Splitting utilities and meter costs

[Olena M.]

I am in San Diego building a rental studio on back of property. Permits for construction in and I’ll be given multiple addresses. I would like to split gas, electric and water to have each unit metered individually. Does anyone have any ballpark costs of the meters and permits required? I will be calling the utility companies this week however I would like some insight before I talk to them. San Diego utility companies are notorious for sucking everyone in the city dry.

[Justin R.]

@Olena M. I've done it on multiple properties. Are you doing this (A) a permitted unit in a multifamily zone or (B) as an ADU?

You don't want a separate water meter from the City - far better idea to have a single water service and install your own submeter.  See: http://www.jerman.com/dljmeter.html.  The City will require this if you're doing (A).

For electric and gas, it will take quite a bit of time and coordination.  Don't underestimate it.  For electric, your electrician will install all the hardware.  Once the City inspector passes electric, SDGE will also inspect, and then come set the meter.  Pretty easy.  

In any case, I'd highly recommend placing all your electric and low voltage cabinets in the same location on the property (I assume you have overhead service). 

For gas, your plumber will set the lines and do the pressure test, City will inspect, then SDGE will investigate the service line to the property. Assuming it's fine (about 30% of the time I've had to cut part of driveway and pay for work to be done on the line for one reason or another), they'll set the meter after everything has passed. Note that code for gas meters now is FAR more strict than when most property in San Diego was built - depending on location, expect moving of lines and/or bollard installation.

Last property I did I paid about $3500 to SDGE for 2 new electric and 3 new gas meters.  Fees are not linear.  The more expensive part is always the prep work related to the utilities.

Whenever I can get away with SDGE not adding meters, I do it myself.  Since I've already got private sub-metering for water use, I don't mind also reading my private gas and electric meters as well.