Submetering, long used in the apartment industry, is increasingly being adopted by community associations as a method for controlling utility costs. Submetering decreases property consumption statistically by fifteen to thirty percent. It shifts the burden for utilities from the community to the individual consumer, which provides a strong financial incentive to conserve costly and diminishing resources.
What is submetering? Submetering is the installation of individual meters in each of a community’s residences for the purpose of measuring specific unit consumption. This allows private billing companies to invoice each household directly for the costs associated with actual usage. It is most commonly applied to water and sewer, although other utilities may be submetered. Submetering came into existence because of advances in technology that allow remote reading of meters to be located inside private property.
