If you own a park in areas of the US with cold climates (reaches -10 below or colder in the winter), could I ask a huge favor? Can you please send me a picture or two of how your water meters are installed under the home (a little narrative along with it would be a bonus). We need to install meters in our 140 space park and have read many of the old threads on here but not finding what I’m looking for.
I’ve talked with 3 plumbers and they are telling me to just install them under the home…not buried in a box. I called 2 city water departments yesterday and they said to definitely install them in a box. I want to make sure the installs are done correctly so we don’t have a mess of broken pipes/meters come winter. I’ve ignorant when it comes to this subject and am trying to educate myself so it’s done properly.
I’m still researching meter types and would love any input on meters you love or don’t like at all. We are looking to get meters that have the automatic read capability. I’d like the data updates available every hour or more. We have a lot of tenants that are very wasteful with their water since they don’t pay separately for it…leave sprinklers running all night, leave kitchen or bath faucet running full blast all night long in the winter so pipes don’t freeze. We’ve got to be wasting 10,000 - 20,000 gallons of water a day sometimes and this needs to stop.
Any help, feedback, suggestions would be very appreciated. My email is christa@west-prairie.com for pictures.
I haven’t used them personally, but I’ve heard very good things from other park owners about Metron’s water metering service. If I was installing all new meters from scratch I would personally give them consideration and compare their service to doing an installation and reading meters in house.
We specialize in installing and managing Metron’s automated smart water meters and receiving systems . If you are looking for a solution to your water issues this would be the best and most effective one.
Once you put meters in usage drops any where from 25- 33% from what we’ve seen.
As far as freeze ups:
Freeze ups can be minimized with better heat tapes and insulation for the service lines, repairs on skirting gaps, belly damage and leaks, and proper protection for the meters once they are installed.
And whats a better time to have these repairs made then when you are installing meters?
We install meters all over the country and even in the Virgin Islands. We feel its important to provide tenants with freeze up letters which point out each oddity and how they can contribute to freeze ups as well as suggest that these issues get fixed before cold climate season.
If the service lines are in bad shape some times we suggest that the whole line be replaced with a new service line. In most cases leaking substandard services lines cost people more money than a full line replacement.
Pro-activity is key! Your always going to have issues, whats most important is how proactive are you being to solve those issues.
These meters interact with the central receiver by sending heart beats every 30 seconds. The receiver then sends that information to the server once at noon and again at midnight, giving you reports on each home twice a day EVERYDAY.
We even incorporate these reports into email and text message alerts.
Reasons why you should meter:
20 year warranty on Metron Meters
The accountability that your tenants gain during this process is the reason for the instant drop in usage.
The pro-activity allows you to maintain your water system in a way where its not working so hard all the time, which in the long term preserves your infrastructure.
If you did decide to bill back for water usage, you can create a separate bottom line for maintaining the water or paying the muni bill instead of tapping into lot rents.
Overall increases the communities value.
I’ve included a couple pdf files and even a Metron reference sheet of some of the communities that we’ve installed Metrons System in.
Feel free to make some phone calls and do some research for your self
Check out this info and feel free to email or call if you have more questions : Gabriel@abtwater.com
Or call me at 608.718.9827