Separated electricity meters for in-law unit

[Peter Doan]

Hi,

I own a rental house that has two separated units in California. One unit in front and one unit in the back. They all are separated. The unit in the back is an in-law unit. Right now they share a same electricity meter. Would it be possible to get a permit from city to separate the electricity for the two units? 

I know that you can do it with duplex or second dwelling units California but I am not sure if it is allowed for the in-law unit.

I would appreciate if anyone would help me with this.

Thank you

[Jo-Ann Lapin]

my understanding is that you can’t on adu’s

[Thomas S.]

A in-law suite is likely illegal to rent, it is in most jurisdictions. Maybe different in CA.

[Max Gradowitz]

Generally speaking, your property must be zoned for duplex, two homes on one lot, etc or else the County and utility company will not allow for separate meters.

In-law units, as far as I understand, do not fit this category. They are single family homes zoned for single family residence, but the county allows for a separate in-law unit on the property.  Assuming this is what you have, I'm gonna say no, you can't get separate meters unfortunately.

[Karen Margrave]

I think the State of California has told counties they have to allow ADU's, due to the lack of affordable housing. I am curently converting a garage/shop building to an ADU. However; my house is on 20 acres, and sits back about 150' from the road. The house and the garage unit (it actually already has bathroom, kitchen, etc.) is across from the main house. I talked to PG&E today in regard to a separate meter. It's allowed, the only question is what it's going to cost me to switch out the main panel, put in another that will handle the ADU. Both houses will have their own addresses, and the ADU is basically another legal unit. I can also build another house on the property too.

Every state and city is different. What you need to do is contact the utility provider and ask them what it takes to do what you want. Also contact the planning department, and building departments. 

In my case the ADU is limited to 1200 sq. ft. The unit as built actually has around 1800, therefore, I will need to put up a wall, submit an "as built" set of plans, and of course, pay for another permit for the conversion, because the building permit that we paid for when we originally built wasn't for an ADU.

[Peter Doan]

Thank you very much all the for helpful information. 

I contacted PGE, the electricity provider and they have no problem split the electricity in their end. The only problem is that, I would need a permit from city so that they can inspect when the electricity split is done, and the issue would not provide me the permit if it is not a legal dwelling unit.

Let me add some more information about my house. My so called in-law unit has the same size of the main unit which is about 1500sqft. The land is 7000sqft. The in-law unit has kitchen, bathroom, and 4 beds. It is 1500 sqft, which  is more than the 1200sqft limit for a second unit. So the city gives me two options: 

- make second unit smaller (up to 750 sqft as it can only be 50% of the first unit)  so that it can be a second unit

- or apply for the house become a duplex.

The first choice does not work for me because it would alter the whole layout of the second unit and from investment point of view it does not give me any benefit.

The second choice would be very expensive as the city said it would cost about 50K for all the fees to pay for the city to legalize it. On top of it, I have to put a fire-proof wall between the two units which need me to tear down the current wall between them.

What I just want to do it to split the electricity but it seems that there is not an easy way to do it. I am not sure how to move further with this situation.

@Karen Margrave When you submitted the plan to legal the unit, wased the fee was as high as 50K like I mention above?

Thank you

[Peter Doan]

@Max Gradowitz My house is in the zone of duplex but the house is the single family house with in-law unit

[Karen Margrave]

@Peter Doan  on mine, the County has the original plans and permits from when the house waas built new. They have all the inspections, and the unit was finaled. However; somehow they didn't record the information on the septic, and are making me do a new design and retrofit to current standard, which will cost me around 16,000 for that. As for the conversion I'm told it will be around 3000. They don't have to do much on their part. All the construction went through permits and building inspections when it was built, they just need a new set of plans showing the reduced size. 

[Dan H.]

Have you considered just adding a subpanel with a submeter?   I suspect there is a small number of electrical runs from the primary unit to the secondary unit.  Run them to a metered subpanel.   I have had subpanels added but not a metered subpanel.

I do not know how much a submeter is but I know that the inverter for my solar has a submeter (I.e. I can find out how much power I generated as well as how much power I used).

Of course the utility company would not read the submeter.  In some locations in Germany they have a meter for water for entire property and a submeter for water for the garden/yard.  The sewer fee is based on water that is not for the yard (water into house - water used for yard).  The property owner reports the water use on the submeter.  I suspect there is an occasional verification that the reported submeter water is accurate. 

Good luck

I thought it was a fair approach as people with large yards in US where sewer fee is based on total water use pay more sewer fee than what they use.

[Richard DeLaO]

Peter, you will need to do it your self. You might have the same situation as me, in San Pablo, CA. The in-law unit has it's own water, gas and electricity but they come from the main house. I was able to get a contractor to install a sub meter for gas, electricity and water. I ask the tenants to send me a picture of the readings, according to when the master meters are read. 

The only thing that I'm having issues with; is not having a good spreadsheet with all the calculations, where all I do is plug in the numbers from the total bills and then plug in the numbers for the actual submeter readings. I'm still looking of that spreadsheet.

[Michael Campana]

Hi Richard DeLaO, I'm also in El Sobrante and I'm thinking of sub-metering my in-law unit, for electricity only.  Can you tell me some of the details you had to deal with when you installed your sub-meter for electricity?  I don't think I'm going to bother with water or gas.

