Running raceways from meter bank to apartments in high rise building

[Todd0x1]

I have never found sub-metering to be worth it. At first it might seem worth it, but when you factor in all the metering equipment and the hassle forever on the property owner it just doesn't pan out. Furthermore it can be legally sticky in some states .

Here in LA all the big apartment complexes are submetered, there are a handful of companies that are registered utilities with the PUC and they provide the metering service and billing. I don't even think the utility allows hundreds units on one property to be individually metered.

 

[texie]

In my view putting multiple/many apartment feeders in a common raceway or wireway is a horrible idea on a number of levels. They should be individually piped or cable to each unit. I've seen it occasionally in older builders but certainly not in a newer building. Also, while not an NEC issue, many POCO tariffs prohibit separately metered conductors in the same raceway or enclosure.
In some areas in apartments and condos I've seem common raceways used for A/C condensers to run power from each unit. Seen all kinds of issues with that.

 

[SSDriver]

The last large apartment complex I was on had somewhere around 2500 units. I am only doing work in some of the mechanical rooms but everything seemed to be run with FMC cable that already had the conductors in it. They had spools of it in the garage ranging from 3/4" up to 2 1/2" that I saw. Areas of the building have 40+ runs of this FMC cable in one spot. I did not see the meter rooms. I assume this would be a HUGE savings on labor but would suck if you had to re-pull conductors later as I don't think they were following 360*(or it sure didn't look like it) bends as it might be considered CABLE and not a raceway(not sure as I haven't purchased it myself). If I had to do 40+ units I would seriously consider this as a cost/time saver.

 

[SSDriver]

Now that I think about it, It could have been large MC cable. I thought I saw regular FMC Connectors on it but I really didn't pay much attention.