national multiple family submetering and allocation billing program ...

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Table 4.18 Ownership and rental rates, resident survey respondents Average monthly rent varied substantially among in-rent and impact properties according to the resident survey respondents. More than 26% of the in-rent respondents reported monthly rent of less than $300 compared with less than 2% for impact properties. The distribution of rental costs are shown in Table 4.19. Using the mid-point in each range the weighted average monthly rent was calculated for each billing method. The utility-submetered accounts in Irvine had the highest rent - $1,307 per month on average. Submetered properties averaged $916 per months, RUBS $773 per month, and in-rent $552 per month. Keep in mind these rates are not corrected for size of dwelling unit and could be weighted towards respondents from specific properties. Results from the manager survey offer a better estimate of the cost of rent for each billing method and study site. Table 4.19 Rental costs by billing method, resident survey respondents Do you rent or own your residence? In-rent or HOA Submetered RUBS Hot water hybrid Utilitysubmetered Total Own 27.6% 20.8% 3.3% 1.1% .0% 13.7% Rent 72.4% 79.2% 96.7% 98.9% 100.0% 86.3% Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% N=735 N=390 N=1001 N=92 N=103 N=2321 How much is your monthly rent?* In-rent or HOA Submetered RUBS Hot water hybrid Utilitysubmetered Total Less than $300 26.3% 0.3% 1.5% 1.1% 2.0% 7.9% $300-$499 19.7% 4.6% 10.5% 8.0% 0.0% 11.4% $500-$799 36.0% 46.5% 50.3% 54.5% 3.0% 43.7% $800-$1,299 14.7% 30.0% 33.0% 23.9% 38.0% 27.5% $1,300-$1,699 2.7% 15.2% 4.0% 12.5% 44.0% 7.8% $1,700-$1,999 0.4% 2.3% 0.4% 0.0% 12.0% 1.3% $2,000-$2,499 0.0% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 1.0% 0.2% $2,500 or more 0.2% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% N=517 N=303 N=942 N=88 N=100 N=1950 Avg. Monthly Rent † $ 552 $ 916 $ 773 $ 814 $ 1,307 $ 767 * Only asked of those who rent their residence. †Based on the mid-point of each range and the percent of respondents in each range. 98
Actual Water and Wastewater Bills As part of the resident survey, respondents were asked to include a copy of a recent submetered, RUBS, HWH, or utility submetered water and wastewater bill. Several hundred residents complied with this request and provided sample bills along with their returned resident survey. The research team was able to use these bills to evaluate the commodity charges, bill clarity and presentation, service charges, and a number of other factors. A sample of these bills are presented below along with notes and commentary. All identifying information about the customer and billing entity has been removed from the bill to preserve anonymity. Submeter Sample Bills Five sample submeter water bills are presented below. Additional sample bills can be found in Appendix C. In general the bills sent by submetering companies were comprehensible and provided most of the information a customer might expect particularly when compared with some of the bills sent to RUBS customers. Submeter bill #1 shown in Figure 4.17 from billing company #1 is among the clearest and most informative bills provided to the research team. Pros: Icons running down the left margin identify different sections of the bill including – previous statement, current statement, usage history, other charges, and messages. Actual metered consumption and the commodity charge ($/gallon) for water and wastewater are shown. Read dates and meter readings are shown. Service charges are broken down into two components – metering charge and utility fee (total = $6.95). Of particular note is the usage history graph, a useful feature found on no other bill provided to the research team. Cons: Overall layout and organization of the bill could be improved. Utility water and wastewater rates are not shown so there is no way for the customer to determine if commodity charges have been inflated. Note that customer service contact information is not shown on this portion of the bill, but is provided on a separate page not provided by the resident. Overall this is one of the best (if not the best) examples of an informative and clear bill obtained in this study. 99
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NATIONAL MULTIPLE FAMILY SUBMETERIN
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CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES............
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Matched-Pair Analysis .............
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LIST OF TABLES Table ES.1.1 Breakdo
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Table 6.6 Elasticity values, analys
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Figure 4.30 RUBS water bill #6 ....
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investigated local water savings as
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We are grateful to the members of a
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quantitative aspects of separate bi
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3. Owner/postcard survey: To identi
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"averages" of impact property water
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in-rent properties, others used the
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of these models included the billin
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70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
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COSTS AND BENEFITS Beyond quantifyi
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service charge, then the resident w
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Billing Method Efficient Fixtures?
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70 Avg. Water Use per MF Unit (kgal
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REGULATORY FRAMEWORK REVIEW The fra
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Table ES.1.12 NSUAA Summary of Stat
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above, the researchers offer the fo
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service is preferable, and would he
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practices (BMPs) should be implemen
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infrastructure of the building and
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multi-family housing. The transfer
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODU CTION More and mo
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In 1998, 15.0%, or 15.4 million, of
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TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS OF BILL
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submetering. With utility-submeteri
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all the two bedroom units for $20 p
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HOW TO USE THIS REPORT This report
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CHAPTER 2 LITERAT URE REVIEW As the
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A review of the literature unearthe
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The price elasticity of water deman
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expected. Additionally, McClelland
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submetered and five control (in-ren
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Another study might want to target
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CHAPTER 3 RESEARC H METHODS, APPROA
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1. Selection of participating study
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STUDY SITE SELECTION The Study aime
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Figure 3.2 National Multiple Family
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Matched pair protocol/survey - conf
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information given the available bud
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survey. Service companies that prov
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in “business to business” calli
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MATCHED PAIR SAMPLE The purpose of
Page 99 and 100: The second part of the visit requir
Page 101 and 102: epresentative of a known population
Page 103 and 104: 51 Table 3.7 Postcard survey statis
Page 105 and 106: Table 3.8 Comparison of annual wate
Page 107 and 108: postcard survey. Nevertheless, exam
Page 109 and 110: confidence interval ranged from 49.
