Room rental sub meter

[Ruzzty]

Hello.

I have an omnimeter I v.3 that was installed in a guest house, as a submeter, that we rent out. My wife and I are retired and I do a lot of updating around the house often, including the guest house. Both houses run off the same meter, this the purpose of the submeter, and we will charge the electricity bill to our tennants according to their usage. The house is under rental contract for the month of August. My question is- is there a simple way to deactivate the the submeter at the submeter box when I am the one using electricity in the guest house, for repairs etc. so that there is no discrepancy about charges to the tennants? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Russ

[Jameson]

Hello Ruzzty,

Welcome to the forum

The only way that I can think of to easily deactivate the meter would be to un-power it when you are the one that is using power. When you power it back on it will pick up right where it left off. Of course you would want to power it back up and prevent access to it when you do have tenants.

The alternative would be to leave it on always and then record the meter data with the EKM Dash software or the EKM Push system. You would then subtract kWh usage that came from the times that you were using the power.

This should do it. Let me know if this answers your question.

[Ruzzty]

I can't power it down without powering off the entire house. I was told maybe loosening and/or pulling the CT1, CT2, Or CT3 wire at the sub meter? Does that sound correct? I would just track my usage but I don't want to create any confusion or issues.. I'm old fashion I guess..

[Jameson]

Yes, removing the CT wires would do it (without current, there are no kWh being measured). It would bring your meter to a standstill. Of course you are going to want to be the only one that will be able to do this.

Be sure not to leave your CTs with the wires not shorted to eachother. This could damage your CTs. Be sure to have a wire nut to short the black and white wires from the CT to eachother.

[Ruzzty]

Be sure not to leave your CT's with the wires not shorted to each other. This could damage your CT's. Be sure to have a wire nut to short the black and white wire crime the CT together.

Hi Jameson.

You lost me with the above sentences. So- would I not just be able to losen the bolts on these CT's and they should deactivate?- or will I need pull all CT wires (blk and white) out completely, or just some? and use wire nuts on the ends? Or maybe only pull the black ones or the white ones for each CT and leave the other in? Or pull all CT blk/white wires and wire nut the ends? Sorry for the questions, I'm excited there is a solution. Thanks.

Btw- the sub meter is on my end of the property attached to my home- so don't think the tennants will know how I cut power to sub meter but with power running. I'll just say I programmed it that way when I need it. Thank you very much for the help.

[Jameson]

For CT1 you would have to disconnect both the black and the white wire and touch them together and then put a wire nut on them to make sure they stay connected.

Repeat for CT2 and CT3 if you have them.

This will "short" the 2 wires to eachother.

Thanks

[Ruzzty]

Very good! Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day!

Rusty

[Ruzzty]

Ok.. I ran into a problem. I unplugged all of the CT's and the sub meter and twist tied them together- BUT the sub meter is still running. I do see that there are wires connected to L1, L2, L3, and N. Do I need to do anything with those?

[Jameson]

No problem, without CTs connected the meter will not meausure current, and without current the meter will not measure kWh.

[Ruzzty]

Understand .. But the meter is still running and accruing wattage.. And the blinking indicator light is blinking..

Do to think it may be the L1, L2, L3, N attachments ?