Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Katherine Lavine (1stkatheegmail.com) | |
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2021 13:06:40 -0800 (PST) |
Yes! Katherine Lavine mobile messaging > On Jan 11, 2021, at 12:58 PM, Ken Winter <ken [at] sunward.org> wrote: > > A couple years ago, Sunward Cohousing installed a submetering system for > our *water* bills. We're very happy with it: It has solved equity > problems (our households, no matter how big or thirsty, *used *to pay > equally for the collective water usage), our consumption is down by > ~20%, and the web-based meter system issues automatic alerts of potential > leaks and higher-than-expected consumption. > > I've been meaning to write an article on this for cohousing.org or some > such medium, but I don't know how much interest there is from other coho > communities. Maybe I'll use this occasion to test the waters. Is anybody > reading this interested in knowing more about the whys, whats, and hows of > submetering? > > ~ Ken Winter > ~ Sunward Cohousing > > On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 3:03 PM Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L < > cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote: > >>> Chris Roth - Communities Editor <editor [at] gen-us.net> >> >>> At Lost Valley, each individual electric meter has … a >>> monthly charge (at least $10 apiece monthly, charged for each of the >>> less-than-five-minute visits/readings by the power company person) has >>> at times exceeded the actual additional electricity charge on some of >>> those meters.— And even though we've talked >>> about the desirability of reducing the number of meters to save costs, >>> we've also talked about increasing it, as some people likely consume >>> five or ten times as much electricity in their individual units (by >>> keeping the heat cranked up, etc.) as others do >> >> This is called sub-metering and is possible. I don’t know the costs but >> with a $10 charge for even reading meters, it sounds like it might be worth >> it. The complex then has one meter and there are sub-meters inside each >> unit (or some other convenient spot). The meters can be read from outside >> the unit using wifi or bluetooth or something. >> >> If the minimum account charge is $30-40, many people will just be paying >> for having an account, not for each kwh unless they go over the minimum. >> And they may not. >> >> One intentional community (don’t remember which) put individual readers in >> the front hall of units where residents could see them. They had large >> faces like clocks and that dramatically reduced usage. >> >> People worry about one or more households being wasteful users or >> whatever, but when I think about each of our households, I don’t think any >> of them would be wasteful. Some have more people or are larger or are home >> more, so there would be a variation but you could charge per adult (regular >> residents, not occasional guests). >> >> One of our residents had an electric bill of $8 a month when others were >> $80 a month. She worked long hours away from home, had a 615 SF south >> facing unit, didn’t use her dishwasher or her dryer, and controlled her >> thermostat. >> >> (Our single meter water bill has greatly increased with all the people >> working from home. The treasurer was asking about a leak somewhere until we >> realized what caused it.) >> >> Sharon >> ---- >> Sharon Villines >> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC >> http://www.takomavillage.org >> >> >> >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: >> http://L.cohousing.org/info >> >> >> >> > _________________________________________________________________ > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: > http://L.cohousing.org/info > > >
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Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Fred-List manager, January 11 2021
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Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Sharon Villines, January 11 2021
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Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Ken Winter, January 11 2021
- Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Katherine Lavine, January 11 2021
- Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Chuck Harrison, January 11 2021
- Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Mark Owkes, January 11 2021
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Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Ken Winter, January 11 2021
- Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Bryan Bowen, January 11 2021
- Re: Submetering of Water Bills (and other utilities) Ken Winter, January 17 2021
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Re: Electricity metering [was: Dear Cohousing Community Sharon Villines, January 11 2021
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