[Mike Thoeresz]

@Peter Doan I’m in California with the same dilemma. I’m looking at different sub meter options but I don’t love anything this far. Please post if you find an excellent solution. Thanks 🙏

[Richard DeLaO]

Hi, Michael, I still have not solve the issue with that unit. But, I'm in the process of converting my primary home garage into a JADU and I'm planning of getting sperate electric meters. So, Far the plans are 90% approved. Still making some changes. I'm in Richmond/El Sobrante. As for the other unit, I'll be contacting PG&E and see what they recommend.

[Richard F.]

Aloha,

Permitting is of course your responsibility, but if you choose to use one of these, installed by a licensed electrician, it can be used to accurately calculate usage for the sub panel, vs. having the electricity provider installing a standard meter. We have them on several properties, and, as @Richard DeLaO stated, we also have the tenants take a pic and email to us on specified date each month, ideally coinciding with the main meter reading cycle. It does not take much of a spreadsheet...all you are doing is subtracting last months submeter reading from the current one to get the kwh's used during that period, then multiply that by the cost per kwh for the utility bill to determine the subtenant charge. Subtract that amount from the utility bill for the main house.

https://store.leviton.com/coll...

[Melissa Schultz]

Can anyone explain what exactly they did and got to divide the electricity from the main house from ADU. I am in San Diego and want to do it asap. I know I have to do a sub meter however I don't know what that means. Thank you.

[Richard F.]

Quote from @Melissa Schultz:

Can anyone explain what exactly they did and got to divide the electricity from the main house from ADU. I am in San Diego and want to do it asap. I know I have to do a sub meter however I don't know what that means. Thank you.

 Aloha,

Your electricity comes into your home either from a pole along the street, or buried underground. The first element in the system is your electric meter, which feeds to your circuit breaker distribution panel (or fuse panel in very old homes) with a very large set of wires. Each breaker or fuse protects one circuit from overloading, electrically. A circuit gets its power from several small wires, often bundled as one cable, commonly known as Romex. That Romex runs from the breaker panel to each fixture or outlet that it powers. Typically, overhead lighting for multiple rooms will be on one circuit, while outlets are often on separate circuits consisting of multiple bedrooms, or multiple bathrooms, or a kitchen. Kitchens often have more than one circuit, such as one solely for the electric range; one for some of the countertop outlets; another for wall outlets opposite cabinet installation.

Depending on how your ADU was wired, it may be very easy, or very hard to add a submeter. In theory, if the ADU is built completely at a separate time from the main house, it should already have its own sub-breaker/distribution panel IN the ADU. If this is the case, it should be simple to add the submeter I linked to above...BY A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN ONLY.

If however, your ADU was directly attached to the main house, or already part of a larger home that you are able to modify to meet ADU requirements, you now have the issue of all of these multiple circuits already "in the system" extending across multiple rooms that are not within the ADU. If this is the case, you need to separate those circuits and rewire affected circuits by physically running a lot of new wire/cable in your ceiling, and in the walls. Not a simple task. In the main house, you are cutting out sections of wire or adding to complete the circuit. In the ADU, you would likely be running entirely new wiring for most, if not all of the circuits in order to relocate where their electrical feed begins...at a new sub panel within the ADU (or possibly right next to the main panel). That sub panel will need the same large size wire feed as the main house, coming from the main house panel (typically) in order to handle the capacity of all of the circuits in the ADU.

In every case, a licensed electrician needs to perform testing to determine what circuits, if any, will need to be separated; they need to determine if existing panel and main feed have adequate capacity for the added circuits; and they need to determine expected electrical loads within the ADU to ensure everything will be safe and meet codes. If it is a simple matter of just adding the sub meter to an existing sub panel, you're pretty much $1K all in. If circuits need to be split and recreated, multiple $K.

[Henry T.]

In parts of the NW it is madatory to have a separate meter, and probably very costly. Not to mention dealing with bloated and dumb ultility agency. I'm presently starting an ADU and hoping I can avoid this and get by with a variance. Meanwhile, if you just want to monitor for yourself, this appears very cool, and incredibly easy install. An electrician could have it doen in 10 minutes. I believe these little coils fit over you mainr feeds. They read the amperage and convert to kilowatts. You simply calculate kilowatts by how many cents your ultil charges. Pretty slick. This is probably not a city accepted solution, but it would work on a personal level.

[Henry T.]

In parts of the NW it is madatory to have a separate meter, and probably very costly. Not to mention dealing with a bloated ultility agency. I'm presently starting an ADU and hoping I can avoid this and get by with a variance. Meanwhile, if you just want to monitor for yourself, this appears very cool, and incredibly easy install. " Leviton 1K240-1SW Series 1000 120/240V 100A 1P3W Indoor Kit with 2 Solid Core CTs "
An electrician could have it doen in 10 minutes.  I believe these little coils fit over you main feeds. They read the amperage and convert to kilowatts. You simply calculate kilowatts  by how many cents your ultil charges.  Pretty slick. This is probably not a city accepted solution, but it would work on a personal level.....Btw, the new 2020 NEC code calls for some major changes in new construction. A legal ADU is new construction and must follow new construction rules accordingly. An outside disconnect(FOR FIREMEN TO SHUT ALL DOWN) main panel with surge protection(required). It is from here you would meter AND SUB FEED the main house existing panel and also SUB FEED the adu.  Expect 20k (ish) to have it all done. ADU panel would rqeuire all Arc-fault breakers in any living areas, another new requirement.