Page 111 and 112: particular property (e.g., the mont
Page 113 and 114: State PUC officials - water commiss
Page 115: 10. The PROPID number appearing on
Page 118 and 119: These costs represent the commodity
Page 120 and 121: The postcard survey provided inform
Page 122 and 123: Table 4.4 Average number of units f
Page 124 and 125: Two-thirds of the properties that r
Page 126 and 127: Percent of Surveyed Properties with
Page 128 and 129: $700 Average Rent Per Bedroom ($) $
Page 130 and 131: Percent of Surveyed Properties with
Page 132 and 133: Impact properties were also more li
Page 134 and 135: Table 4.8 Issues considered before
Page 136 and 137: Percent of Surveyed Impact Properti
Page 138 and 139: 60% Percent of Surveyed Properties
Page 140 and 141: From the visits, it was found that
Page 142 and 143: 100% Percent of Surveyed Residents
Page 144 and 145: Roughly similar proportions of resi
Page 146 and 147: inserts for toilets (21%) or low-fl
Page 148 and 149: proportion were unsure, 37% from su
Page 152 and 153: Figure 4.17 Submeter water bill #1
Page 158 and 159: wastewater rates are not shown so t
Page 160 and 161: Figure 4.23 Hot water hybrid water
Page 162 and 163: RUBS Sample Bills Seven sample RUBS
Page 164 and 165: wastewater rates are not shown so t
Page 166 and 167: Figure 4.28 RUBS water bill #4 from
Page 168 and 169: Figure 4.30 RUBS water bill #6 RUBS
Page 170 and 171: directly to and then paid by the th
Page 172 and 173: never subtracting for common area w
Page 174 and 175: Late Fees At the start of water bil
Page 176 and 177: 124
Page 178 and 179: intuitively clear, and matches comm
Page 180 and 181: Indoor water use was normalized on
Page 182 and 183: Table 5.3 Summarized water use anal
Page 184 and 185: easonable assumption since there is
Page 186 and 187: Figure 5.1 shows the frequency dist
Page 188 and 189: 40 Difference in Annual Water Use p
Page 190 and 191: after 1995. By including only those
Page 192 and 193: 70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
Page 194 and 195: Table 5.11 Statistical tests compar
Page 196 and 197: Factors that Influence Water Use Th
Page 198 and 199: Table 5.12 Association of categoric
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Indoor Water Use per Unit in 2001 I
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Table 5.13 Continuous factors from
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Multivariate Models to Determine Im
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properties built before 1995 were c
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70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
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A = Beta coefficient for “Propert
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substantially reduces the sample si
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Table 5.17 Model #2 coefficients an
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0.00 indicating that whatever fit d
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commodity charge for water and wast
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properties having generally lower w
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110 Average Annual Water Use Per Un
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analysis, intended to control best
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Table 5.27 Paired samples test, all
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Table 5.30 Estimated water use befo
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Table 5.33 Comparison of water savi
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180
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sector only reduced usage by 18% (A
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Table 6.1 Avoided costs from submet
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submetered. Complete responses of c
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included in this cost/benefit analy
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Table 6.3 Cost and benefit for owne
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Perceived Concerns In the resident
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With a service fee, residents could
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Table 6.4 Economic return for a res
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ANALYSIS OF PRICE ELASTICITIES Econ
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concluded that if a single elastici
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esults from this analysis point to
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over which they have control than d
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According to the basic consumer cho
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The consumer choice problem can be
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210
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water systems from compliance with
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and methods of practice. NIST publi
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Table 7.1 NSUAA Summary of State Re
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New Surveys of State Agencies and W
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the AWWA WaterStats 1999 database.
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Measures, which dispatches a public
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Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania
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226 Table 7.6 Summary of utility re
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DISCUSSION - KEY EXAMPLES OF STATE
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ill. Condominium associations are g
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under construction after January 1,
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Weights and Measures Regulation In
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from the submetering. Meter testing
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clean and decent housing or the lac
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240
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NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE F
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complaints in all 50 states and app
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- Meters must demonstrate in testin
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- Plumbing systems are space constr
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(2) Twisted or kinked flex supply l
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252
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Estimated Water Use By Different Bi
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there are clear benefits to these s
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study site. These values were then
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immediately strengthens the owner's
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among the nation's key strategies f
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all repair and replacement decision
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These findings underscore the obser
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varies with volume of use) for mult
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Recommendation 6 - Efficient plumbi
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financially responsible for their o
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individual unit, the volume allocat
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARC
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Fixed rates - Part of a master mete
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Total-capture submetering - a type
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282
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Corral, L.R. 1997. Price and Non-Pr
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McClelland, L. 1980. Encouraging En
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Young, C.E., K.R. Kinsley and W.E.
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