Questions on metering for an apartment building

Rob Blair

I have a client whose house is divided into 4 apartments.  It has 4 completely different heating units (water heater, 70 yr old boiler, 2 40 yr old boilers) and he would like to combine into one unit.

What is the simplest way to monitor usage between the units?



Thanks,



Rob

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

BTU meters

Take a look at Onicon or Istec (www.istec.corp.com) to see their BTU meters.  I have a number of Istec 5201 meters installed in an 8 unit building so the owner can bill each tenant individually for heating.  This reduces the tenants utility costs (more favorable rates for larger usage), encourages frugal energy usage, reduces costs for building owner (single easily accessible heating plant versus several more difficult to service heating plants), encourages the installation of more efficient equipment ( a single high efficiency boiler is much less costly than several less efficient units), and allows for another potential income stream for the owner.   I understand these are quite common in Europe and are seeing increased use in the Eastern US.  I have probably one of the few installations here in the Midwest.  Here's a preliminary picture of the install.  The meters are a little right of center in the picture. The single TT Prestige 250 supplies heat to standing radiation with TRV's and coils in air handlers and a Smart 60 tank.  The system runs full outdoor reset.   The water heater is unmetered.  A Wilo Stratos moves the water with very low electrical costs, with a small back up pump piped in parallel is available should the main pump go down.  We left room for a second Prestige as the load calculation showed it would be necessary.  However, this first winter, this is every indication that this little heating plant will heat this 10,000 sq ft 1880's brick structure with 11 ft ceilings quite comfortably.

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

And, BTW, they also make these types of meters for Steam...NM

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