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Benefits & Uses

Check out some of the reasons you should call us today!

Available Methods of Recovering Utility Costs

As a multi-family property owner or manager, you essentially have 3 different methods you can use to recover the cost of utilities from your tenants.

1) Recover utility costs within the monthly rental fee

NOT RECOMMENDED

2) Allocate costs to each tenant using a Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS)

BETTER

3) Submeter – Meter each unit and tenant pays for what they actually use. 

BEST

Although using option 2 RUBS is better than option 1, we believe that option 3 – Submetering provides the most benefits. Contact us today for help deciding what will work best for your needs! 

Submetering Benefits

A submetering system provides several benefits, including:

Encourages Energy Conservation

Multiple national industry studies have documented that adding a submetering system and billing residents for their usage will result in the overall utility consumption at the property to fall between 18% and 30% after just a few months.  The principle is simple, when residents are responsible to pay for their usage, they use less.

Reduces Utility Costs

The overall utility costs at the property will be reduced.  And submetering allows the property to stay on top of increases from the uitlity companies instead of always playing catch up to rate increases.  With a submetering system and a billing planin place, monthly rental rates can be reduced, and therefore more competitive in the market.

Increases Cash Flow

When tenants are paying for their utility costs, your Net Operating Income at the property increases accordingly.  Typical Return On Investment (ROI) periods for a submetering system are less than 12 months.  Net Cash Flow to the owner increases perportionally.  Submeter Solutions provides  a free ROI analysis for your project with every proposal.

Increases Property Value and Improves Cap Rates

With an increase in Net Cash Flow, property values and Cap Rates also increase.  Buyers are increasingly looking for multi-family properties that already have a submetering program in place.  

Stabilizes Rents

With a submetering system and a billing plan in place, monthly rental rates can be reduced, and therefore more competitive in the market.  Utility rate increases don’t impact rents and can lead to fewer rent increases.  

Reduces Your Administrative Overhead

Let Submeter Solutions calculate individual utility charges for each resident.  And because our fee is typically covered by our service charge added to each utility bill, this service is esentially free to the property owner/manager.  

Submetering Uses

Submetering can be applied to many applications, including…

  • MultiFamily
  • Condominiums
  • Commercial
  • Marinas
  • Manufactured Housing Communities
  • New Construction
Benefits & Applications
Multifamily

Apartments, Duplex, Triplex, Hi-Rise, Lo-Rise, Multiple Buiding Campus

New construction or retrofit – from small duplexes up to high rise towers or multiple buildings, Submeter Solutions can provide a submetering system for any multifamily property.  We handle everything from system design and installation to monthly meter reading and utility billing servies.  

Condominiums

Condos and Townhomes

Home Owners Associations (HOA’s) can also benefit from submetering.  Condos and Townhomes have unique requirements than apartments.  Submeter Solutions is experienced in installing sytems at Condos and working with HOA’s.

 

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Benefits & Applications
Commercial

Office, Retail, Industrial, Warehouse

Whether to recover utility costs from tenants, or for facility energy management systems, Submeter Solutions has a vast experience of installing metering systems for electric, gas and water at commercial properties.  Our technical expertise with commercial/industrial grade meters is unsur passed in the industry.

Manufactured Housing Communities

Mobile Home Parks, RV Parks

Submeter Solutions specializes in installing submetering systems for Manufactured Housing Communities.  MHC’s require equipment that is specifically manufactued for under the home or outdoor meter installatons.  Use your plumber or ours to install the meters.  Monthly utility billing services are tailored for the needs of MHC owners and managers.  

Benefits & Applications
Benefits & Applications
New Construction

Apartments, Condos, Commercial, Public Housing 

Submeter Solutions can provide submetering systems for new construction projects – residential or commercial.  We work with developers, general contractors and plumbing contractors to make sure that the system design integrates with project requirements.  For water submetering sytems, we will supply meter flow tubes to be installed during rough in plumbing so that meters are not damaged prior to the water lines are flushed.  We use industry standard remote meter reading systems that can be monitored by most third party billing companies.

Marinas

Public, Private, Commercial

Marinas are an ideal application for electric submetering.  Submeter Solutions sells electric meters that have been designed for the harsh environments of marinas.  Wireless remote meter reading systems allow management to easily monitor meters from the office.  

Benefits & Applications