I agree, I'd try to work it out. The neighbor asking for a killawatt measurement isn't totally unreasonable. I took it like you did, that it could be used to take some measurements for a few months, not long term. But even that would require some rewiring to do and since the thing is in his unit, would the neighbor believe and accept the results? When it's at the point where she's stopped paying altogether, it's not good......
I'd be curious on the history of this, how it came to be, etc.
Nah, it is about the same as one visit to the lawyer. EKM is one outfit that has electric meters under $100.
Watts has a water meter you can get for $60. For an hour or two of time and less than $250 in material you are set. Now just agree on a rate and maintenance fund, non-returnable if one party moves away.
He doesn't need a water meter, just to measure the electric used by the well pump and room heater. He mentioned a Killawatt, but AFAIK they only do 120V and the well pump is likely 240V so one like you suggest would work.
He could use hour meters, easier to tap in.
I wonder if his electricity company charged on tiered rates.
Here is the history of this:
I recently bought one of a two unit condo. Near closing, I learned that the water well and the lawn irrigation was shared with the other condo, and was under his control and on his utility bill. We verbally agreed I would pay $50 per month, but I didn't know how that was figured - I just wanted to close. I knew it would be possible to determine how much electricity was used and we could do a proper calculation.
Now, this neighbor is having nothing to do with any such calculations. It is $50 per month, tough beans! Based on advise from others, and my own common sense, I did some research and rough calculations, and think $15 per month is the right number. I gave this information to my neighbor, hoping he would accept it or more likely come up with his own numbers based on actual electricity usage. But NO. It is still "tough beans, $50" with him.
Since I already paid him for three months ($150) at the fictitious monthly rate, I figure I have paid for 10 months of actual cost. I will pay him nothing more for the next seven months, to use up my credit with him, and then I will begin to pay him $15 per month. Of course, if he comes up with some actual data and actual math showing a different number, I will be reasonable.
Be careful who your neighbors are, especially when you are sharing something with them!
you are suggesting submetering. I was replying to the previous posts saying put this on separate utility company meter.
If one condo uses much more water than the other, but perhaps not worth the bother.
Actually, on second thought, I think my numbers are high. A 1hp, 240V motor pulls about 7 amps, but part of that is reactive current, so it's less than 1700 watts. If you just did a 100% efficient conversion from 1 hp to watts, it would be just 750W. The motor isn't 100% efficient, but it's not a resistive load either, so somewhere in between, maybe 1000 watts is more reasonable? If so, then using my previous numbers, it would 13 cents an hour or 65 cents to water the lawn for 5 hours. Do it three times a week, it's ~ $8 a month. Ten hours of watering, 3 times a week for a month would be ~$16. Unless I'm missing something here....
He doesn't need it to find the power use, but with a meter you can fairly apportion the costs to each user. One may be 80% of the costs and only paying half.
I work with a guy that is on a well supplying 4 houses. They have a meter and divide everything equally, including maintenance. Works for them as it is set up independent of the houses.
Yes, I see your point. I wasn't focusing on the water usage difference between the two units. It depends on how involved you want to get. They could start with just measuring the electric, like you suggested. I'm betting they will find that it's nowhere near $100 a month. If it's more like $40 a month, then maybe they can just split it or do $25 versus $15, etc.
Just splitting it equally would be my inclination too, because I don't think there is a huge difference and much of it is the lawn and heater which are equal.
On 09/13/2015 9:33 AM, dpb wrote: ...
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Although it became very clear after the fact it was indeed the intent of the purcharser all along... :)
First, off I came across this site last night, and there was another person on here that had a similar situation. So that's when I wrote in. I pay well over $ 250 a month on electric bills to answer your question. She agreed 0n the $ 50 way before she went to settlement. And sign away excepting All terms and conditions on this shared property Then
7 months later she came at me very hostile, I wanted to work something out with her she turned down the offer, she should of did all her homework before she signed at settlement.
It's not about savings. If you are going to charge *me* for electricity and/or water, you had better accurately meter it. Guessing ain't good enough for me.
Every thing is spell out in our condo agreement by laws, I actually use to have solar panels that took care of all cost, I didn't have to worry about asking for money for these shared expenses. I had to get a new roof and no more solar panels. Anyway the person that sold his unit to her, told me to come up with a dollar amount to charge her. She totally agreed on the dollar amount, and went right to settlement And signed away on this as is property. I have a very large yard in the front and the sprinkler system runs twice day. Sorry I didn't mention that above.. Yes it is a very bad set up here..
Yes, but if they are sharing the electricity, they damn well be sharing the cost of figuring out what the share is. So, if a whole new utility service is required, the neighbor will be paying at least half of it. That puts "being reasonable" in a new light.
OP is making up numbers out of his butt. If he develops some real numbers, the neighbor would be a dope to require a lot of infrastructure to get the estimate down to a gnat's ass.
Ok maybe $50 was a little much but at the time she didn't think so. She had a lot of time to think about it before she went to settlement, I would have been more then happy to make adjustments. Then 7 months later she came off very hostile to me as a neighbor. My electric bill are way over $ 250 a month. And we share a very large yard that requires The sprinkler system to run twice a day or more. My place before I bought it was one house that got divided in two. I need to she a chart here in jersey not out west... It's not a easy thing here and we're not on talking terms. So I had to work with my attorney on this problem..
so the fact that it was the seller who pulled a number out of his butt is somehow better than you being the one who pulled the number out of your butt?
Trust me I wasn't looking for legal advice on this website not by no means. I'm already dealing with a attorney on this situation, it hasn't been easy, my neighbor came off very hostile from the very start. I do have a very large yard and water 2 or maybe 3 times a day. She seem to agree on the charge that was presented to her way before she went to settlement.
She probably thought it was fair, but someone got her ear and filled her with the idea you were cheating her. Brother, father, nosy friend is likely the blame.
Compared to city rates, what you asked for does not seem outlandish. My town city water and sewer is about $700 a year.
You can buy a power meter for the well-house too - surplus from the electric utility is one source - not read or charged separately by the utility. Determine the cost ratio by the usage ratio (water meters) or by some other agreed-on formula.
If the neighbour agreed to $50 a month at purchace, and paid $50 a month for a period of time, and nothing has changed, why start to dissagree now????
The option ,if there is nothing in the condo agreement, is to install a second well and split the cost . To be fair, a 50-50 split would include a new well pump for both wells with the procedes of the sale of the old pump split evenly.
This would be quite expensive for both parties, but WOULD solve the problem permanently. The condo agreement would also need to be ammended.
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