As more and more buildings in the multi-family housing sector are converting to systems where
each apartment occupant pays for water and wastewater directly instead of including these
charges as part of the rent. The three most common ways in which this billing conversion is
accomplished are: through direct submetering of water use by means of a water meter
installed on a single point of entry water line; through a Ratio Utility Billing System
(RUBS), which bases the water bill on a ratio of floor space or occupants or number of
bedrooms, etc; or, a hybrid of the two where total domestic water use is estimated based on
the ratio of the metered hot water use of each unit to the total water use of all occupants. It is
estimated that there are now as many as 2 million properties that have undergone billing system
conversions. This paper discusses the
National Submeter and Allocation Billing Program. Its goals are to determine the
merits of billing conversion programs including the potential water savings, costs, benefits, and
the accompanying administrative and regulatory issues. Work on this study began in the first
quarter of 2002 with completion expected in July 2004.
The study project team developed a multifaceted approach to accomplish the research objectives.
Sites selected for the study had to have both a combination of qualified properties and the
cooperation of the local water utility. Properties eligible for further consideration were obtained
from the billing records of read and bill companies and water utilities. Eligible sites were
deemed to have in-rent, sub-metering, and allocation billed properties. Following extensive
effort in this phase of the study, 13 study sites were selected as meeting the identified criteria:
Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; San Diego, California; Hillsborough County, Florida;
Phoenix, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Austin, Texas, San Antonio, Texas; Portland, Oregon;
Oakland, California; Irvine, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
A detailed and rigorous work plan to obtain data from each study site was developed by the
project team that included surveys and historic billing records from 1999-2002, a four year study
"window" to analyze changes in water use.
This study assumes that the billing consumption histories provided by participating utilities and
the mail surveys are accurate. For the selected study properties, the mail surveys submitted by
the owners and managers of multi-family dwellings will be verified via site surveys. Includes 8 references, figure.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 270 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 6 |
| Published : | 06/17/2004 |
