I have a lighted sign on a commercial building that I need to meter so we can determine the electric use and divide it between the three tenants on the property. Are there any simple meters besides a typical meter and socket used on most homes and business. Is there another way to determine the usage?
Thanks,
cm
What's the supply voltage/phase?
Where's the connection(s)?
There are ways depends on what it is and where, etc., as above.
Alternatively, it's possible one might get an estimated usage and then simply count operating hours and be close enough.
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Yeah. If it is on 24/7 you could ball park it pretty close. You need wattage and power factor. At the breaker(s) you can take an amp meter and get it pretty close.
If it's not on 24/7, just installing an inexpensive hour meter after the timer of light sensor should be accurate enough once you know the power draw of the sign. Certainly a $30 hour meter will be a lot cheaper than a real KWH meter.
A used residential kWh meter might cost $20.
Nick
Jeebus man, raise your sights and think big! Apportioning cost for electric use for a sign? You must be some kind of landlord!
You can buy used meters for ~ $30. You can get various form factors such as the common "A" base plug ins or two wire panel mount versions with lugs which are typically used for sub-metering.
Go to an electric supply company and inquire about submeters. They are used in situations such as this. You may find that the material cost and the cost of labor to install it is not worth it.
Just figure out what the power usage is (consumption of the lights) and the number of hours per day it runs and go from there. It is not likely to change from week to week. No need to buy anything.
Might, if you can find one. They aren't exactly a popular item, so they aren't found in abundance from common sources.
just see how many watts it pulls and calculate simple math man. jeeeeze... OR hook it to one of the tennants meter and forget it. I doubt it makes a noticible difference.
s
Well, there you go, though you do have to figure in the cost of the socket as well for another $11 + shipping on everything.
How many watts is it? 1000 watts for 1 hour is 1 kwh (1 kilowatt hour) Times 24 hours is 24 kwh times 30 days is 720 kwh times .07 per kilowatt hour is $50.40 a month divided by 3 is $16.80 each.
Then see your electric rates and do the math per kilowatt hour.
Agree unless it is giganticus sign using many kilowatts it should be pretty easy to calculate how much electrcity it uses and just apportion that.
For example suppose the sign uses 500 watts. So for one hour that is half a kilowatt hour.
If electrcity costs ten cents per kilowatt hour that sign will cost 5 cents for every hour it is on.
Even if that 500 watt sign is on continuously for a month (720hrs) it will only cost approx. $36.
Anyway: Divide the $36 up four ways. One quarter for each tenant and one quarter for yourself. That will create good will when the tenants get one third of the usage of the sign and it will only cost you $9. It's your building after all?
On other hand if it's only on at night it will probably cost less than $20 bucks/month, hardly worth bothering about?
But apportioning such a minor item seems rather unproductive and time wasting? It's not like trying to share a $600 snow clearing bill between three tenants!
Or you could do like my old landlord (whose name was Satan). Hire your brother-in-law to do the common area maintenance. When the tenants complain, show them the invoice (at ten times the going rate), go through the math based on square footage, and declare they're paying a fair pro-rata amount.
You used to live in Hell? And they made you pay rent too?
What did you do to deserve THAT?
:-)
JK
No, it wasn't Hell, it just seemed like it.
And my landlord wasn't THE Satan, he was just a Satan wannabe. Or at least a Satan groupie.
Just to reword a comment concerning the rather odd original posting; "The road to Hell is paved with 'bad' intentions". It will probably turn out that the sign referred to by the OP (Who, so far, has never responded to any of the thread posters suggestions), uses 150 watts (that's about 2 cents worth of electricity per hour); and is only switched on for six to eight hours per night. Ergo, for a month total consumption =3D $5 per month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Storm in a teacup; maybe?
Maybe its just me, but I am picturing a billboard that is 30' wide by
10' high, lighted by some huge halogen lighting system drawing thousands of watts. Why he would be trying to divide the cost of it between the three tenants is beyond me.JK
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