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and methods of practice. NIST publishes these documents, and if a locality or state adopts the rules, they become mandatory. The primary product of NIST’s Weights and Measures Division is NIST Handbook 44, “Specifications for Weights and Measures Devices” (NIST 2004b). The handbook is updated annually and covers scales, liquid-measuring devices, vehicle tanks used as measures, and fabric and other measurement devices. Water meters are covered under NIST Handbook 44 Section 3.36. The section outlines the standard design of water meters, testing procedures, and acceptable tolerances for meters. The handbook does not cover the frequency with which a meter must be tested, nor does it outline qualifications for the agency or person responsible for testing. Those responsibilities have been left to the local or state adopters to outline. Water submeters for multi-family buildings fall within the scope of section 3.36 of Handbook 44. The standard for water meter accuracy is plus or minus 1.5% at normal flow and plus 1.5% or minus 5% at low flow. Handbook 44 has been adopted entirely in 39 states and partly in the remaining 11 states and is updated annually. Weights and measure officials respond to complaints by consumers regarding meter accuracy. Water and Energy Efficiency Standards Under the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, the US Department of Energy administers a set of standards for the energy efficiency of certain newly manufactured consumer appliances and commercial equipment and the water efficiency of certain newly manufactured plumbing products. Following action by at least 17 states to set water efficiency standards for plumbing products, Federal legislation was enacted in 1992 containing uniform national standards for the efficiency of toilets, showerheads, urinals, lavatory and kitchen faucets, and faucet aerators. Although state standards went into effect at various dates as early as 1989, national standards covered all products manufactured or imported into the US beginning January 1, 1994. Non-conforming products manufactured or imported prior to that date were allowed to be sold from inventory. It has been shown that plumbing products meeting the efficiency standards enacted in 1992 reduce indoor residential water use by about 20% (Mayer et. al. 1999). The Department of Energy has also adopted energy efficiency standards for certain water using appliance that encourage (but do not explicitly require) improved water efficiency. Efficiency standards for residential dishwashers are currently in place and efficiency standards for clothes washers have been increased in two steps, taking effect January 2004 and January 214
2007 respectively. The Department of Energy predicts that compliance with the 2007 standard will result in substantial national water savings over a twenty-year period. Each of these standards has the potential to measurably influence the water consumption of multi-family dwellings. Since all of the standards identified above apply only to new products, the rate of product replacement is a primary determinant of the amount of water savings that may be achieved at any future date. (The pace of new construction is the other primary determinant.) Dishwashers and residential clothes washers have an average life of about 14 years. However, the average life of a residential toilet is about 20 to 25 years, and it is not uncommon for some fixtures to last 50 years or more. Fittings such as showerheads and faucets may experience comparable longevity. For long-lasting products such as plumbing, the age of the building stock will have an important influence on water consumption. POLICIES OF STATES AND UTILITIES TOWARD MULTI-FAMILY BILLING State Regulatory Survey A survey of state policies toward multi-family billing methods is maintained by the National Submetering and Utility Allocation Association (NSUAA), a trade association for companies involved in multi-family billing for all types of utility services, i.e., water, wastewater, electric, natural gas, solid waste, etc. NSUAA first undertook this survey in 1999 and periodically updates the information as new policies are made known to its members and staff. NSUAA attempts to track state and local policies toward both submetering and RUBS, as well as whether service fees are allowed as part of a billing system. NSUAA cautions readers not to rely on this summary information as legal advice, noting that information is subject to frequent change and deals with matters of interpretation. With the permission of NSUAA, the latest (March 2004) overview of state policies regarding water and wastewater billing is presented in Table 7.1. 215
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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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Table 5.11 Statistical tests compar
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Factors that Influence Water Use Th
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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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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
Page 216 and 217: 0.00 indicating that whatever fit d
Page 218 and 219: commodity charge for water and wast
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 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
Page 262 and 263: 210
Page 264 and 265: water systems from compliance with
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
Page 296 and 297: complaints in all 50 states and app
Page 298 and 299: - Meters must demonstrate in testin
Page 300 and 301: - Plumbing systems are space constr
Page 302 and 303: (2) Twisted or kinked flex supply l
Page 304 and 305: 252
Page 306 and 307: Estimated Water Use By Different Bi
Page 308 and 309: there are clear benefits to these s
Page 310 and 311: study site. These values were then
Page 312 and 313: immediately strengthens the owner's
Page 314 and 315: 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
Page 338 and 339:
McClelland, L. 1980. Encouraging En
Page 340:
Young, C.E., K.R. Kinsley and W.E.
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