If you would like to send bill you tenants separately based on their electrical consumption, it’s a matter of money, you will need a meter that everyone agrees is the authoritative measurement. It was a long time ago, but I used to work for a residential property management company — at the time, the only solution for this was to have the electric company install separate meters, and most likely, have the tenants pay their own electricity bills. Perhaps this isn’t what you’re looking for — if it is, it’s expensive.

So I’ll assume you want to help tenants understand how they are using electricity in hopes that it will help them know how to use it more effectively.

The device I wrote about here will not work, as it attaches directly to a (single) meter. There are several other devices which measure power flow by induction — a device wraps around the incoming circuit wires and measures current.

However, in the US, the only one of these I could find is called The Energy Detective (TED). This device is about the same price as my meter, and has an option to record the data it collects to a computer via a USB interface and some software.

Another induction measuring product called The Owl is considerably less expensive, but appears to be sold only in the UK. As far as I can tell, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work for any power system (I have sent them an email asking if there’s any reason it’s not sold in the US or Canada).

In both cases, you would need one of these for each unit in your building. The displays are all powered by AA or AAA batteries.

Other meters are available — one source I found is the PowerMeterStore — there may be some options there that are right for your application. (Update — check out this ELF Panel Meter which seems designed to do exactly what you’re looking for. There may even be volume pricing.)

I am very interested in what other solutions you may find, as this kind of real-time metering that is one of our first steps towards a smarter energy grid. Please let me know if you find anything!

Tom

I would like to have your recommendation on which product(s) will better serve my specific needs…

I will sub rent 18 apartments (now in construction phase) to different tenants and only have one single Power consumption measuring unit, the one from the electric company… i can probably have a second feeding line with a corresponding second meter from the electrical company… every time i get an electrical bill I need to subdivided proportionally according to everybody’s consumption to charge the electrical cost to all tenants…

I have a 3 wire feed to each apartment phase 1, phase 2 and ground so each apartment has 220 ACV as well as 110 ACV.

I need to measure the consumption for each apartment during a specific time fame (to mach the electrical bill dates)

Each apartment has one air conditioning unit at 220 ACV and 110 ACV that supply 5 outlets and 2 or 3 ligth bulbs (topically a fridge, a microwave, a computer, a lamp and a TV set are connected)

by doing this i hope to achive that every tenat save as much energy as possible if not because a planet concern at least due to a cost concern as opose to the common practice at most hotel rooms in wich people tend to live the air contidioning on all day long…

Please help me to select the best measuring device…. if further information is needed from my end please let me know

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Regards
Thierry Brunet