Utility billing solution for Mult-Family units?

[Sean OReilly]

I've been looking at a lot of multi family buildings here in NH, and since many of them are older homes that have been converted into apartments (2-4 units), many of which have common heating systems, so the rent includes heat.

With a background in (commercial) energy management and utility billing systems, these seem like they can be good opportunities for me to go in, lower rent and recover utility costs (subject to existing leases of course). NH is fairly lenient on sub metering and billing, so it should be fairly straightforward.

I see systems for larger apartment complexes, but I don't see a lot of low-cost systems in place to accurately measure and recover costs to heat a unit in a small multi-family dwelling. I know it can be done at a pretty reasonable price by modifying some commercial technologies to meet this need, but it seems like no one has done this. Am I re-inventing the wheel here, or is there really no cost-effective system to do this in these smaller properties?