Installing a new meter

[cella]

We live in a Victorian house divided into 2 flats and are joint freeholders. The "landlords" electricity for the outside security lamp and the joint hall etc is channelled through the ground floor flat's meter. We are considering installing a meter to resolve this and just wondered if anyone has experience of doing this and what the potential cost, if any, might be. We can of course contact the electricity company but just asking here first.

[Drxyster]

I would guess that the daily standing charge for a separate meter, would be more expensive than the electricity you are using.

[cella]

True possibly - we just need a mechanism for working out a fair share on the Bills.

[ianr]

It's an interesting question. Not one I've have had to worry about -- our common power consumption probably amounts to less than 10p a year.

A solution involving a separate power supply and a dedicated billed meter looks to me like a heavyweight and expensive one and not, I guess, what you'd want. See eg https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/blog/How-many-supplies-can-I-have-on-my-existing-electricity-supply.html. Even then, there could possibly be difficulties in having it with joint account holders: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5599656.

Or, as far as I can see, you could install a separate private sub-meter, just as a landlord might provide for individual tenants. I assume it would have to be installed between the GFF meter and the security lighting. Any electrician should I guess be able to quote you a price. This article mentions ?200 for inclusive cost. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=92&t=1684427.

My own preferred solution would probably be to simply calculate the approximate power usage and split that. You just need to know the power ratings and estimated hours of use. If it's a system that's on all the time but switches the lights on just when motion is detected, you'd need to know the ratings for two modes -- the standby one, and the lit-up one. If you can't get those ratings from the manufacturer's literature they're easily measurable. If the system uses a three-pin plug a cheap plug-in power meter might do, depending on the system's power switching mode. I've one I could lend you. Alternatively a clamp meter, as used by an electrician, would I think be needed. It just needs a one-off measurement for the power ratings, and a little sensible sampling to get a goodish ballpark figure for the hours of use.

So for example, if the standby mode uses 20 watts continuously, that would be about 175 kilowatt hours a year, say ?26. And if the lights use 200 watts and are on for an average of one hour a week, that's another 10 kWh, ?1.50ish pa. I've no idea what your setup might actually use, but you get the idea.

[cella]

Thanks so much for this. We will probably go down this route as the cost of a new meter may prove prohibitive.