Water Submetering As A Great Way To Promote Water Conservation

By Catalina Nielsen


Water submetering is the installation of meters into individual units within multifamily properties like apartments, mobile home communities and condominiums just to mention a few. In general, multifamily developments either have a master meter, which the whole development uses or one meter for every unit. Those who reside in the property are expected to pay the sewer and water bill, which is normally shared evenly by tenants.

If a property has submeters, the expenses are divided based on the consumption in each unit. This is the fairest way to divide this expense because the residents pay for only what they consume. Submetering a property is beneficial in many ways. One of them is that it helps conserve water as residents will seek to consume less in order to lower their bills.

Installing submeters in a property is also beneficial for property owners because it helps reduce expenses. Owners of properties usually incur high expenses in the form of bills and they do not have control over them since it is the residents who control consumption. After submeters are installed, the residents become responsible for their own bills. In this way, owners are able to reduce their overhead especially in cases where utility expenses are included in the rent.

The fact that tenants will be willing to reduce consumption after submeters are installed in a property means that wastage will be reduced, which will be of benefit to the environment. According to studies supported by the federal government, the installation of submeters in a development that can reduce consumption by twenty to thirty percent as residents will be ready to inform the property managers about leaks and avoid letting water run freely when no one is using it. A large number of tenants love submetering since they pay less after lowering consumption.

After installing submeters, the rates your tenants pay will change when the utility company changes its rates. This is beneficial in that it allows you to maintain your margins. You do not have to include the cost of utilities in your rental rate calculations. You can therefore even choose to lower the amount of money you charge as rent so that you can get more tenants.

In order to install submeters in your property, you need to find a company that specializes in submetering. The company will make arrangements with you to install equipment required for the system to work such as transmitters, meters and reading equipment. Typically, the company will have to get access to every unit in order to install the equipment. In some cases, the equipment can be installed on the exterior part of a building.

After the equipment installation process is complete, the company will test it to make sure that it is functioning well. It will be responsible for meter reading, bill disbursement and payment collection. Submetering companies perform their duties in a similar manner to telephone and electrical companies. This means that they also provide the usual customer service like answering questions.

Meter readers do not have to enter every unit to read the meters every month because the meters are often located in storage closets, basements or electrical closets in public halls. You will continue receiving your utility bill each month and your private water submetering company will bill the individual units. It will also provide every tenant with an individually printed bill.




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