national multiple family submetering and allocation billing program ...

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With a service fee, residents could save up to $41 per year, but they could also lose up to $93 per year. Table 6.5 shows the economic return for a resident who lives in a property that converts from in-rent to submetered. This scenario assumes that rent remains unchanged upon converting to submetering. Here, the average residents will annually increase their expenses by $230 without a service fee, or $309 with a service fee. It should be noted that both of these tables show the resident economic analysis for the short term. It is possible that in the long term, rental prices could come into equilibrium due to competition, causing the financial impact to be lessened. RUBS Properties RUBS does not have much potential for monetary savings for residents. However, if a property owner reduces the rent accordingly and does not charge a service fee, initially the average resident should break even. The researchers found no examples of any property owners adopting this approach. Summary of Resident Perspective Based on the results obtained in the resident survey, consumers have varied opinions on water billing programs. Often these programs result in a water bill in addition to a monthly rent charge. While consumers receive electric or gas bills, many have come to expect that water charges are included in the rent. As currently practiced, water and wastewater billing programs do not appear to be an appealing option for residents of multi-family dwellings. Also, residents are typically charged a service fee (in conformance with applicable state and local law) in addition to their volumetric or allocated charge. Thus, in the short term, these billing programs cause an increase in monthly costs for residents. While there may be environmental benefits such as increased water conservation, there are many uncertainties involving separate billing that could be perceived as negative. Until separate billing for water and wastewater has some definitive standards and protections for residents, it is unlikely that most residents will embrace it. Direct metering and billing of water for apartment residents encourages water efficiency and promotes a water billing system that is as transparent as other utilities like gas and electricity, phone and cable whereby residents pay for what they use. 194
If a property owner were to reduce the rent in the approximate amount of the total water and wastewater bill (including the service fee), then the resident might experience no net increase in rental costs if all else is held constant. As noted above, this does not appear to be a common practice. If the property owner were to pay the service fee as recommended (see Recommendation 8, subsection 9), then the overall cost impact to the resident might be reduced. However as practiced today, it appears that water and wastewater billing programs result in increased costs for residents. 195
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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
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70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
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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
Page 232 and 233: 180
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 242 and 243: Table 6.3 Cost and benefit for owne
Page 244 and 245: Perceived Concerns In the resident
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
Page 262 and 263: 210
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
Page 292 and 293: 240
Page 294 and 295: 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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