Water metering: stopping budget leaks.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that water are here to stay in New York City. The bad news is that water meters are here to stay in New York City.

On the up side, your building can save a huge percentage on the annual cost of water. On the down side, you can be socked with much larger water bills. Who determines which side of the coin your building will fall on? You do!

A co-op board member I recently spoke with was convinced his building would save $20,000 per year through water metering. Based on his conviction, the board installed meters in their building. The immediate result was an increase in water bills which would have translated into approximately $10,000 a year. By quickly developing a Water Cost Management plan, we were able to shore the economic leak and turn the bills around so that the building saw a $ 10,000 reduction in their annual billing!

While it holds true that buildings with greater population density will consume more water than those with lower density, that does not necessarily mean that all buildings with high density populations are going to get socked with huge water bills after meters are installed. Nor does that mean that all buildings with low density are going to find reductions in their water bills.

The bottom line is that the buildings in which water metering will pay off right away can find even greater savings through a Water Cost Management Plan. And the buildings which stand to suffer after water metering can greatly reduce their additional expenses, and in some cases even convert it into savings.

After studying a number of cities which converted to water metering as well as crunching the numbers in New York's growing population of metered buildings, the Vantage Group has developed a Water Cost Management Plan which GUARANTEED to lower any building's water bills.

What is a Water Cost

Management Plan?

1) An analysis of how much water you should be using is an important factor in giving you the knowledge to prepare for meters effectively 2) Conservation retrofit is essential, but must be done intelligently since selection of improper devices is a total waste of money 3) Administrative methods encompass consumption monitoring and various methods of leak detection and correction 4) Staff and tenant education, if handled property, can make a great impact on your water sewer costs

Since water metering is here to stay, it is imperative to find out which category your building will fall into and properly prepare for being metered. While the Plumbing Foundation recently released statistics which stated that 45 percent of buildings which have installed water meters were saving money, that statistic was drawn from the relatively small base of multi-family meters that have been installed. Once the entire multi-family environment is metered, we believe that only 25 percent to 35 percent will save money strictly by metering, about 30 percent will come out within 10 percent of break-even, and about 30 percent to 35 percent will pay more (some of them a lot more).

While it is inevitable that all buildings will have to convert to meters in the coming years, it is essential that you do not install a meter voluntarily unless you are sure of the financing benefits and potential consequences.