Converting 2-unit to One

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1victorianfarmhouse

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Years ago my house was converted to. Two unit for rental purposes. Thus, I have two electrical meters and two fuse boxes. One is for the upstairs and attic unit, the other is for the lower level and basement/outdoors.
My electrical company, Com Ed, will soon be converting the old meters to new, smart meters. I would like to have both systems combined onto one meter. Before I start contacting electricians for quotes, are there any obvious issues or concerns you guys and gals can see that I should be aware of? Pictures of both inside and outside are apparently too big to attach. I will see if I can downsize them. Thanks as always!

Vince in Illinois
 
Sounds like you have enough power to the house, would not just have the electrician pull both meters rewire them both to be powered from the one and have PoCo re install the meter.
Perhaps the second box could be changed to shut off to make any future major work safer
 
Before you do it, think about leaving it as two meters and two services.

If you or someone else decides at a later date to split the building into two apartments again and you already have two electric services then you may have an easier time doing the split. The two electric services may well hold the building open as a two unit building for zoning purposes so doing the split would not require a rezoning.
 
Before you do it, consider keeping it as two separate electrical services.

This would probably maintain the zoning as two family. Then if you decide to split the building into two units again, then the process would be easier.
 
ajaynejr said:
Before you do it, consider keeping it as two separate electrical services.

This would probably maintain the zoning as two family. Then if you decide to split the building into two units again, then the process would be easier.
Click to expand...
Most utilities will charge you a meter reading charge for the second meter on the same common ownership premise. Locally the charge for reading a second meter for the same customer at a single property is $20 a month. That is $240 a year for keeping the second meter as a utility meter. If you want to maintain the separation have your electrician rearrange the service so that one of the meters is supplying both haves of the house. The one meter can supply both but supply the second half through the second meter enclosure. That meter base could be bypassed inside it's enclosure, have meter shunts installed, or if you have some reason to know how much power one half of the house is using separately you could purchase and install a second meter of the dumb mechanical variety. That last would not seen to make sense in your situation but your the one that's there.

--
Tom Horne
 
Are the 2 present meters side by side , or close to each other ?

Try taking photos with a cell phone . they may end up being smaller size files than from a " real camera " .

Wyr
God bless
 
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