It is the round or square box on an exterior wall with the utility meter clipped into it. Most homeowners have looked at it a thousand times without knowing it has a name, and it matters for exactly one reason: it belongs to the boundary between the utility's equipment and yours, which is why work involving it costs more and takes longer to schedule.
What it does
Power arrives from the street, passes through the meter so the utility can bill it, and continues into your panel. The meter base is the socket that holds the meter and joins those two runs of cable.
It carries the full current of your service, which is why its rating has to match. A 100A meter base cannot be left in place when the service behind it goes to 200A, and that single fact is the reason a service upgrade costs more than a panel swap.
Who owns it
The meter inside is the utility's. The base it sits in is generally the property owner's, which means a cracked or corroded base is your repair, not theirs. Practice varies between utilities, so the honest answer when yours is damaged is to call them and ask where their responsibility ends before anyone quotes you.
Either way the utility has to pull the meter before an electrician can work on the base, so this is scheduled work rather than something done on a callout.
When it needs replacing
Three situations account for nearly all of it: you are raising your service size and the existing base is rated too low; the base is cracked, rusted through, or pulling away from the wall; or the cable entering it has degraded insulation. The first is planned, the other two are found.
How to spot it in your house
- Look for the meter on an exterior wall, usually near where the overhead line lands or where the underground cable surfaces.
- The box behind the glass is the meter base. If you can see rust streaks, a cracked rim, or daylight where the cable enters, photograph it.
- There is often an amperage rating stamped on the base itself, though it is frequently painted over or weathered off.
The next question
What a service upgrade involvesRelated terms
- Service mastThe pipe carrying the overhead service line from the utility pole down to your meter. It is the part most often damaged in a storm.
- Panel upgradeReplacing the breaker panel inside your home, the box the circuits land in, usually with the main breaker at the same time.
- Service upgradeReplacing the panel and the equipment outside it: meter base, and often the mast or the incoming cable. This is what actually raises how much power the house can draw.