"How many electric meters can be used to heat/light a home?"?

Question

My townhome has 3 electric meters powering a 1500 square foot townhome.

My townhome USES 3 electric meters to heat/light it. I have been told and shown by the meter reader. There are 3 meters to every unit in my community.

Answer 1

If you want to test it then turn everything off in your home and check the meter, wait a couple of hours and check it again. See which one didn't change, A couple of hour shouldn't hurt anything in your house. If the other two are still running, and IF Your getting a bill for them. then turn the disconnect at the meter off and see how long it is before one of your neighbors comes running.

There should be an ID number on the meter which is also on your bill.

It is very unusual for one address to have more than one meter, but in areas where the utility is owned by the city if can happen, this is especially true where one address at one time may have been a duplex or triplex but now is a single family residence, it is easier to combine the bills than to change the feed to the address.
like someone here said one meter, one breaker, one bill. two meters two breaker panels , two bills etc.

Answer 2

One home...one meter (with very few exceptions). What you describe is an electrical panel (used for apartments, duplexes, etc) which is split into 3 separate services...one for each home. Those meters are required to be labled so that the power company and the customers know who is using how much power. The meter reader is either mistaken or pulling a joke on you. You can call the power company or a licensed electrician if you wish to verify this.

Answer 3

The meter doesn't "power" the house, it only measures the electricity passing thru it from the service line into your home. It could be that, for some reason, multiple service lines were put in place. Perhaps the builders thought the homes would be subdivided into smaller units later, each needing a seperate meter. After passing thru the meter the electricity would go to a breaker box in your home to be distrubited onto the different circuts in you house. So, you should have either multiple breaker panels in your unit or three cables (one from each meter) coming into a single breaker box if you do indeed have three meters.

Answer 4

Noone ever said it would be more affordable for us to "go green". This is one of the little things that these "Go Green" proponents always leave out of their rhetoric. Wind farms are not efficient either. It takes approximately 233 of the largest wind-turbines to replace an average coal energy plant. These wind turbines need to be space about 300 meters apart and there can be no trees, structures, etc. in close proximity. This means that thousands of acres of forest need to be razed in order to place the windmills.. (Green?) Also, the wind turbines have a short lifespan of 20 years at the high end of estimations. Replacing them in 20 years will be very expensive. They will only operate within a specified range (too windy or not enough wind they sit idle).

Answer 5

You have one meter the other 2 town houses have the other 2

Answer 6

Are you sure that the other two meters aren't for your neighbors houses.
There are other applications for multiple meters too!

Answer 7

if, and i say if you have three meters you should have three separate breaker boxes as well as three separate bills. i think the meter man was messing with you ( i couldn't really say what he was doing to you because the answer would have been deleted, lol).

Answer 8

I think aussie is right again. Find ou which one is yours if it is bothering you.
Where do you live? There is no reason to have three meters on such a small place.

Answer 9

You have one meter they put all meters for other townhouses on the same side and yours is it.

Answer 10

one.