How are you billed for non-residential electricity?

[strantor]

I'll try to keep the story short... I had a 30'x30' workshop built on the lot next to my house. It is 60ft from a transformer pole so I opted to install a meter can on it and let the power company worry about getting power to it because to feed it from my house service would require 400ft worth trenching and burying 4/0 cable.

It was 6 months ago I had power put to it and my bills have been about $45/mo. $30 of that has been usage and the other $15 has been TDU charges. This month's bill reflected the same amount of usage charge, but TDU charges went up to $109.

I called my provider (TXU Energy) to ask what was up and they said that the TDU (Centerpoint) reclassified my account from a residential account to a business account. I had to get someone from centerpoint to come inspect and verify there was no business operating at the address. The tech who came agreed that what had happened was silly and would be resolved.

I called just now to follow up and was told that the tech had gone out and verified that it was a business. After much back and forth and mixing of ambiguous terms, apparently they don't (or won't in my case) make any distinction between a "non-residential" installation and a "commercial" installation. Because my building doesn't have a bathroom and a kitchen, I must now pay 3x for electricity.

My question is: is this normal? Has anyone here had similar problems/experience? If so, how did you navigate the issue? If you have a 2nd meter for an uninhabited building, how is it billed? As a business or what? Should I shove a toilet, camp stove, and a cot in there and call it a residence?

 

[Jstpssng]

I would do just as you suggest. The drawback will be when your municipality finds out and either raises your taxes or fines you for an illegal construction.

You just raised a timely point though, as I am in the process of having power run to my father's shop on the family homestead. It's a 1 car garage which was always tied in with the greenhouse business, which closed years ago and has had the power disconnected. I had planned to isolate power to the shop so that we can use it occasionally, but if it ends up being a fiasco like what you are facing I will change my plans.

 

[teejk]

I'll try to keep the story short... I had a 30'x30' workshop built on the lot next to my house. It is 60ft from a transformer pole so I opted to install a meter can on it and let the power company worry about getting power to it because to feed it from my house service would require 400ft worth trenching and burying 4/0 cable.

It was 6 months ago I had power put to it and my bills have been about $45/mo. $30 of that has been usage and the other $15 has been TDU charges. This month's bill reflected the same amount of usage charge, but TDU charges went up to $109.

I called my provider (TXU Energy) to ask what was up and they said that the TDU (Centerpoint) reclassified my account from a residential account to a business account. I had to get someone from centerpoint to come inspect and verify there was no business operating at the address. The tech who came agreed that what had happened was silly and would be resolved.

I called just now to follow up and was told that the tech had gone out and verified that it was a business. After much back and forth and mixing of ambiguous terms, apparently they don't (or won't in my case) make any distinction between a "non-residential" installation and a "commercial" installation. Because my building doesn't have a bathroom and a kitchen, I must now pay 3x for electricity.

My question is: is this normal? Has anyone here had similar problems/experience? If so, how did you navigate the issue? If you have a 2nd meter for an uninhabited building, how is it billed? As a business or what? Should I shove a toilet, camp stove, and a cot in there and call it a residence?

OUCH! Our "standing meter charge" here is $35/mo. and easy to do the math on that in deciding a separate meter vs. tying into your residential service (I chose the latter...not that far and a trencher was on site for the well). You must have a regulatory agency in TX that you can ask. Btw, as everything becomes more efficient (usage charges are decreasing), utilities are scrambling to make up the difference...shifting to "fixed" cost requires approval and a lot of time. Apparently your situation is a new way that I had not heard of before.

 

[TnAndy]

That is the way our power company here does it. Residential meter is the one on your house....any other is charged commercial rates.....shop, meter for a well supply, anything. I found it was a whole lot cheaper (in the long run) to put in a 400amp service for my house and send 200 of it underground to the shop, removing the meter there.

 

[LD48750]

My barn with a separate meter is billed commercial.
Nothing I can do to change that even though they KNOW it sin't.

 

[strantor]

That is the way our power company here does it. Residential meter is the one on your house....any other is charged commercial rates.....shop, meter for a well supply, anything. I found it was a whole lot cheaper (in the long run) to put in a 400amp service for my house and send 200 of it underground to the shop, removing the meter there.

I have 3 separate lots side-by-side, with 3 separate addresses. Only my house lot has a mailbox and it's on the first lot. Workshop is on the 2nd lot. 3rd lot is empty. Friendly local county tax assessor (that's not sarcastic, they're actually reasonable a pleasure to deal with, oddly) suggested I combine them and homestead the whole place to save money. I declined, in anticipation of building a house on the 3rd lot and selling the house I live in.

I say all that to say this: there's no two meters on one address, if that's their policy, they're going to have to treat this as a 2nd house on a separate plot of land, which it is. I think if I say there's a kitchen and bathroom in that shop they can take my word for it or I can take out the newly ran service with a shotgun and power the shop with a generator; diesel would be cheaper.

 

[strantor]

My barn with a separate meter is billed commercial.
Nothing I can do to change that even though they KNOW it sin't.

That's horrible. How much is your bill typically? What rate are they charging you and how much is usage vs. TDU charges?

 

[amaxwell]

Same here my barn is billed as commercial and at a higher rate .Last month 75kwh was $41 at the barn, and at my house 1780 was $199. I haven't checked about running power from the house , since it is over 800'.

 

[LD48750]

That's horrible. How much is your bill typically? What rate are they charging you and how much is usage vs. TDU charges?

I don't use the barn much anymore & hey don't send a bill until it gets over $30.
Last bill was for 64 days / 48KWH @ $35.00 - a few cents.

 

[newbury]

<snip> Should I shove a toilet, camp stove, and a cot in there and call it a residence?

Yup.
They tried to bill us for a commercial rate for my shops in the pic.

They are about 100 yards from the house.
Darn near choked when I heard what they wanted for the commercial fee. We probably average < $10/month above the meter "rent".
But the middle building has an "apartment", w/ toilet & stove. (and 400 amp service panel) So my lawyer (wife) convinced them it was residential. Luckily the tax assessor doesn't seem to talk to the electric company.