Do I need a second gas meter for my second ADU?

Question

Hello BP family,

I've finally finished my granny flat here in San Diego, Ca. and have a tenant in it at this time.

I'm now planning on adding a couple of bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms to my primary home and adding a second ADU, my question is how do I know if I need a second gas meter to supply gas to that other ADU or can I just get a gas meter with a larger capacity for all three units/homes? This will be my second ADU but my first build from scratch so I'm new to this whole investing and building process.

Any advise or direction will be a huge help and greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Justin R. · Answer

I've been building and operating these locally since before "ADU" was a thing.  Here's what my experience has taught me.  Note this is coastal San Diego and surrounds + SDGE utility policies:

1. You don't have to install additional gas meter(s).  It almost never makes financial sense to do so.  Gas is so cheap, I'm happy to pay for it for my tenants, in conjunction with everything below.

2. If you're doing any electrical upgrade work, get additional electric meter(s).  Get a house meter installed as well for future use if you have any other ideas for your property.  Make tenants pay SDGE directly.

3. Solar rarely makes financial sense in a normal rental scenario.  I have built solar-ready buildings, then not installed the PV panels because "your electric bill will be cheaper" isn't a ticket to increased rents.

4. If you're building new units, use mini-splits for heating/cooling.  Use ducted minisplits if aesthetics are important.  Use ductless in every other case.  Most small unit (<600sf) situations are fine (and way cheaper) with a single head system.

5. For 1-3 units, use one tankless water heater for each building (instead of one water heater per unit).  199k BTU is fine for 3 normal-large units.  Submeter the hot line that comes from the tankless if you can.

I could argue against any one of these statements under some specific scenarios, but I'll claim that the above is where people should start from, then tweak as needed.

Justin R. · Answer

The gas pipe / electrical conduit / irrigation pipe is cheap and you can always just put it in under your concrete in case you want to use it in the future.  I do it all the time.  If you do so, I suggest somehow marking it or the ends so someone in the future knows it was put in for future use and isn't live (or abandoned in place).

Magdaleno Garcia · Answer

Justin R. again, thank you for the information and explanation, that gives me more to go on. I'm just in the planning stages with this project and I need to lay some concrete on my from yard and wasn't sure if I should wait on the concrete in case I needed an extra gas line but that helps a lot. I can move forward with the concrete without having to cut into it later. I appreciate you.

Justin R. · Answer

The gas riser line has plenty of pressure - the meter steps the pressure down dramatically.  You can upsize the actual meter if you need more gas volume at the standard house pressure, but you're limited by the size of the pipe carrying gas from the meter.  What I'm saying is changing the meter out to a larger one is easy ... changing all the gas pipe from the meter to wherever it goes into a larger size is not.

If you want to finish your project before 2030, you don't want to do anything that involves SDGE and gas design.  It's a totally broken system.

In a scenario where your new building is close to the gas riser and you can easily run a new gas line there, maybe I'd consider adding an additional gas meter or requesting to upsize the meter since you won't have to change out existing pipes.  But, I still would avoid messing with it and would instead go all-electric.  The exception, as I mentioned, is water heating -- I always try to share water heaters between units as much as we I can.

Justin R. · Answer

I've tried - I don't think it's worth it.  The first problem is people see the advertised rent price and don't read enough to realize that they're going to save $80/m on electricity.  The second problem is people use dramatically more of things when they're not paying for it.  I see this every time I submeter or separate utility services at properties.  And, being in the utility billing game is way too much of a headache ... and automated solutions that remove the headache are too much of an ongoing expense in small situations like this.

The problem with solar is you need to either...

(A) Use one meter for the whole property, then include electric in the rent.  Hope people value that when you list your unit higher than others, and hope they don't use more than you're providing.

(B) Separate electric meters for each unit.  Use microinverters on the panels and then tie some panels to one meter and some panels to other meter.  The solar overall won't be allocated as efficiently, and you'll still have to rely on the same hope that tenants will go for the higher advertised rent rate.

(C) Use one meter, send the solar through it.  Put your own submeters in for each unit.  Charge each unit for actual usage at less-than-SDGE rates.  Pocket the difference between the cost of solar and cost of SDGE electricity.  Everyone saves money.

All of these sign you up for headaches in a simple 3 unit project.  Those headaches aren't worth the effort involved, IMO.  If you're going to do any electric rewiring or panel upgrade (which the OP is probably doing anyways), it's better to get a new 2-in-1 (or, ideally, 3-in-1) panel and wire them separately.  You can always come back and do #B if you want.

Pavan Sandhu · Answer

You don't NEED it but may WANT it. But first i'd consider going all electric. Would love to connect and hear more about your project.

Justin Gottuso · Answer

@Magdaleno Garcia ask your licensed contractor and electrician.....

Maxwell Ventura · Answer

@Justin R.

Thanks for sharing. Great info there. Regarding the solar situation. What about getting a PPE/lease or $0 down purchase financing and then offering free electricity to your tenants (while upping the rents)?

I see the flip side of this too.. By getting additional electric meters it's a 1 time payment and then the electricity payment is out of sight out of mind after that.

Magdaleno Garcia · Answer

Justine R. wow, lots of good info, I really appreciate your knowledge and willingness to share.

I was thinking if my current gas meter would be enough to feed all three units or would I need to add an extra meter to have good gas pressure. The current gas meter is original to our house. The house was built in 1950's and it was a SFR.

Magdaleno Garcia · Answer

@ Pavan Sandhu, I just sent you a message.

Do I need a second gas meter for my second ADU?

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