Electrical question (finale spoiler) - Better Call Saul (2015) Discussion

[–] Mubblefluggie (44) 7 years ago

He shut off all the breakers, so unless there is another breaker panel he forgot about (out back in a tool shed or something), the answer would be "Nothing wired legally according to the NEC". Everything has to go through overload interrupters (breakers).

Whatever this hypothetical load was, it was a pretty good draw to spin the meter like that, I would guess a few hundred watts.

Maybe it will be explained next season, that one of Chuck's space blanket staples penetrated the wiring. Absurd, but they will write whatever they want.

Mub

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[–] SQLDave (25) 7 years ago

That's about what I thought. I wondered if we were supposed to tie it back to something that happened in a previous episode. The only thing I came up with is that Mike did something besides snap pictures when he posed as a contractor, but there's no evidence of that. Oh well, maybe we'll find out (or maybe we wont :-> )

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[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Wouldn't the meter itself require a small amount to work in the first place?

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[–] SQLDave (25) 7 years ago

I don't THINK so, but that's based solely on my zero years as an electrical engineer. I THINK the meters just represent the actual flow of electricity into the house, and if there's no flow, there's nothing registering on the meters. Mubblefluggie seemed to think that the speed the meter was moving represented a "pretty good draw" -- which may well be true but is probably presuming a level of realism that's not often found in Hollywood.

Maybe it really was NOT moving but was Chuck's mental-breakdown-induced imagination LOL

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[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

That's also a possibility seeing as he was that far gone at that point.

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[–] Mubblefluggie (44) 7 years ago

keybored:

Wouldn't the meter itself require a small amount to work in the first place? [/quote]

They do, but it is minuscule. I honestly don't know if this draw is before or after the measurement, are we paying for the privilege of spinning the meter, or is it on the electric company? Either way, the voltage coil in there is almost a pure inductive load, and without getting into AC theory, the real power used is almost zero.

[quote]Maybe it really was NOT moving but was Chuck's mental-breakdown-induced imagination LOL

I like your answer better than mine.

Edit: HTML is wacky on here.

Mub

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[–] brux (14724) 6 years ago

The meter of course takes a minute mount of energy to run.
It is a version of an electrodynamometer, but to record energy it must spin a meter,
and that takes work, i.e. energy, but not much.

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[–] The LA Baker (971) 7 years ago

If I had to guess, it wasn't moving and he had gone completely batsh!t. He also seemed to think he could detect where the current was by feeling with his hand. Also impossible and disproved earlier in the show with the hospital bed(~20 KWH a day: by no means drawing a small current).

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[–] MrFilmJunkie (899) 7 years ago

the electric meter was connected to a device called mcguffin.

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[–] SQLDave (25) 7 years ago

Excellent response.

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[–] TheUltimateHippo (2250) 6 years ago

What could have been a nice touch to the final scene in season three is as the house goes up in flames we hear a smoke detector going off thus solving the mystery of what was drawing power (Jimmy could have had Mike install that as his backup plan in case the battery plan didn't work). Well maybe they’ll explain it in season five

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