Primary Meters

[Harris786]

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate help with the following:

In 1 property there are 8 studio flats the landlord wants a secondary meter installed in each flat:-

1. Do I have to power the secondary meters through the primary meter or will power go directly to each secondary meter?

2. Do I have to buy the secondary meters myself or are these purchased/provided by the elcetricity supplier?

Any help would be really appreciated, thank you.

 

[batty]

All supplies will go through main meter check meters are just to check what electric is being used in each flat so landlord can charge appropriate rate. i think meters will need to be suitable for charging out electric sure somebody on forum can confirm this.

 

[NozSpark]

I was told the other day that all private metering has to have been calibrated, is this true?

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I was told the other day that all private metering has to have been calibrated, is this true?

I am not sure but I suspect you may be right...

A landlord cannot sell electricity on at a profit, but they can split an bill across a group of tennants on a usage basis..

I would guess to ensure not overcharging individual tennants all the secondary meters would need to be calibrated to ensure all are accurate for each tennant!..

Basically "OFGEM (The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) fixes maximum resale prices under section 44 of the Electricity Act 1989 and section 37 of the Gas Act 1986."

so IMHO you need to make sure you are not exceeding OFGEM's Max Resale Price

These links have a bit of info that may help...

FAQ - LandlordZONE - Re-selling Energy - As a landlord am I able to make a profit by re-selling electricity or gas?

Factsheet 5 - Maximum Resale Price of Gas and Electricity | Factsheets | Letting Factsheets

 

[batty]

You can buy ofgem approved meters.

OFGEM Approved Electricity Meters - Ofgem MID Billing Meters

Stephen P Wales - Electric Meters Supplies - Credit Meters

 

[Harris786]

Hi,

No landlord doesn

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi,No landlord doesn

 

[batty]

Can't see how key meters will work unless he sets up an agreement with were they buy the lecci after all i think what people put on the key goes to the electric supplier.

See he can install card meters and then sells cards to tenant would think that possibly could get tricky though.

 

[Evans Electric]

In that case , landlord would need to purchase a stock of cards from the meter supplier and sell them in advance to the tenant.

 

[batty]

Very true Declan.

 

[Harris786]

So do I have to put one main consume unit at the primary meter and providing MCB to each room and then to primary meter then main switch for this room. Is that right?

 

[batty]

switchfuse after main meter then meter in room then into consumer unit from meter.

 

[Harris786]

Cheers batty

 

[ProDave]

Sounds a right bodge setup this.

So it sounds like a big house has been converted into studio flats WITHOUT proper consideration of the electricity supply.

What the OP needs is for each studio flat to have it's own consumer unit, then you can install a meter measuring the feed to each consumer unit so each tenant gets billed for the electricity that he uses. There would also be a consumer unit at the incomer which feeds a submain to each individual unit.

If it's set up like that, then simply fit a meter at the feed to each unit's own CU.

If the building is NOT wired already with one CU per flat, then installing the meters is the least of your troubles, you are going to have to do some pretty major rewiring to ensure that the feed to each unit really is only feeding that unit and nothing else.

And don't forget if they are heated with storage heaters, then you also need an off peak meter for each unit.

 

[Harris786]

Thank you for this informative replay, the building is already wired up and previous owner has removed the CUs n meters from each room but he left one coin meter for bath room. If you put 20 pence n it wil warm up the water. In building 5 or 6 primary meters n for each two rooms have one primary meter. Just wondering what sort of meter landlord required for each room or flat? Or what if landlord want to make his life easy and don't want to do pay the bill for this building, What sort of set up does he requires.

Thank you

 

[Andy™]

either have private meters with landlord looking after who's used what, or get DNO to install a supply/meter to each property.

if he gets a quote for option 2, its almost guaranteed that private meters will be installed and he suddenly wont mind workign out who owes what

 

[ISSWWW]

Batty seems to have it right, I am fairly sure that only the board can fit Key meters, if he wants for the tenants to purchase there supply then card meters would be a possability.

The only problem is of course the cards are not easily aquired as each card meter supplier (like us) has it's own code, or the landlord can nominate his own. The cards are sold in many values from

 

[batty]

That reminds me Megger Mark is good for buying check meters have purchased a few through him and been very pleased with service.

 

[ProDave]

Thank you for this informative replay, the building is already wired up and previous owner has removed the CUs n meters from each room but he left one coin meter for bath room.

I'm still failing to understand the installation.

If the previous owner removed the CU's, what's protecting the circuits now headbang

See my reply in post #14 describing what you need If you can't achieve that then I don't see how you can possibly fit a meter per room, let alone figure out how to arrange the billing.

Perhaps a simpler solution is for the landlord to leave it alone and charge the rent "inclusive of electricity"

He must know how much electricity is used, so divide that by the number of rooms, add that much onto the rent which then becomes a rent "inclusive of electricity"