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  • #8449
    Blueman
    Flatchatter

      Hi,

       

      A tenant in our strata development has requested a quote to replace the existing electricity meter with a smart meter. Needless to say the next step would be to have it installed. The electricity meters are in several meter room on common property, the one in question is in a group of 18 meters.

       

      Can the tenant just go ahead and have it replaced, assuming they accept the quote? I would have thought that approval from the Owners Corporation would have been required before.

       

      I have heard and seen video of these smart meters exploding, Google produces many search results from that search term. I would prefer to avoid the consequence of an exploding smart meter.

       

      Our strata manger when informed replied, that the electricity company owns the meter and if the tenant wants to replace it they can, its their responsibility.

       

      Any comments would be appreciated.

       

      Blueman

       

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    • #16717
      scotlandx
      Strataguru

        I don’t know a thing about smart meters, but assuming the electricity meters are common property:

        – the tenant can’t change the meter, because he isn’t an owner.  Or is the tenant an owner?  Sorry am a bit confused there.  If the person isn’t an owner then they can’t change anything.

        – the owner could apply to the Owners Corporation for approval to change the meter to a smart meter, and agree to a by-law giving him responsibility for that meter going forward.

        The meter services that lot, so the owner can ask to change it, provided they take on responsibility for it.

        #16719
        Whale
        Flatchatter

          I don’t know the veracity of stories about smart meters exploding, but I’m sure electricity distributors don’t fit them so that consumers can save money, and for that reason I’d wonder why the tenant wants one.

          In any case and based upon the works required in our Plan’s meter room when some Proprietors installed grid-connected solar systems, I believe that:

          1) Meters are owned by the electricity distributor
          2) They were originally supplied and installed by the electricity distributor for each Proprietor
          3) The installations, including fuses, isolators, and wiring to the sub-boards in each Lot are within the Common Property for which the Owners Corporation (O/C) is responsible.

          So while the tenant pays the electricity account, they should approach the Proprietor/Landlord about replacing the meter, if in agreement the Proprietor should seek the O/C’s consent to modify the layout of its Meter Room, and if the O/C agrees then, armed with that consent, the tenant should engage a level 2 electrical contractor to obtain a smart meter from the electrical distributor and install that as a replacement for the existing meter.

          #16721
          Sir Humphrey
          Strataguru

            ‘Smart’ meters can mean a variety of things. It can be what is more correctly an ‘interval’ or ‘Time of Use’ meter, which is not particularly smart. This sort records consumption in peak, shoulder and off-peak bands and the customer is charged a different rate for the electricity recorded on each of those registers.

            I have such a ToU meter and it saves me about $40/quarter. I can fill the dishwasher, set it to delay running till after 10PM so it costs only half as much to run. Similarly, I have a timer on the electric boost to my solar hot water so that most of the time, if it needs a boost, it will only happen on off peak rates in a few hours before dawn. I have recently arranged for our OC’s path and parking area lighting to be on a ToU meter. This means we will be charged more for a few hours in the evening but much less for most of the rest of the night while the lights are on. Overall we will have a modest on-going saving. 

            Smarter meters of various sorts can send a wireless signal into the house to a display that shows the present rate of consumption and cost and gives  the consumer information to enable them to defer significant loads till it is cheaper. Even smarter meters can regulate smart devices such as electric vehicle chargers to turn on when the rates are cheaper and turn of when they are more expensive. With such controls could go electricity rates that are communicated to the meter and varied continuously to inversely reflect demand rather than in crude peak/shoulder/offpeak bands. 

            At the moment the cost of electricity supply varies by orders of magnitude through the day and through the year but the consumer has no way to respond to that when they are charged a flat rate. If you don’t have air conditioning you are subsidising those who do and run it at the flat rate price when demand  and the cost of supply is very high. Smart meters of various sorts are a way to avoid the cost of having generating capacity sitting idle to cope with the few hours a year of very high demand. 

            It is the way of the future but there are some who rage against Smart meters on the internet for generally spurious reasons. 

            #16722
            FlatChatFan
            Flatchatter

              Surely the Owner of the property has a say?

              #16724
              Whale
              Flatchatter

                FCF, to reiterate my earlier post, yes the Owner does have a say. After all, just because a current tenant wants a smart meter doesn’t mean that future tenants or any future resident / owner will.

                As a matter of interest, when the works in our Plan’s Meter Room were undertaken in November 2010 where smart meters were installed in association with the solar installations, but with each set on a flat-rate buy-in tariff, the electricity distributor took the opportunity to require some concurrent upgrades to the fuses and isolators serving the Lots involved. 

                As the entirety of those works was on Common Property I had the electrical contractor invoice the Owners Corporation (O/C) for those, and I then invoiced the respective Proprietors for a reimbursement of the component costs; that is those for the works directly involving their Lots.

                Anyway, I just checked the contractor’s invoice, and the cost to remove the old analogue meters, to supply and fit smart meters, to wire and re-wire each, to replace the fuses with circuit breakers and to fit new isolators (main switch) in accordance with the opportunistic requirements of the electrical distributor averaged $913.00 for each Lot, excluding the solar cabling and the gross (feed-in) meter.

                That might give Blueman’s tenant something else to consider; as PeterC once said, it’s not easy being green! (and as Whale said: it can be costly too).

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