Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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484 RECORD AND ()iUIDE October 26, 1918 Electric Meters for Tenants Will Save Coal Wastcful Use of CuiTcnt Will Bc Stoppcd, to thc Benefit Alike of Tcnant aiid Landlord By REGIN.A.LD PELHAM BOLTON. TO those who have followed tlie development of the ])enses among tenants according to their use, Tlie modern office building, the recent announcement stress of war conditions has now brought this about in in your issue of the 12t!i, of tlie probable abandon- the business building, as it has long ago been estab- ment of the free electric service, affords some interest- lished in the apartment and the loft building in regard ing reflections. to the use of electric energy for light or power. Such !)urdens carried by tlie owners of real estate The measuring of electric energy has !)een found to have l)een, tô a consideral)!e c.xtent, of their own mak- liave tlie effect of inducing the user to exercise care ing, l)drn of the competition arising from c.xcessive and and economy. even when the service is not the subject unregulated construction of one class of building. of a direct cliarge. Thus, wastage is reduced l)y the In the good old days of modest-size buildings, occu- nicre installation of a metered service, and the effect is pied !)y a single tenant, the investor was able to deter- much increased by a direct payment for the service af- mine the limit of liis expense and liabilities, confined us- forded. It will doubtless be found that tlie first result ualĩy to outside repair and taxation. But when real es- of the provision of meters in individual office spaces is tate prices were !)oomed, and larger buildings became a a substantial reduction in the amount of energy used necessity in order to provide an income on the inflated by tenants, This wil! effect a direct reduction in fuel value, the owner was forced to einbark on a growing whether the sup])Iy be provided from the public system number of expenses, tlie cost of whicli was uncertain, or from a plant within the building. such as elevators, heating, lighting, cleaning and sani- The system of sub-metering the public service of tation involved !)}' the multiple tenancy of the building, electricity will probably be found profitable in many and the cost of which, owing to lack of means of meas- such !)ui!dings, and should in all cases be examined, as uring the individua! usage, the owner was obliged to it is in successful operation in a large number of loft slĸiulder, and residentia! builclings in the city. Tlie extent and e.xpensc of tliese common conven- It is now unfortunate that the planning of most office icnces gradually grew unti! tliey have become so !)ur- l)uildings has !)een so defective in failing to provide for densome, as to deprive l)usiness buildings of much of this dcvelopment, l)y a suitable arrangement of the in- tlieir attractiveness as an investment, The apparatus terior electric conductors, Much can, however, be ac- involves substantial additions to the original invest- coinplished at no considerable expense, by modern sys- ment, largely increases the expense of operation and tems of exposed and concealed wiring carried in fire- mãintenance, and has a much shorter life of useful ef- proof casing and flexible armored conductors, thus re- fectiveness than the !)uilding wliich houses it, arranging the circuits so as to admit of measuring tlie Tenants' !ia!)its of wastefulness have !)een aggravated usage of eacli inclividua! suite of offices, l)y tlie facility afforded them of obtaining something The care, rcpair and maintenance in accuratc record- for nothing. The carefu! or thrifty tenant gains noth- ing condition of sniall meters is also a inatter wliich of ing !)y care or thrift in their usc, !)ut pays in liis rent recent years has developed into a standard form of !)usi- a part of the wastage of thc careless neighI)or. ness, and the common idea of tlie inaccuracy of meters The ground floor tenant pays for elevator service applies only to those in wliich this constant and sys- which he nevcr uses, and the occupant of light rooms tematic attention is neglected. pays for thc ligliting of dark oncs, and the pcrson wlio The new step is as niuch in the interest of tlie tenant washcs his liands iii ccild water pays for liis neighbors' as the landlord, since no one gains by waste, and if hot water supply. tenants do not support good buildings, no good !)uild- The system, as I wrote years ago, is utterly lackin,g ings can l)e built, in inducements for thrift or care, and tlie time was This development of war economies is a hopeful and bound to come vvlicn the ovvners of buildings would be long-needed change of a bad system in the operation forced, in order to protect their investment from de- of thc highest class of metropolitan real estate. It struction, to find soine m?ans of apportioning these ex- should never !)e permitted to be re-established. Board of Standards and Appcals Makes a Record C.APT.AIN JOHN P. LEO, chairman, Board of of has been nearly four times as many as thc number Standards and Appeals, announces that the work of new cases filed. of the Board of Appeals has been brouglit up to In regard to the progress made, Captain Leo says date, that al! pending ap])eals and Building Zone appli- that grcat credit is due to the members of the Board, cations, forty-two in nuniber, have bcen set for hearin,g Joliii J, Beatty, Alfred J. Boulton, John DeHart, James within the ne.xt six wee!