On May 29, 3:26*am, Home Guy wrote:
RBM wrote:
Do you have a demand meter?

I have no idea. *I would think that most utility companies try to
communicate as infrequently and as minimally as possible with their
customers.

We bought this building 6 years ago. *What-ever meter it had is
what-ever meter it had. *When we wanted the lights to come on, we placed
a call to the local utility and at some point soon after the lights came
on. *

They don't seem to be in the habbit of sending a welcome basket along
with a nice, comprehensive information package telling us what choices
of meters and electrical service we have, nor a copy of the
NIST-traceable certification for the meter.

Do you know what a demand meter is?

Never heard of it.

Typically commercial meters register peak demand and that peak
demand figure is used as a multiplier

What would be the criteria for determining when a "demand meter" is
installed in a given premises, vs a non "demand-meter" ?

Does a "demand meter" give a more accurate measure of energy
consumption?
It only shows the maximum. Usually they only show peaks that last a
fewminutes
The purpose of a demand meter is to discourage the electric consumer
from high peaks in demand. Usually there is an additional charge that
depends on this peak.
The reason for this is the cable and generating capacity has to be
sized to the peak.