I’ve had a lot of inquiries lately about metering off the main and with water season right around the corner, I figured this would be a good time to share my knowledge. So here we go!
Typically calls come in asking about master metering after a big discrepancy in the utility water bill. MHP owners are not getting the transparency because they don’t have a master meter off their main, or they are not sub-metered or their sub-meters are out of date and no longer reading efficiently. As I mention to potential clients, just because you’re sub-metered and the bill from utility doesn’t match the usage of the tenants doesn’t necessarily mean you have a leak in your infrastructure. It doesn’t mean you don’t either. You must look at some factors like the ones mentioned above. I’ll keep it brief.
- How old are your sub meters? Are you certain they are still accurate?
- Are your sub-meters clogged with debris or sentiment etc.? Clogs from debris & sentiment can slow down or stop the measuring element all together causing the meters to barely read water flow yet allowing water to continue flowing without being measured. This means you’re potentially flipping the bill for the extra water usage that isn’t being tracked properly.
- How old is your piping? It goes without saying that main lines age and replacing the mains can get expensive quickly. However, replacing infrastructure as you find leaks can save a ton of money because the longer and larger the leak gets the more damage occurs on the property.
Solutions:
- Start with the basics: Start with sub-metering or replace your aged sub-meters on your pads.
- Have precise data analytics & alrerts to ensure all usage is being tracked, leaks are identified and addressed.
- Place a meter behind your utility meter with the same analytics to capture water flow data before it’s dispersed to the pads in the park. If your new main is capturing close to what the municipality meter is reading, then you at least know that their billing is correct. Your analytics platform should compare the usage of your main meter to the total usage of your sub-meters and give you an accurate measure of the leaks in your infrastructure.
Want to learn more, give me a call 720-826-1174
~Bill