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What is submetering? HOME In the multifamily housing industry, submetering is the installation
of meters to measure the utility usage of individual apartments for water,
natural gas, heating and cooling, electric, etc. Monthly, the individual meters are read and
a bill is sent to each resident by either the apartment management or a Read,
Bill and Collect (RBC) company. The RBC collects the money. The property
owner continues to receive and pay its master meter bill through the local
utility provider. The RBC forwards the money collected from the residents to
the property owner minus a fee. The goal of
submetering is to reduce the overall energy and water consumption at the
property by having the resident take responsibility for their consumption.
Submetering increases the value of the property by minimizing variable
utility costs in the rent equation.
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Why submeter and why install a wireless
automated meter reading system? 1.
Profit ·
Submetering eliminates utility costs (such as water and sewer,
gas, electric, heating and/or cooling) from the rent equation, so the
property owner can maintain a competitive edge. ·
By recovering utility costs from the residents, the overall
operating expenses are dramatically reduced. This increases net operating
income (NOI). ·
Rent rates no longer have to be increased as utility rates
rise. The property owner is not subsidizing utility costs for residents. ·
2.
Over the last five to ten years, utility costs have outpaced
inflation by three to four times. 3.
Residents pay for what they use. As residents become more
aware of their usage and are required to pay for what they use, they work
harder to conserve water, gas and electric, and reduce waste. 4.
Water submetering encourages residents to report leaks to the
property manager promptly. This allows small problems to be taken care of
before they become major repairs. 5.
An automatic meter reading (AMR) system allows remote data
retrieval. This eliminates the labor, cost, and potential liability of having
a person walk the property on a regular basis. 6.
Accurate billing for move-outs and move-ins are easier. 7.
Utility billing with an AMR system is more accurate than
manually reading and entering numbers into a hand held device. 8.
Residents feel they are treated more fairly with submetering
than RUBS/Allocation. They pay for their actual water consumption and not an
amount calculated by a formula. 9.
Submetering encourages conservation of natural resources. 10. Wireless submetering systems are less costly to install than touch-pad and walk-by
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What can be submetered in apartments and
condominiums? Current
technologies provide for submetering and cost recovery of almost all
utilities and energy ·
Domestic
water usage (water submeters placed at water entry to apartment) ·
Natural
gas
(gas meters placed at entry to apartment – not a popular method today*) ·
Master
metered forced air furnaces (time-demand meters placed on the furnace controls) ·
Central
boiler provided heating (time-demand meters placed on the baseboard, fancoils,
convectors, wall heaters, etc) ·
Central
chiller provided cooling (time-demand meters placed on the fancoils, air
handlers, etc) ·
Gas
fireplaces
(time-demand meters placed on the fireplace controls) ·
Electricity
(electric
submeters place at the apartment electric breaker panel) In
conjunction with water submetering, most jurisdictions also allow the cost
recovery of trash and sewer charges outside of the base rent payment. *Cost and liability make gas submetering
an unattractive offering, but necessary in some applications.
Automatic
meter reading (AMR) is the remote collection of the readings from utility
meters over radio, telephone, power lines, or other means. AMR works with
electric, natural gas, and water utilities. It typically increases accuracy
of the readings, provides an opportunity to enhance customer service, and
increases the efficiency of billing and collection. Why
Western? A True Submetering
Company The most popular system of its type; Western Control’s
Runtime-Demand Submetering devices is installed in over 60,000 multifamily
units nationwide. These units meter a
variety of systems including: GAS FIRED
FIREPLACES GAS FORCED AIR
FURNACES FAN COIL
BASED HYDRONIC BOILER HEATING SYSTEMS BASEBOARD
HYDRONIC BOILER HEATING SYSTEMS
GAS DOMESTIC HOT WATER HEATERS ELECTRIC
HYDRONIC WATER PUMPS DOMESTIC HOT
WATER BOILERS HEATING
BOILERS COOLING
TOWER FANS Monitrol’s
runtime, electric and gas submetering system utilize Inovonics Wireless,
Frequency Agile® RF technology. This
wireless technology is currently used in submetering over 600,000 multifamily
units nationwide. Another 2 million
Inovonics devices are used in life safety and security systems
worldwide. Inovonics is the undisputed
leader in wireless signaling in security and submetering industries. With
Monitrol and Inovonics, your submetering application will never lock you into
a single billing company’s services.
