Room letting: monitoring gas and electricity untilization per room- possible?

[sun_9292]

Hi I'm looking to rent my house and rent the loft as a sperate studio, is there a way of determining elec and gas usage between the 2 locations so the bills can be paid accordingly. I've seen those "plug in socket" adapters but this doesn't seem like a realistic option. As the electics is being put in at the moment is there any thing the electrican can do to facilitate this request (without having to install a seperate meter) thanks for your assistance.

[Tim S]

sun [e-mail] coughed up some electrons that declared:

Yes - if the electrician can take a single power feed to the loft, then a secondary distribution board (fuseboard) there, you can trivially buy and install an electricity meter of your own on the supply to this fuseboard. Reconditioned meters aren't very expensive or you could even install a coin op or card meter to save collecting extra money from the tenant.

eg

other option is to meter the socket circuit only - so no special wiring.

Or just include the electricity in the rent at a flat rate.

Cheers

Tim

[sun_9292]

thats amazing - thanks

[Tim S]

sun [e-mail] coughed up some electrons that declared:

If you can decide what system you want, talk to your electrician - hopefully he can sort it all out for you.

If you charge the tenant for electricy used, I would advise on building that into the tenency agreement in a simple and watertight way. You have to be clear about the scale of charges you are imposing on the tenant.

Cheers

Tim

[Phil L]

For the OP to go down the route of reselling electricity is complicated and he can't make any profit, also the meters have to be 'approved', and finding an approved one is almost impossible, using sub meters is frowned upon and he'll be lucky to find an elecrician willing to install one.

[Tim S]

Phil L coughed up some electrons that declared:

I thought coin-op wasn't unusual for rented places? (Although, admittedly, we weren't initially taking about coin meters). Maybe the rules changed since I rented digs...

[george (dicegeorge)]

its quite easy for an electrician to install another meter on a circuit which just has the numbers, not one that takes money.

I have one fitted on one plug circuit - she used it for electric heaters.

But it wasnt measuring her lighting circuit as that was shared with other rooms.

sun [e-mail] wrote:

[meow2222]

Its standard practice to put a margin on metered electricity in let properties. The margin is controlled by law though - though often ignored. Reconned elec meters are cheap enough.

NT