TOPIC: Electric Meter Legal Seal

How is it that the meter cans are never flashed?

Sí, pues.  It's so funny, Carl - around here they goop caulking around them. 

I got that pic off Google.  The meter on my house, 10 years old, is flashed.  Woohoo!

I have flashed several but I have never understood why they are not made to be self flashing.

On top anyway.

They coulda, shoulda come with their own Z flash.

To make things even worse around here they put a chunk of 3/4 " plywood behind them when stucco, and faux stone are to be the cladding.

A water leak at a 200 amp service.

I see that plywood all the time.  "If it's convenient, why not use it?", seems to be the prevailing attitude all over the country. 

I had one of those stylish plywood meter locations that had rotted inside of a couple of years, and had admitted so much water into the panel box below that the aluminum feeds began to turn to powder.  It was a two-phase house - one side registered 45 volts, the other 160 or so.  The homeowners did not even know! 

"Gee, honey, why's the TV look so funny?" or "Snap! How come half the house dims when I plug in the vacuum?"  For sure most homeowners immediately think, "Oh, it must be the neutral connection!  I'll bet that stylish plywood under the electric meter is rotten and water is getting into the panel.  Better call somebody...  I hope the inspector doesn't find it!"