…meter individual premises?

Many of the ideas for post articles come from personal experience working with utilities. My second-best source of ideas is from listservs I subscribe to. This topic falls into the latter category.

Policy deviation question

About a year ago, a listserv question was posed asking about the pros and cons of deviating from the utility’s policy of metering all single family residences individually and allowing a townhouse development to install a master meter. The homeowner’s association would be responsible for the bill for the master meter.

Pros of master metering

Obviously, the big advantage to a single master meter over multiple individual meters is that the utility only has one meter to maintain, read, and bill. Depending on the number of residences in the development, it is also likely a single, larger meter would be less expensive to purchase and install than many individual, smaller meters.

Cons of master metering

The list of disadvantages is a much longer list…

First of all, if you have to turn the water off for non-payment, you don’t have just one angry person, you have many. Even though, in this scenario, the customer is the homeowner’s association, the reality is you have a public relations nightmare and, if you are a local government, many irate citizens.

If you ever have to enact water conservation measures in the event of a drought, a single master meter makes it impossible to determine who is and who isn’t abiding by the conservation restrictions.

Likewise, if there is a leak within a residence, there is no way to know which occupant is experiencing the leak. Similarly, if there is a leak in the piping on the customer’s side of the meter, there is no way to determine where the leak is.

Finally, depending on the number of units and the size of the master meter, a compound meter would most likely be required to accurately register low flows such as toilet flushes in the middle of the night.

Recommendation

My recommendation in this situation would be that the utility not deviate from their policy. After all, isn’t that why you have policies in the first place – to determine how to handle situations like this?