Working with a three-story medical office building that has individual practices on each floor, but only one master meter from PSE&G. The landlord has been splitting the bill equally three ways, but the ground floor has an MRI machine and imaging center that's probably using 60% of the total power. Any suggestions for fair allocation without installing submeters?
Medical office building - tenant billing nightmare
Michelle - that's a mess waiting to happen. The MRI alone probably draws 30-40 kW when running. I'd strongly recommend submeters even though it's an upfront cost. Otherwise you'll have angry tenants and potential legal issues. Had a similar building where the dermatology practice was subsidizing the radiology group's massive electric bill.
Elmer's right about submeters being the cleanest solution. Short term, you could do load studies on each suite to establish fair allocation percentages. But with medical equipment loads, usage can vary dramatically depending on patient volume and equipment schedules.
Thanks guys. The landlord was hoping to avoid the submeter cost but you're right - with that MRI machine the current split is totally unfair to the other tenants. I'll push for proper submetering as the only real solution.