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Table 6.3 Cost and benefit for owners who choose to allocate 190 Billing Method Efficient Fixtures? Annual Water Use* (gal/du) Useful Life † (years) Annual Value of Water and Sewer Benefits ‡ PV of Benefits § Fixture Upgrade Cost ** ($/du) Annual Service Fee †† ($/du) PV of Costs B/C Ratio Yes 52,195 20 $275 $3,428 $ 0 $ 36 $449 7.6 RUBS No 52,195 20 $275 $3,428 $ 255 $ 36 $704 4.9 * Based on the total water use of the average in-rent unit (143.0 gal/du/day). † Assumes that the program will be in place for 20 years. ‡ Based on a commodity charge for water and wastewater of $5.27 per kgal (the average commodity charge for the thirteen study sites). Does not include fixed fees. § The present value of annually occurring benefits is calculated with a discount rate of 5%. ** Includes hardware and installation cost for a dwelling unit that is retrofit with 1.2 toilets for $234, 2 aerators for $4, and 1 showerhead for $17. Not applicable to dwelling units that have already been equipped with hardware operating within 125% of EPACT standards. Only accounts for the first time cost, does not account for any ongoing replacement/maintenance schedule at the property. †† Assumes monthly service fee of $3 is paid by owner. ‡‡ The present value of annually occurring costs is calculated at a discount rate of 5%.
Summary of Owner Perspective In most cases, billing separately for water and wastewater will increase the owner’s net operating income and property value. Despite the initial capital investment, submetering can be a cost-effective option for owners. In addition, submetering technology has improved so that the cost for submetering new construction and submetering most existing properties is reasonable. In the case of allocation, there is no initial investment and the payback is immediate. Owners could use this increase in income to improve overall water efficiency on the property, including fixture upgrades. Nevertheless, before converting to a separate billing system, owners should be aware of the applicable federal, state, and local regulations. RESIDENT PERSPECTIVE Perceived Benefits Residents can benefit from submetering by gaining more control over their total housing costs. Residents often do not realize that they are paying for water, albeit indirectly, when it is included in the rent. By maintaining a system where the property owner pays the overall water bill, residents are more vulnerable to rent increases due to leaks, wasteful habits, and rising water prices. Through submetering, residents have an incentive to report leaks and modify other aspects of their water using behavior 31 – actions that can be rewarded through a lower water bill. In the short term, residents do experience an increase in monthly bills, but in the long term, rental prices are likely to come into equilibrium due to competition. In addition, residential water conservation contributes to a larger effort that helps to remove the need for future water rate hikes. RUBS can reap the same benefits if all residents are equally committed to monitoring their water use. However, because of its potential for inequity, resident benefits associated with RUBS are not guaranteed. 31 In this study, reported resident actions taken to conserve water from the resident survey can be seen in Table 4.14. 191
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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
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The second part of the visit requir
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epresentative of a known population
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51 Table 3.7 Postcard survey statis
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Table 3.8 Comparison of annual wate
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postcard survey. Nevertheless, exam
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confidence interval ranged from 49.
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particular property (e.g., the mont
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State PUC officials - water commiss
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10. The PROPID number appearing on
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These costs represent the commodity
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The postcard survey provided inform
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Table 4.4 Average number of units f
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Two-thirds of the properties that r
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Percent of Surveyed Properties with
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$700 Average Rent Per Bedroom ($) $
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Percent of Surveyed Properties with
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Impact properties were also more li
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Table 4.8 Issues considered before
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Percent of Surveyed Impact Properti
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60% Percent of Surveyed Properties
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From the visits, it was found that
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100% Percent of Surveyed Residents
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Roughly similar proportions of resi
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inserts for toilets (21%) or low-fl
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proportion were unsure, 37% from su
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Table 4.18 Ownership and rental rat
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Figure 4.17 Submeter water bill #1
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wastewater rates are not shown so t
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Figure 4.23 Hot water hybrid water
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RUBS Sample Bills Seven sample RUBS
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wastewater rates are not shown so t
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Figure 4.28 RUBS water bill #4 from
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Figure 4.30 RUBS water bill #6 RUBS
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directly to and then paid by the th
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never subtracting for common area w
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Late Fees At the start of water bil
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124
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intuitively clear, and matches comm
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Indoor water use was normalized on
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Table 5.3 Summarized water use anal
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easonable assumption since there is
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Figure 5.1 shows the frequency dist
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40 Difference in Annual Water Use p
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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
Page 200 and 201: Indoor Water Use per Unit in 2001 I
Page 202 and 203: Table 5.13 Continuous factors from
Page 204 and 205: Multivariate Models to Determine Im
Page 206 and 207: properties built before 1995 were c
Page 208 and 209: 70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
Page 210 and 211: A = Beta coefficient for “Propert
Page 212 and 213: substantially reduces the sample si
Page 214 and 215: Table 5.17 Model #2 coefficients an
Page 216 and 217: 0.00 indicating that whatever fit d
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Page 220 and 221: properties having generally lower w
Page 222 and 223: 110 Average Annual Water Use Per Un
Page 224 and 225: analysis, intended to control best
Page 226 and 227: Table 5.27 Paired samples test, all
Page 228 and 229: Table 5.30 Estimated water use befo
Page 230 and 231: Table 5.33 Comparison of water savi
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Page 234 and 235: sector only reduced usage by 18% (A
Page 236 and 237: Table 6.1 Avoided costs from submet
Page 238 and 239: submetered. Complete responses of c
Page 240 and 241: included in this cost/benefit analy
Page 244 and 245: Perceived Concerns In the resident
Page 246 and 247: With a service fee, residents could
Page 248 and 249: Table 6.4 Economic return for a res
Page 250 and 251: ANALYSIS OF PRICE ELASTICITIES Econ
Page 252 and 253: concluded that if a single elastici
Page 254 and 255: esults from this analysis point to
Page 256 and 257: over which they have control than d
Page 258 and 259: According to the basic consumer cho
Page 260 and 261: The consumer choice problem can be
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Page 264 and 265: water systems from compliance with
Page 266 and 267: and methods of practice. NIST publi
Page 268 and 269: Table 7.1 NSUAA Summary of State Re
Page 270 and 271: New Surveys of State Agencies and W
Page 272 and 273: the AWWA WaterStats 1999 database.
Page 274 and 275: Measures, which dispatches a public
Page 276 and 277: Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania
Page 278 and 279: 226 Table 7.6 Summary of utility re
Page 280 and 281: DISCUSSION - KEY EXAMPLES OF STATE
Page 282 and 283: ill. Condominium associations are g
Page 284 and 285: under construction after January 1,
Page 286 and 287: Weights and Measures Regulation In
Page 288 and 289: from the submetering. Meter testing
Page 290 and 291: 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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