If your business is growing, then your energy usage can grow with it. And, if you want to increase your energy capacity or even decide to relocate to new premises that have no meters, you need to install new meters. The good news is it can take at least five days to two weeks to install a new business energy meter.
But if you decide to get an extra meter fitted, then installation can sometimes take up to two weeks because more work may be required at your property. This is the reason why it’s a good idea to check business electricity prices and begin arranging for the new meter installation for your electricity or gas quite early. This article discusses everything you should know about a business energy meter installation.
A business energy meter installation
There are several steps you have to take for your energy supplier to install a new business meter at your business premises. You need to find out your business gas and electricity supply numbers. Remember that these are unique numbers that can identify the energy supply to your business premises. The Meter Point Administration Number abbreviated as MPAN can be on your electricity bill while the Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) can be on the gas bill.
You should also figure out the type of meter you want. It’s worth noting the energy meters tend to vary, so it’s crucial to talk to your energy supplier to determine the type of energy meter that suits your business.
While speaking with your energy supplier, you can also negotiate a price for the new meter. In most cases, a smart meter installation can be free, but some energy suppliers can charge you a fee for installing any other types of energy meters, especially if your business utilizes a lot of energy. The good thing is that you can always negotiate the installation costs, so avoid accepting the energy supplier’s first quote. You can discuss with the energy supplier the costs of installing a new electricity meter and negotiate a price for business gas meter installation.
After agreeing on this, you can book your installation appointment. Your business energy supplier can come to assess the tasks that they need to do and arrange the time to install the new energy meter. When they install the new energy meter, you can start receiving energy bills.
That said, if you intend to get a gas meter installed at your business premises, you have to arrange for the installation. If you are renting the business premises, your landlord can arrange the fitting of your gas meter. Regardless of this, it’s still your responsibility to organize the gas meter installation with the gas supplier and ensure a qualified gas engineer fits it.
You can decide to fit a gas meter on an external wall that is less than two meters from the corner of your property on either a sealed window or the side of a door. There are some situations when a gas meter can be installed inside a building. This includes if the business workplace is part of a large industrial property and if the business premises features a boundary wall that is in front of a footpath. You can also fit a gas meter inside a building in communal areas that have blocks of flats and in the plant room of office buildings.
Types of energy meters
There are various types of energy meters you can find on the market, and each of them is designed to suit the energy demands of businesses. You can decide to get single-rate meters. These meters can monitor your business energy consumption at a flat rate or a single rate. This makes them quite popular for many businesses, especially for businesses that mostly run during the peak consumption time between 8 am and 10 pm.
There is also a standard meter that is considered to be a common energy meter. A standard meter uses one unit rate to measure your energy usage, meaning the cost remains the same for each unit. This meter requires you to manually take the meter readings and send them to your energy supplier. Failure to do this, the energy supplier can put you on estimated billing. As a result, you can end up underpaying or overpaying for energy.
A business smart meter is the next generation meter that utilizes wireless technology to automatically read and send readings to your energy supplier. A smart energy meter can provide correct billings and allows you to be in control ofyour business energy consumption and can help you lower your energy bills.
There is also a half-hourly meter that is designed for a business with high energy demand. This meter takes half-hourly readings and sends them to your energy supplier. This can save you the problems of taking manual meter readings and makes sure that there is accurate energy billing. This energy meter is suitable for a large business with a lot of energy consumption.
A two-rate meter is another type of energy meter. This meter charges two separate energy rates, but this can depend on the time of the day. The cheaper unit energy rates can be charged during the off-peak time and expensive energy rates are charged during peak hours.
A two-rate meter is also called a time of use meter. They are also called Economy 7 and Economy 10 energy meters. These are two-rate energy meters that offer separate rates and readings for nighttime and daytime energy usage. The daily energy consumption rate tends to be higher during peak time while the nighttime can be lower for each unit your business uses within a specific period, which can be a seven or ten-hour period.
Likewise, an evening and weekend energy meter has two rates that include the lower rate for the energy usage on weekends. This meter is ideal for a business that uses the most energy on weekends. Therefore, you need to make sure that you get this energy meter if your business does a lot of its operations on weekends.
