[missversace]

Hello and thanks in advance for your thoughts on this. I am living in a 2 family house built in the early 1960s. Recently, some work was done in my kitchen and the water and gas needed to be turned off for my apartment. The guy went with my landlord into the garage where the shut off valves are as well as 3 meters for electric and 2 meters for gas. There was only 1 shut off valve which controlled the gas to both apartments and the water heater. How is this possible if my landlord pays his heat and gas used to heat hot water and I pay my own heat? Also, why would there be 3 meters for electric with only 2 apartments? My utility bills are very high for 1 person and I'm wondering if its possible I am paying for more than my apartment?Thanks!

[massplumber2008]

Hello Missversace

A typical gas system in a multi. unit building is set up with a main gas shut off valve and then the gas meters are installed with each meter having its own shut off valve. Each gas appliance after each meter gets its own shut off as well.

In your case, you should be able to walk over to your individual gas meter and you should be able to follow the gas pipe to each of your gas appliances (water heater, dryer, stove, etc. if present). Again, each appliance should have a gas shut off valve associated with it as you follow the pipe over to each appliance (the gas stove shut off is behind the stove so you may not easily see that).

Finally, the reason there are three electric meters is because there is one meter for the COMMON ELECTRIC (hall lights, basement lights, outside lights), one meter for the landlord unit and one for the tenant apartment. The reason there are only two gas meters is because there are no common connections between the units... in other words, there is not a common hot water heater (as an example) or heater/boiler that feeds the entire house.

Chase out the gas pipe from your gas meter and you should find that they feed only your gas appliances. If you discover differently, contact your local gas company or plumbing inspector in town and have them help you to be sure you are correct and can help in getting you any refunds back from the landlord that you were charged... ;)

Mark