Can I grid tie like this?

[BioHazard]

It's not quite as bad as it sounds, I have to put up with a stupid landlord, but fortunately I have a good lease that requires her to meet most of my demands.

Now that I've gotten to thinking about this, if I got my own submeter, I could technically "turn my meter backwards", or back to zero that is, my portion of the bill on the meter, without a submetering agreement. Since the neighbors are using thousands of kilowatts too, the PoCo will never see return power even if I sent back around 1000kw/month...

The most difficult part would be explaining to the landlord how this all works, and how to do the math for the new electric bill.  I remember when I moved in and asked her if the place had 3 phase power, she looked at me like I had 2 heads....(you mean there's more than one type of power?!)

[Geno]

The new Kill-a-watts have memory. You could put 3 of them on current transformers. No?

Thanks, Geno

[LowGear]

Poop-House Lawyer:

Hacking the wiring without permits could be grounds for eviction and let's not forget installing non conforming equipment.

The place burns and the inspectors find your "system" and you could easily become liable for all losses.  Cleaver tenants are one of my nightmares.  I'm a stupid landlord as well.

Get out at your first opportunity seems like the best route.

I agree.  Buy your own property and use that giant brain to make it "Perfect".

Casey

[vdubnut62]

Used, reconditioned meters are cheap, but the SOCKET for them has to be bought new, unless you are really lucky.

Huh, that is odd (to me) Here you just go to the utility company and ask and the meter base is free for residential/farm use.
Or at least it used to be, the last time I had occasion to need one. Of course 3 phase may be different.
I guess I'm lucky, or not, I have a couple of licensed electrician buddies that do my work in exchange for my fixing their cars.
Ron

[BioHazard]

Poop-House Lawyer:

Hacking the wiring without permits could be grounds for eviction and let's not forget installing non conforming equipment.

The place burns and the inspectors find your "system" and you could easily become liable for all losses.  Cleaver tenants are one of my nightmares.  I'm a stupid landlord as well.

Get out at your first opportunity seems like the best route.

I agree.  Buy your own property and use that giant brain to make it "Perfect".

Casey

Not going to happen, I can guarantee it. You should have seen the wiring when I moved in. This was right after the cops pulled a meth addict/theif out that was living in my barn. He didn't know the place had 3 phase power either, even though he wasn't qualified to fix a table lamp, he basically rewired the entire place. Most neutral wires were overloaded by triple. (if you know much about 3 phase you'll know why) There were no grounds, for some reason he just cut them all off. There were at least 3 different circuits using 14ga wire and 50 amp breakers.

On the other end of those breakers, his favorite trick was to wrap bare wires around the end of an electrical plug, rather than installing an outlet or finding an extension cord. If he didn't burn the place down, I'm certainlyy not going to.

The landlords reaction to all this? A shrug of the shoulders, and a new "for rent" sign. She didn't attempt to fix any of it before I moved in, and she knew how wrong it was. She even gave the deposit back to the tweaker who got arrested!

Previous to me moving in here, I leased a different building from her. The electrical was nearly as bad there too. I installed four GFCI outlets at my own cost because it was a code requirement and I just wanted them for my own safety. When I moved into the new building I asked the landlord if she would spend $15 each on 3 new required GFCI outlets so I could fix the place up. Her response "oh, we don't want to spend that much, go take the ones out of the other building you put in" Asking me to do that was a crime, though I did it anyway.

In the end? The landlord couldn't give a s*** less about any electrical project I do, and, anything I do is an improvement to the death trap I found when I got here.

Additionally if she makes me mad, there's enough code violations all over all of her buildings to condemn them if I complain to the city with the inside knowledge I have, which would instantly cost her about 10 grand a month in lost rent, let alone the fines...

Trust me, without having ANY knowlege of what goes on at this place, I'm more of a landlord there than the owner is. I literally have to explain to her on a regular basis "how" to be a landlord and various things she needs to do. She hasn't been the landlord any longer than I have been a tennant...

PS - I don't call her stupid just because I don't like her. I call her stupid because she is, by far, the stupidest person I have ever come across. She wins even over the worst illegal immigrant working at the drive through window who gives you chicken nuggets when you ordered a cheeseburger...

[lowspeedlife]

If it's just lighting put it on a transfer switch & sub panel & feed one side of it with your inverter. as for your metering problems the 208200kit listed here http://www.emon.com/products_class2000.html  is what you need. put CT's on the feed to your panel (s) & your done.
SR

[BioHazard]

It looks like I may end up putting in a new power service for myself at the shop. The local utility only wants me to dig a trench 3' deep and lay a 3" conduit (200') and they will come out and fill the pipe with copper wires and give me a meter for free! I can probably run the conduit for less than the cost of a submeter...

If I have my own meter, I can also choose to be on their "time of use" billing plan where it only cost me 4.5 cents/KWH late at night when I'm using all those lights!