Way to monitor energy consumption in basement apartment

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NorthernAllianceElectric

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Mount airy, MD
Hello all,

What would be a good way to monitor energy consumption on a basement apartment?

I have come up with installing a sub panel for the apartments circuit using a emon demon (Current transformer with KW meter) on the sub panels feeds.
 
NorthernAllianceElectric said:
Hello all,

What would be a good way to monitor energy consumption on a basement apartment?

I have come up with installing a sub panel for the apartments circuit using a emon demon (Current transformer with KW meter) on the sub panels feeds.
Click to expand...

why do you want to do this? many places it is not legal for a landlord to sell metered electricity to a tenant.

can you get the POCO to add a meter at the service so they can bill the tenant?
 
PT's?
I am guessing that was suppose to be CT'S. And that is a valid point, Cts would have to be involved for any approximate number.


I have never heard of such a thing for it to be illegal to sell metered electric to a tenant!
This is something the homeowner wants and I completely understand the reasoning.

A separate service would be major overkill and a lot more expensive.
 
NorthernAllianceElectric said:
I have never heard of such a thing for it to be illegal to sell metered electric to a tenant!
Click to expand...

I know that's the case in NC. I used to wire marinas, and each pedestal has KWH meter on them so the marina knows how much power is used by which slip. They are not allowed to charge per KWH used, they can only take the usage from each slip and compare it to the total marina usage and then charge the slip the same % of there usage multiplied by the overall power bill.
 
NorthernAllianceElectric said:
PT's?
I have never heard of such a thing for it to be illegal to sell metered electric to a tenant!
Click to expand...

Because you (or your client) are not a licensed utility. Submetering is tightly regulated for several reasons, not least of which is protecting the tenant from scummy landlords. Mostly because landlords generally don't know much of anything, and they'll either do things wrong out of ignorance, or they'll tamper with things in order to intentionally overcharge the tenant.

Submetering CAN be done in SOME places, but you usually need meters that are approved for submetering, and there are tons of laws that need to be followed for billing. There are probably annual calibration requirements and whatnot as well to make sure the meter is still accurate.

Just so you know, there are literally companies whose sole purpose is to monitor meters and bill tenants in apartment buildings. So even if the equipment is installed and legal, the actual reading and billing part is such a hassle that landlords contract other companies to do it for them.

This is probably a very bad idea for your client and they don't know what they're getting themselves in to.
 
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In many places (maybe even the majority of places) you can't sell energy in this kind of situation. Nothing illegal about monitoring usage though. If you figure an annual usage and want to use that to help adjust the rent/lease that is legal also. What you can't do is give the tenant a billing that itemizes the usage and charge a rate per unit of usage.
 
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