national multiple family submetering and allocation billing program ...

STUDY SITE SELECTION
The Study aimed to include a large and diverse sample of in-rent and impact properties
from cities in geographically diverse sections of the United States. There were two fundamental
requirements for participation in the study: (1) the site had to have a reasonable population of
submetered and RUBS properties; and (2) the local water utility had to be willing to cooperate
and assist with the study including providing water billing data. To find locations that met the
first requirement, the research team collected complete lists of customer properties across the
U.S. from as many submetering and customer billing companies as possible. Utilities in all of
these locations were contacted repeatedly to solicit their participation. Ultimately, 13 cities
fitting both criteria were selected for the study. 17
Billing Industry Conversion Data
There are a number of companies that install submeters and/or provide water billing
services to owners of multi-family properties using one of the billing methods previously
described. Since most water utilities did not know precisely which multi-family properties
subscribe to these services, it was necessary to work with the submetering industry to obtain
complete lists of accounts that they have converted. Companies that cooperated with this phase
of the study and provided useful information were American Utility Management, Archstone,
Minol, National Water and Power, US Water Works, USI Energy, Viterra, WaterMaster, and
Wellspring. From these companies, over 1,300 properties were identified in cities across the
nation. In addition, Texas requires all properties that have undergone conversion to register on
the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) web site -
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/index.html. Using the data available on this web site, additional
submetered and RUBS properties in Texas and in particular in Austin and San Antonio were
identified.
The data provided by the service companies and available through other sources was
utilized to identify cities with a reasonably large population of submetered, RUBS, and hot water
hybrid properties. The study team made an effort to contact every water utility in cities meeting
17 Significant time and effort was spent trying to recruit additional study sites from the eastern US and local contacts
were enlisted to help in the recruitment effort, but very few utilities expressed any interest and/or willingness to
cooperate with the research effort.
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