It gives you the freedom to acquire the best ongoing maintenance and
billing services available. The people
at Monitrol Control have been designing and installing quality submetering,
building automation, energy management and security systems continuously for
over 25 years. Our metering systems
are sold by some of the biggest names in multifamily utility billing:
Viterra, Delta Utility Solutions, National Water & Power, Conservice, and
others. A True
Energy Management Company Monitrol
Control capabilities go far beyond submetering. Energy management engineering for over 25
years gives Monitrol the capability to provide you true conservation
consulting as well as cost recovery alternative through submetering. Whether
your facility is in need of a building automation system, lighting retrofit,
electronic motor controllers, variable speed motor drives, water conservation
services and equipment, Monitrol can help design, install and service your needs. A True
Multifamily Security Company Monitrol
Control has been developing security answers for commercial, retirement and
multifamily properties for almost 20 years.
Our systems have been marketed by such giants in the industry as
National Guardian, Network Security, ADT and others. They protect hundreds of business and over
100,000 senior living units nationwide. Monitrol
Wireless Heating / Cooling RunTime-Demand Metering The Monitrol Heating / Cooling / Fireplace
RunTime-Demand Metering System (TDM) is a highly accurate run-time
submetering system capable of monitoring and recording run-time and therefore
energy or heating/cooling consumption of a furnace, fireplace, baseboard fin
tube, fan coil, hot water heater or other regulated valve controlled
appliance. It has a one second
resolution and a tested accuracy of 99.99%.
The system is based upon a Monitrol’s accurate microprocessor
controlled RunTime Converter (RTC-EX) and Inovonics Wireless TapWatch 900 MHz
Frequency Agile® Spread Spectrum RF System which includes a Pulse Meter
Transmitter (PMT), signal repeaters, a central receiver and data concentrator
communicator (DCC), which can be automatically polled via telephone modem by
the billing company or service agency, and can be manually read on site. OPERATION
The RTC-EX
demand-timing module is a passive device, which monitors the activation and deactivation
of the appliance controller by a remote switch, thermostat or other
control. Upon activation, the device’s
crystal-controlled, microprocessor begins calculating and recording seconds
of operation. When the device is
deactivated, the RTC-EX is powered down and offline. Just prior to shutting down, the unit
records any partial minutes (seconds) into non-volatile, flash memory. Upon reactivation, the RTC-EX recovers the
“partial-minute-run” data from memory and restarts counting, adding new seconds
counted to the recovered data, preventing the loss of consumption data during
partial minute usages. An optional
patent-pending flame sensor is available for directly monitoring devices with
no-voltage controls and in regions like New Jersey that require heating to be
monitored after the fuel (natural gas) is consumed. A temperature
interlock sensor is also available for verification that heating (or cooling)
is actually present in the system being monitored before clocking is
performed. At the end of each
recorded one-minute interval, the timing device provides a pulse output to
the integral Pulse Meter Transmitter (located within the same
enclosure). A visible LED is available
for maintenance monitoring of the pulse activation. The RTC-EX high
impedance input circuitry is isolated to prevent overload of monitored
devices. It requires only 6 milliamps
of Class II power in the range of 12 to 24 volts AC or DC. 3 volt modules are available on special
order for certain fireplace applications, as are 110 volt modules for line
voltage controlled devices.
PULSE METER TRANSMITTER
The Pulse Meter
Transmitter (PMT) device is an integral Inovonics 5201 Tapwatch
Transmitter. It is battery operated
adding no additional load to the appliance controller. Transmissions use a
frequency hopping, spread spectrum radio link, operating in the 902MHz to
928MHz band. By duplicating data and
broadcasting redundant signals on multiple frequencies, the PMT minimizes the
potential for interference and missed signals. Once an hour (24
times per day), the 5201 transmits its accumulated counts to a remote Data
Concentrator Communicator (DCC). In
the case of an open cover or test mode, transmissions are instantaneous. For Along with the
energy/utility pulse counts, the transmitter sends a unique ID code (meter
number), status data (battery status, cover open and other critical
information) and a checksum for verification by the receiver that the data is
accurate. |
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