Water sub-metering helps managers recapture costs, increase profits.

A leaky faucet can cost a New York property manager as much as $100 each year for water and sewer costs. If 25 percent of all faucets are leaking in a 300-unit building, this waste translates into $7,500 per year down drain.

Imagine how much building owners speed on total wafer usage. What if the property manager no longer had to bear the financial responsibility for that plumbing problem - or for the total water and sewer bill? That fantasy becomes reality for landlords who put water sub-metering to work in their residential properties.

Water sub-metering has been the practice in Europe for decades, as mandated by state laws, and is only now poised to take the U.S. by storm. Using sophisticated meters to accurately read the consumption of water by individual units, building owners and managers can then reallocate water and sewer costs to residents. Once considered a revolutionary concept, more and more landlords, large multi-family managers and even residents are joining the sub-metering bandwagon.

The motivation for landlords and managers is clear: water sub-metering helps recapture costs and increase cash-flow. It also reduces the big question mark landlords put down when trying to budget for rapidly rising water and sewer costs.

Water sub-metering is also a practice that should be championed by residents as well. It is the most viable solution to controlling rising water costs and reducing overall water consumption in the U.S. Unlike other frequently failed methods such as low-flow faucets and shower heads, which are often discarded and disregarded by many building residents, water sub-metering is highly effective in reducing consumption by 15 to 20 percent. Simply, residents are more conscious of saving water when they are paying for their own usage, reacting immediately once a faucet starts to leak. Sub-metering causes self-monitoring.

Residents also receive a break on their occupancy costs and never have to pay for their neighbor's excessive water consumption again. They additionally have the advantage of detecting water leaks now to stave off properly damages later. Most important, they become active participants in environmental conservation - a win-win-win situation for property owners, residents and the world-at-large.

In many cities around the U.S., water and sewer rates have climbed to astronomical levels, in some cases exceeding electricity costs. In Washington, D.C. for example, water and sewer costs rose by 40 percent last year alone. Yet, water consumption by residents continues to increase, resulting in higher water costs for owners and managers.

In the scramble to find a timely solution to volatile cost, waste and conservation woes, many U.S. owners are turning to the European solution of water sub-metering. State-of-the-art sub-metering systems allow individual water usage to be electronically read and directly billed. Not only does this method of measuring consumption improve the property owner's overall bottom line, but it alleviates shrinking profit margins. lies show property value increases by to $10 per square foot with sub-metering technology. The return on an owner's investment is compelling.

Now that it's time for water sub-metering to come to the U.S., so has Raab Karcher Energy Services (RKES). RKES, the leader in water sub-metering throughout Europe, is introducing its proven services and its innovative technology, the ISTAMETER, to the U.S. market. The ISTAMETER, a cutting-edge metering device specifically designed for sub-metering multi-unit buildings, monitors individual residents, water usage to create user-specific billing. As a result, owners can increase property profits and value, reduce the risk of increasing water and sewer costs, and play a major role in water conservation and the "green" movement.

Water sub-metering is the wave of the future for the U.S. As RKES builds its national system of branch operations and local talent, property owners and residents in New York and around the country will be able to save money, save water and save the environment, with large-scale benefits that can revolutionize water consumption processes well into the 21st Century.