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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think it isn't usual for houses to share TV aerials

120 replies

PoisonedPriestess · 06/01/2017 12:14

I've lived in my house for a year now and I don't have TV (I'm one of those hippies that doesn't even watch catch up!).

Yesterday I was rooting around in my cellar doing some tidying when I noticed a switch I'd never seen before. Looked a bit like a normal electric switch and it was on. Assuming that I could turn it back on if I noticed anything without power I turned it off in case it was using electricty and continued tidying.
About 10 minutes later I had a knock on the door and found my next door neighbour there. He politely asked whether I'd done something to the TV aerial as about 10 minutes previously his TV had stopped working. I told him about the switch in the cellar and he said "that'll be it then, could you pop it back on?"

To keep the peace while I thought about it I went and switched the switch back on but it seems awfully bizarre to me. I'm a rural lass at heart - is this a normal thing in cities? Is it costing me? I'm struggling to find much about it on the interwebs.

OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 06/01/2017 12:28

I don't think you should keep the switch on, as others have said who knows what is running off it.
If it's not impacting anything in your house I would just keep it off.

When neighbour comes round just tell him your not happy having a random switch in your house/worried it will cause a fire/ electricity bills too high / some woo reason that it impossible to argue against...

Incidentally it just occurred to me, is your electricity bill just for your house? Some conversions eg a granny flat may keep the whole property on one power/gas supply. Is there any way you could be paying leccy for both houses?

Original poster
PoisonedPriestess · 06/01/2017 12:30

I mean I still reckon that there wouldn't have been any way for that to happen - our houses have always been separate residences, way back to when they were built in the early 1800s.

OP posts:
WatchingFromTheWings · 06/01/2017 12:31

I'd turn your electric off and sit and wait. If he knocks again you'll know that switch is powering something! Aerials don't run off the electric as far as I know.

fuzzywuzzy · 06/01/2017 12:32

Turn it off. If he comes round again tell him you've stopped paying your electricity bill and have no elelctricity, tell him you'll be around with an extension lead to power your house from his property.

See what he says.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 06/01/2017 12:32

In fact, a very basic test:

Go and find your meter and note down how fast it is running.

Turn of mysterious switch and see how much difference it makes to meter speed. If it's not using much you can decide whether it is worth the hassle or not.

EvansOvalPies · 06/01/2017 12:33

Aerials don't, but other devices do, like Sky or digi-boxes, for example.

Badcat666 · 06/01/2017 12:33

We had this but we are in a small block of maisonettes (4) and we all shared one Aerial that an old neighbour organised and fitted (we all chipped in for the cost). New one moved in and removed it and we all had to go back to having our own one for watching "normal" tv.

Bit odd for houses to share it though. I would switch it off myself if you don't need it, the neighbour will just have to go and get themselves an internal aerial or fit a new one themselves.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 06/01/2017 12:34

digi-boxes, for example

But they just plug into a socket - they aren't hard wired in as far as I know?

viques · 06/01/2017 12:35

Hope you get this sorted. I had a scare a couple of years ago when electricity board people knocked at my door to check my meter and connections as the tenants next door had somehow bypassed their meter and they wanted to check they hadn't done anything else (like tunnelling through the cellar wall and putting in a bedsit in my cellar or something. ) luckily they hadn't but it was very worrying, especially when they let drop that the bypass was potentially a fire hazard.

Original poster
PoisonedPriestess · 06/01/2017 12:39

Ugh, he's out at the moment. Will wait until he gets back and then try switching off the electrics.

OP posts:
user1477282676 · 06/01/2017 12:49

My DH says he's running something which means you're paying for his electricity. Nothing to do with aerials.

user1477282676 · 06/01/2017 12:50

Oh do what Fine says! Check your meter with the switch on...note the speed...then turn the switch off and check again!

ATailofTwoKitties · 06/01/2017 12:50

It's your house. You could just switch it off anyway and deny all knowledge.

BarbaraofSeville · 06/01/2017 12:51

Intriguing. Please update us if you find out more OP .

We live in an ex council house and our water is shared with next door. I found this out when I asked for a water meter to be fitted (our rates are higher than our metered usage would probably be) and the engineer said we couldn't have one because there was nowhere inside the house that it could be fitted and it couldn't be outside because it was shared with next door).

But I would be seriously pissed off if dodgy electrics had meant I was paying for next door's electric for the time I'd lived there.

LagunaBubbles · 06/01/2017 12:53

Im clueless about ariels etc but I would be really suspicious about this!

Jessbow · 06/01/2017 12:58

you could well be powering pretty much anything in his house, or EVERYTHING in his house , and paying for the priveledge.
His TV ariel is about the least likely thing- think Boiler or washing machine. TV Ariel maybe just what he said because he thought you'd not worry about switching it on for that.

Turn it off. Leave it off. Let him sort it.

Daisyfrumps · 06/01/2017 12:59

On the other hand... Banging about in the attic might have disturbed his TV aerial signal somehow and when you turned the random old redundant switch back on the assumption was that it was 'fixed', perhaps.

I very much doubt it's power to an aerial.

Basicbrown · 06/01/2017 13:00

It sounds like it has a booster on it which is why it's plugged in. We used to live in a house with truly awful TV reception and we had to have one of these or we couldn't get a picture.

It was an absolute PITA tbh and cost a fortune to keep it maintained as at least once every 12 months we had to have someone out to look at it as it had blown/ the booster had got wet or whatever. I can only imagine that if you are in a similar area that at some point the neighbours have decided it would be cheaper and easier to just have one Arial rather than maintaining 2. I doubt it uses that much electricity tbh.

Of course if you don't use it then this arrangement won't work any longer and he's going to have to sort that out, take responsibility for it and plug it into his house. The easiest way of dealing with it is to get a dish and have Sky and it's what we did in the end because it was cheaper than constantly having to sort the arial (or cable if you have it, we didn't).

Isitjustmeorisiteveryoneelse · 06/01/2017 13:00

Aerials don't connect to the mains but can be routed through the TV/SKY box etc. So basically you're switching his TV on and off not his aerial. Have you got any other random switches in your house? You could mess with his mind and keep switching his microwave, lights, cooker, whatever on and off all day. Weird but hilarious (probably not for you though). Next time there's one of our frequent power cuts here and everything goes off I'm straight round to the neighbours to demand to know what they've switched off jic.

Daisyfrumps · 06/01/2017 13:02

Oh sorry - don't know why I thought you were in the attic! Agree to turn it off and see what happens.

FatalKittehCharms · 06/01/2017 13:02

Oooh this is so mysterious!

Just think, he's had 20 years of free electricity, but it's coming to an end because you randomly flicked a switch in the cellar.

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus · 06/01/2017 13:03

Deffo turn off the mains electric and sit tight for him to come knocking.

BarbaraofSeville · 06/01/2017 13:04

What sort of heating do you have? You say your house is drafty, but if you have gas heating the size of your electric bill would be irrelevant anyway.

Like Jess I'm wondering if you're powering everything in his house Shock but he only noticed that the TV had gone off. What about the fridge? Lighting?

I would definitely turn it off and maybe seek advice from the electricity board?

Balooboo · 06/01/2017 13:05

Maybe it's the power supply to his cannabis plantation?

ClopySow · 06/01/2017 13:06

Odd. Very odd. We have a shared dish, but nobody has the switch.