national multiple family submetering and allocation billing program ...

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Table 3.1 shows the billing data the years of data obtained from each participating utility. Every utility was able to provide complete 2000 and 2001 data, eleven utilities provided 2002 data, and eight utilities were able to provide data back to at least 1996. Table 3.1 Water billing data provided by each participating utility Utility Years of Complete Notes Data Provided San Antonio, TX 1996 - 2002 Tucson, AZ 1996 - 2002 Phoenix, AZ 1996 - 2002 Oakland, CA 2000 - 2002 Denver, CO 1992 - 2002 Portland, OR 1998 - 2001 Austin, TX 2000 - 2002 Indianapolis, IN 2000 - 2001 Irvine, CA 1996 - 2002 Las Vegas, NV 1995 - 2002 Seattle, WA 1995 - 2002 Hillsborough Co., FL 2000 - 2002 San Diego, CA 1996 - 2002 Experienced billing database failure and could not provide 2002 billing data without manual extraction of each record. Stopped responding to communication and cooperating with the study during the manager survey process. Did not provide 2002 billing data. Research continued to the extent possible without utility cooperation. SURVEY DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION The goal of the surveying components of the project were to obtain detailed information about billing methods, water-using appliances and fixtures, water-using habits, household characteristics, and demographic information from the multi-family properties in each study site. Additional surveys sought information on regulation of third party billing by states and water providers, third party billing practices and implementation, and resident knowledge, attitudes, and opinions about third party billing. The following is a list of all surveys implemented in this study. Actual survey instruments can be found in Appendix A. Postcard survey – survey of all eligible multi-family accounts to identify impact properties within each participating utility service area Manager survey – obtain detailed information about properties identified through the postcard survey (both impact and in-rent properties) 36
Matched pair protocol/survey – confirm information from the manager survey as well as directly observe additional property characteristics such as percent of landscaping devoted to turf and actual volume/flow rates of dwelling unit fixtures Resident survey – obtain resident opinions and experiences with different billing methods and obtain copies of actual bills Read and bill company survey – obtain information about billing practices and policies Survey of Potential Regulators – obtain information on current regulations on billing methods from a variety of agencies including: State safe drinking water administrators State PUC officials – water commissioners and assistant water commissioners State bureau of weights and measures officials – meter division 100 of the largest utilities (and 3 additional sponsor utilities) – general manager, engineering staff, or metering manager The project team developed each survey questionnaire through an iterative review process that included field pre-testing and review by the project manager and advisory committee. The surveys were designed so that the respondents had only to complete the questionnaire, and either fold it in half or place it in an envelope (depending on the survey), both of which were already addressed and stamped, and drop it in the mail. Respondents were only asked to identify themselves on the manager survey and on the regulatory surveys, in case more information or clarification was needed. National Research Center (NRC) was responsible for implementation of the postcard, manager, and resident surveys, the three largest in the study. NRC printed, mailed, and tabulated the surveys. Each survey was printed with the utility logo and/or some introduction by an official in order to improve response rates. NRC printed the mailing labels using the address information provided by the utility customer database. To facilitate respondent needs, a phone number for a NRC staff person was made available to answer questions and provide assistance. Returned surveys were collected by each utility and sent to NRC directly or via Aquacraft for entry into a Microsoft Access database table. Upon completion of the database entry work, the participating utility was informed of the final response rate and survey response details. 37
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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
Page 38 and 39: REGULATORY FRAMEWORK REVIEW The fra
Page 40 and 41: Table ES.1.12 NSUAA Summary of Stat
Page 42 and 43: above, the researchers offer the fo
Page 44 and 45: service is preferable, and would he
Page 46 and 47: practices (BMPs) should be implemen
Page 48 and 49: infrastructure of the building and
Page 50: multi-family housing. The transfer
Page 53 and 54: CHAPTER 1 INTRODU CTION More and mo
Page 55 and 56: In 1998, 15.0%, or 15.4 million, of
Page 57 and 58: TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS OF BILL
Page 59 and 60: submetering. With utility-submeteri
Page 61 and 62: all the two bedroom units for $20 p
Page 63 and 64: HOW TO USE THIS REPORT This report
Page 67 and 68: CHAPTER 2 LITERAT URE REVIEW As the
Page 69 and 70: A review of the literature unearthe
Page 71 and 72: The price elasticity of water deman
Page 73 and 74: expected. Additionally, McClelland
Page 75 and 76: submetered and five control (in-ren
Page 77 and 78: Another study might want to target
Page 81 and 82: CHAPTER 3 RESEARC H METHODS, APPROA
Page 83 and 84: 1. Selection of participating study
Page 85 and 86: STUDY SITE SELECTION The Study aime
Page 87: Figure 3.2 National Multiple Family
Page 91 and 92: information given the available bud
Page 93 and 94: survey. Service companies that prov
Page 95 and 96: in “business to business” calli
Page 97 and 98: 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
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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
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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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