On May 28, 10:26*pm, Home Guy wrote:

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?

@Home Guy:

A "demand meter" comes into play as a factor when:

-- The size of the electrical service is exceeds a certain
predetermined size...

-- The property is zoned commercial/industrial usually
will have a demand meter unless you are a small tenant
with a separate meter and your electrical service capacity
is smaller than the predetermined size mentioned above...

A "demand meter" is no more or less accurate than the
meter you have installed on your house -- it is simply
keeping track of an additional aspect to your power use,
rather than only being an odometer counting how many
kWh of energy you are using in a month, it is also keeping
track of what your greatest simultaneous draw of energy
(a.k.a. your "peak demand") was during the billing period
which like others have said acts as a multiplier or
determines which billing rate you will be charged for your
electric bill for that month...

With a "demand meter" service, a business which uses
a consistent 20KW of electrical energy during a billing
period would pay a different rate than a customer who
uses 100KW of electrical energy in short bursts even
if the overall consumption of kWh during said billing
period was identical...

~~ Evan