Separate meters or Slave box?

[mpedrummer]

My wife and I bought a house, we're concentrating on making it be the house we want first before I get to really build the studio, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot with things now.

The house (was) two apartments. As such, I have two separate meters, two separate service panels, two entirely separate systems. I want to upgrade one panel (they're both 100 amp) to 200 or 300, put the entire house on that, and use one of the two 100 amp services to run the studio, eventually adding star grounding, the whole nine yards.

Now, here's where I'm unclear (not a first!)

My electrician asked if I need two separate meters, or if feeding the smaller box from the larger one would still have the benefits. I have no idea, so I'm asking you guys

I suppose I don't entirely understand the whole "feeding the smaller box" thing. If it would just be set up as a 100 amp circuit off the main box, then it seems like there's no benefit at all to that, right? But if it's somehow split before the main breaker of the main box, then it's essentially the same as two separate meters, but without the overhead of paying for it.

Anyway, help shed some light on this!

Your help, as always, is appreciated.

Thanks
MPEDrummer

[Aaronw]

Are the runs for your electrical both coming from the same transformer at the pole?

Is the service coming into the house at each box a 200 amp service?

[mpedrummer]

It's actually currently 2x 100 amp services. I believe they come from the same transformer, but I'll have to check when I get home tonight.

MPEDrummer