Three phase meter

[Irmschur]

Hi, just been to a commercial building with a three phase supply. The new tennant is looking to use equipment that requires three phase but I have noticed that there is an electric meter on each phase supply. With it being this way would the new tennant receive three electric bills (one bill for each phase)?

 

[antimatter]

Yes they would. This is unusual, unless flats, or shops were in the same building (shop on ground floor, two flats above, for instance).

But in a commercial building as you have said, a polyphase meter would normally be found, perhaps a call to the DNO may shed more light on the building previous occupier, leading to an explanation of the three single phase meters.

Also have you / can you checked the phase rotation, as this is also important, and "may" be incorrect.

 

[Irmschur]

Thanks for that, will investigate

 

[rallyandy]

Hi Irsmshur, I have just dealt with the exact same problem at a Take away, the building used to be three seperate units so had a meter on each phase for each, i re wired takeaway as it is now knocked into one unit, the existing meters were all on seperate suppliers (1 british gas 1 N Power & 1 EDF), he was paying standing charges for each meter and all of the tafiffs were different rates (one of the tariffs was 16p per unit !!!), so I contacted the suppliers and found the best deal then requested the new supplier took over the supply, i then obtained MPAN numbers from existing suppliers and gave to the new supplier who then installed a polyphase meter, so now he only pays one standing charge and has a good rate for his leccy, happy days !!!, hope this helps

 

[telectrix]

excellent answer andy. as client wants 3 phase anyway, best to get new 3 phase meter, shop around for best deal. just don't use "Economy Power". I went with them once and got a 16 grand bill for the year on a small shop and flat!!!!!!!

 

[Darkwood]

Modern ways to meter 3phase is with a polyphase meter but in older installations each phase had a seperate meter but to my understanding was still billed as one installation, there is nothing in the question thats distinguishes whether this is in deed 3 seperately billed meters or 3 meters billed as one, a copy of the bill or bills is needed to establish how it is payed for.

 

[Knobhead]

I’ve come across this set up quite often on HV & LV supplies. The supply is classed as “one supply”, meter readings for the customer will have 3 sets of readings and a final summation reading.
The ones that made my head hurt were substations fed from 2 feeders where the substation had the bus section open. 6 sets of readings to take to give 1 summated reading.
On most of the large plants I’ve worked on it used to be the lot of the duty electrician to do the rounds of the substations at 6AM on the first of the month. Good for getting lost for a few hours though!
I did get one lad in trouble, some reading never changed, so they would be filled in over a cup of tea in the mess room. He didn’t know I’d swapped over 4 feeders.

 

[trebor]

Hi, just been to a commercial building with a three phase supply. The new tennant is looking to use equipment that requires three phase but I have noticed that there is an electric meter on each phase supply. With it being this way would the new tennant receive three electric bills (one bill for each phase)?

This way of metering 3 phase supplies was very common in the old LEB areas, so a careful check is needed,are the meters feeding a 3 phase main switch or dis board, if so its a single customer account setup, are the meters feeding completely seperate single phase boards and installations, if could be single or multiple customer account