassified, he began to defend himself by claiming that he had been working for less than a month and had already completed all the necessary documents.
True, he was unable to confirm his words with papers. On Western 4th, the owners converted a garage box with 2 spaces into a car repair shop.
How to figure out who is stealing electricity in an apartment building.
The volume of one can be reduced, but it will still not be possible to reduce it to zero. No matter how dilapidated or, conversely, modern ergonomic house, there will still be a certain set of energy-consuming equipment, the operation of which will have to be paid for. In addition, losses in intra-house networks are also inevitable in every home. At the same time, a situation may arise in the house when, as a result of a control walk, the volume of electricity consumed by all rooms of the house will be higher than the volume recorded by the ODPU, the so-called “generation”.
Possible liability for electricity theft
The upcoming trial and subsequent punishment should serve as a warning to those who want to steal electricity
Birds' nests on power poles and other factors cause significant leaks for which power thieves may have to answer.
Legal advice is beyond the scope of this article, but it is worth mentioning the possible fines and years of imprisonment in some countries for electricity theft:
Expert opinion
Viktor Pavlovich Strebizh, lighting and electrical expert
Any questions ask me, I will help!
Otherwise, the charges will be unfounded, as a result of which administrative sanctions may be applied to the applicant. If there is something you don’t understand, write to me!
What are we paying for?
Therefore, the difference is divided among everyone.
Why is this happening? There are apartments in the buildings without meters where no one is registered. However, people usually still live in them (as a rule, tenants), who naturally consume water. In receipts they are shown zero consumption.
If there is only one such apartment in the house, then this may not be noticed, but if there are 20? Magnets, magnets. So we received 600 cubic meters of one at our house - it’s like, all magnets. I can’t believe it. It turned out to be more than 5 cubic meters for each apartment, here are the magnets with the tenants - This is a whole reservoir, and in 2 months or 3, no one thinks about it, even those who steal these cubes.
