Best Meter Setup For Multiple Use Building

madmaz · Apr 4, 2017

Hi some advice needed please.

I am working on a commercial property, originally all one building (Machine Shop) with a 100A 3 phase TT supply incoming.

The property is now being split up into multiple units mainly office space with one beauty salon all to be leased out by the landlord.

The half of the ground floor where the main cutout and meter is will be leased by a company in this half, as originally installed when the building was wired, is a 3 phase consumer unit 100A 300mA time delayed main switch then out going circuits from this (single phase) feed lights and power via 30mA RCBOs for this area, the other separate units of the building are fed from this consumer unit via 16.0mm 4 core SWA and 40A 3p mcbs to separate consumer units (3 in total) each with there own meter built in to them, these consumer units then feed lighting and power in each of their areas.

Question has been asked about electricity charges....

As far as I see it, the landlord reads the main meter then deducts the readings from all other meters this then gives the usage of electricity for each area, he then checks his unit rate and charges each user that amount, supplying each user with an invoice, he can also share the standing charge equally between all users... is this correct ?, he is querying it and wonders if its better that each user has a meter installed by an energy supplier ? how would you guys do it does the setup sound ok or should it be altered ? seems a lot of work to add extra meters, surely there will be extra standing charges ?

Any advice greatly appreciated

Thanks

PEG · Apr 4, 2017

Hi,the feeds you talk of,are sub-mains,on private property,so if metering is required,the landlord will have to supply them.
He has obviously given some thought to the options,regarding charging,i wonder if he has applied the same attention to whether the current supply is sufficient,and will remain balanced.