Understanding Tenant Energy Use
Managing a multi-residential building with one electric meter can be a headache. Ideally, you want a separate electric sub-meter for rental units. But this is not the case with many rental buildings with communal meters. Landlords are stuck splitting the bill among the tenants. Or they're figuring out a flat fee to pay the energy bill from one meter.
This can cause problems. Tenants in multifamily rentals and duplexes often complain. They claim it’s unfair for them to pay for the extra energy used by tenants in another units. Further, tenants who aren't charged enough aren’t inclined to conserve energy. Then, landlords end up raising rents to keep up with rising utility bills.
Costly Sub-meters from the Power Company
Utilities offer electric sub-meters for rental units. These “suite meters” allow landlords to bill each tenant fairly for exactly the energy consumed. Then landlords don’t have to waste time manually breaking down one bill. Consequently, this helps reduce landlord-tenant disputes by providing accurate and precise information. In addition, holding tenants responsible for their energy consumption encourages them to cut down on their energy usage.
But, having the power company install sub-meters to bill each tenant fairly for their energy use is costly. The utility will charge hookup fees to run power to the house. In addition, they charge connection fees to install a sub-meter for each unit. Multiply these fees times the number of units and costs can rise quickly.
Emporia Vue: The Cost-effective Electric Sub-meter for Rental Units
The Gen 2 Vue from Emporia is a low-cost way to understand and manage your tenants energy use. The Vue installs in the electrical panel of your rental building after the electric meter. The Vue is capable of monitoring two mains up to 200A each. It can also monitor up to 16 separate 50A circuits. The Vue connects to your property’s WiFi network to send data to the cloud. Then, you can access real-time energy usage and energy costs anywhere, anytime from the Emporia mobile app.
The cost per kWh varies per utility. With the Vue, you can set your cost per kWh to match what is charged by the power company. The Vue also keeps daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly use records. This data is kept forever. This is helpful if there are ever any disputes over changes in month-to-month energy use.
While the Emporia Vue is not revenue grade, it is accurate within 2%. In the end, the Emporia Vue provides a better way for landlords to understand and manage how tenants use their energy. This saves landlords the headaches that come with managing a building with only one electric meter.
Emporia Partner Opportunity
Emporia offers partnership to landlords who need many Emporia Vue electric sub-meters for rental units. We offer a web-based partner portal to manage multiple Vues. This online dashboard allows you to see the energy use for each of the Vues over different time periods. The portal also allows landlords to view and manage notifications for each of the Vue sub-meters monitoring their properties. For more information on partner opportunities, fill out our partnership form.
The Best Electric Sub-meter Solution for Rental Units
In conclusion, problems arise in multifamily rentals that are serviced by a single meter. There usually isn't an accurate or equitable way to divide the bill. This only leads to disputes from renters. Utilities offer sub-meter solutions for landlords, but it is costly to have extra lines run to the property and extra meters connected for each unit. The Emporia Vue is an accurate and affordable way to sub-meter rental units. The Vue installs in electrical panels to accurately monitor the energy usage of rental units, saving landlords time and headaches.
