Electricity bill - combined unit

Call the Consolidated Edison company?

get an electrician. he can wire both lines to go through one of the meters. Then call con ed and cancel the account associted with the meter that is discoonnected.

I did phone Con Ed (first thing I did). They said there was nothing I could do

UWS,
Calling the # on your Con Ed bill is useless.Get a Licensed Electrician to give a price for the work,and after you hire him, he will call the
division at Con Ed that handles construction matters.We do this all the time,but Con Ed does not want to work with
"civilians"and they will not perform this type of job.. Be sure to check licensing,insurance,etc. before hiring the electrical contractor.
good luck.

We have the same issue. The number on the Con Ed bill told me to contact my building manager (we live in a condo). The building manager "investigated" and told us that it was not possible and they would revisit this issue in the future. This was last year. Has anybody here successfully resolved this?

As with most things in life, "it depends". We have several combined apartments in our pre-war co-op and we looked into doing this for all the apartments at once. Cost was around $350 per unit to combine the two feeds into one meter. The basic meter charge is around $30 per month, so the payoff was about a year. In our bldg, we were going to have the two feeds go into one meter, then from that one meter, split off into the two power feeds going up to the apartment. The bypassed meter would be removed. In our case, we couldn't remove one of the feeds since the wiring wasn't big enough to support the higher power. The meters could support two feeds, but the wiring could not. For those w/ three combined units, the meter would have to be replaced since the meter could only support up to two feeds. So, assuming your meter could support the additional feed, it shouldn't be much to do. (In our building, there isn't an easy way to upgrade the meter to support the higher power. If you could replace the meter, then there's not likely much to worry about). We were getting a good price since the electrician would do about 12 apartments in one shot. The paper work is allegedly a nightmare. But, any decent electrical contractor should be able to do it.

Anyone have any recent experience with regards to this issue of combining electric meters?

If you can get the rest of your building to agree, you could just set up a master meter for the whole building, and then submeter out to each of the owners. That would probably be less costly to set up than combining only two units, and you would also benefit by getting charged at bulk rate pricing.

Interested in any replies here ... trying to get a sense of how screwed I'm getting. In the middle of renovating a pre-combined apartment that the previous owner never bothered to combine the meters. Once I have a data point I will post and let you all know as well.

All that agita to save $30 a month?

@Earo.....your electrician was wrong......

The wiring is only "jumpered" in the basement (actually inside the meter panel) so the "wiring has nothing to do with this".

here is some history in 2008 we combined two apartment together and I was told the same thing.......my builder basically lied their ass off saying you would need to replace all the wiring from the meters up to the apartment and major problem so for the next 4 year I paid $30 extra a month as the original poster said.

In 2013 we combined a third apartment to our original two, when I told the "new builder" about this he laughed....and said no problems basically some people haven't done it before so don't know whats involved.

Basically the electrician needs to file with coned for a meter removal, they come out and inspect, then approve the proposed jumper then have the electrician come and do the jumper (inside the meter they splice them together so its routed via a single meter), then coned come back and pull the surplus meter.

If you want my electricians contact details shoot me an email, contact details are on the website where the photos of the renovation are located -- http://www.collins.net.pr/Photo/House%20photos/135%20Henry%20St%2C%20Brooklyn/photo.htm

I wish I knew about this in 2008 as would have saved me $360 a year......

Hi, does anyone have a good electrician for this? BTW, joining the meters with 1 feed in the cellar means you still have 2 panel boxes upstairs for the units - is that to code???

*Appreciating this thread.

I have a legally combined (1br + studio) unit and have been paying Con Ed the additional fees they charge for meters for over 15 years.

I requested ConEd to combine our meters as soon as they notified us that Smart meter installations would begin in our Co-op. All requests were summarily ignored and they went ahead and installed dozens of unnecessary meters in this building. The only reason I could find for this was a disgraceful policy of extracting additional fees from customers for as long as possible.

I am now seeking a licensed / insured and reputable electrician to perform this work for my unit as well as for the many other combined units in my building. I will help aggregate the group to a manageable customer base so the work can be performed in "bulk." Any referrals are appreciated.

I am also determined to help fellow New Yorkers be aware of the general policies and management behavior of this utility which routinely fails so many of its customers.

Hello BKHTScombo, did you end up completing this work? How did the process work out for you? Looking for an electrician to do similar work. TIA.

Could anyone share names of licensed electricians that can do this type of work? I am trying to combine two coned meters for my unit. Thank you,