Hi all,
My brother lives in a housing complex consisting of 5 attached houses that share a huge, common backyard. Several years ago, they chipped in and hired someone to put a sprinkler system in the yard. The guy drilled a well to provide the water, and the pump was connected to the subpanel in one of the resident's basement. Since that person is getting billed for all the electricity used by what is actually a "communal" pump, the guy who installed it told them that it costs approx. $100 a year, so every summer the other 4 residents (my brother included) pay the first resident $20 each.
However, they are not very comfortable with the idea of estimating the cost at $100 a year - the one who's paying the bill is worried that it actually costs more, while the other neighbors contend that perhaps it costs less. So they would like to have some method of metering how much electricity it is actually using.
I had been thinking of unwiring it from the panel, attaching a plug to the end, and using a
Kill-a-Watt device. The problem is that the pump apparently has two 15-amp breakers linked together, leading us to believe that it is a 240-volt device (there is always the possibility that it's actually two separate 120-volt circuits that are linked together due to code requirements, but that seems unlikely), and the Kill-a-Watt device is only good for 120 volts.
So our next idea was: why not get a hold of a meter socket, and an old meter from someplace (perhaps eBay), and rig the pump up to that? After all, when my brother had his basement finished as an apartment, the electrician did just that to the basement subpanel, so my brother can read the meter and bill his tenant for the electricity accordingly.
What I would do is turn off the power; disconnect the incoming wires from the pump from their breakers, and connect them to the meter socket terminals; connect another two wires from the other two meter socket terminals to the original breakers; plug in the meter; and turn the power back on. Can anybody see any flaws with that plan so far?
Now, I've been looking around a bit on eBay, and I found
these two meters which look like one of them might work. The question is, how do I know if it is compatible with a particular socket? Are all four-connector sockets made with the same standard dimensions, or are there different types/sizes? i.e. would
this used one or
this new one work?
Or does anyone have any better ideas for measuring the amount of electricity used by the pump over the summer?
By the way, these are their priorities for whatever metering system I install:
-It should be as cheap as possible (preferrably $50 or less)
-It can even be an older, cheaper meter (i.e. harder to read, and perhaps slightly inaccurate) - the main point is to get a basic idea of the price, even if it's off by a couple of dollars.
-Although it should be installed in a safe, code-approved manner, they don't mind violating a couple of codes that are for technical reasons (i.e. codes that were established as a matter of fire safety, they care about; but not codes that are just in place to keep things uniform and standardized or whatever - for example, someone might tell me that it's illegal to place a device such as a meter downstream from the panel, but violating that would not result in a fire hazard).
-And, of course, it should work. ;)
Thanks in advance,
Moishe