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Upon completion of the survey entry work, a summary table was created for each city for each survey. All responses were totaled and the appropriate descriptive statistics were calculated. Participating utilities and research team members were updated as needed. Regulatory surveys were implemented by Potomac Resources, Inc. and the read and bill company survey was implemented by Aquacraft, Inc. Site visits were conducted by Aquacraft and NRC in conjunction with the participating water utilities. Use of PROPID to Preserve Customer Anonymity A unique random number was assigned to each account number in the sample frame. This number was called the PROPID. The address labels for the survey mailing lists contained the PROPID that identified the customer. Each response therefore contained a unique PROPID. This was loaded with the response record into an ACCESS database table. Each response record could therefore be linked to the historic water use database that also contained the PROPID. At the conclusion of the study, the databases prepared for future researchers will only contain the PROPID, not the actual account number, service address or customer name, thus preserving the anonymity of the participating customers. POSTCARD, MANAGER, AND RESIDENT SURVEYS The research plan called for three distinct and sequential surveys: the postcard survey, the manager survey, and the resident survey. Although more surveys were implemented in this study, these three formed the core of the data collection effort. The postcard survey identified the type of billing method and the number of units at each property. Through properties identified in the postcard survey, a far more detailed survey instrument was sent to managers of the individual properties in order to find out more about each property. Respondents to the manager survey were asked to provide addresses for the individual units at their property. Many did provide this address information and subsequently surveys were sent to residents at these multi-family properties seeking information about individual water use habits and opinions and experiences with the water billing methodology. Mail surveys were selected to obtain information about multi-family housing because of the relative ease of implementation and low cost compared to other options such as on-site audits or telephone surveys. Because the Study had 13 study sites spread across the country, the project team determined that a mail survey would be the only feasible method for obtaining the required 38
information given the available budget. Telephone surveying was used as part of the manager survey to increase the response rate. Postcard Survey The initial project survey was a postcard survey. The postcard survey was sent to the owner or on-site manager of all multi-family residences that met initial screening criteria based on billing data. This criteria eliminated properties that used less than 200,000 gallons of water in 2001 and had fewer than 10 dwelling units 18 . A typical single-family home uses about 140,000 gallons per year on average. Eligible properties that met these criteria were considered the sample frame. Two different survey forms were used in 12 of the cities: a “short form” postcard survey for individual properties and a “long form” postcard survey for customers that handle billing accounts for more than 4 properties. A sample postcard survey instrument is re-printed in Appendix A. It was unnecessary to send the postcard to Irvine Ranch Water District because information on third party billing and the number of units per property was available from their customer billing database. The postcard survey form was simple and to the point. It asked if residents in the building are paying for water (and wastewater) via submetering, RUBS, hot water hybrid, or if it is included in the rent or homeowner association dues. It also asked if the billing is handled inhouse by a billing service company. In addition it asked how many units the property has. This survey was printed on a postcard with a utility logo and included a brief explanation of the study. To facilitate respondent needs, a phone number for a NRC staff person was made available to answer questions and provide assistance. As promised in the description of the study, a drawing was held to award a prize of $100 to a randomly selected respondent. The Study’s sampling framework was designed so that a 30 percent response rate to the postcard survey in each study site would be sufficient for selecting properties for the manager survey. The response rate goal was obtained in each city, ranging from 39% in Hillsborough County to 75% in Seattle. The overall response rate was 58.6% (7,972 postcards). Only Las Vegas required a second wave of surveys to be sent in order to reach the 30% goal. See Table 3.2 for details. 18 This was only part of the criteria for the utilities that keep records of the number of dwelling units per property. Thus, in utilities without records on number of dwelling units, some properties with less than 10 units did receive a postcard survey. 39
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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
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 and 88: Figure 3.2 National Multiple Family
Page 89: Matched pair protocol/survey - conf
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
Page 138 and 139: 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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