Cohousing-L Mailing List: How does your community divide up water bills?

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Ken Winter wrote:

>*4. Sub-metering*.  Install a meter in each unit, and apportion the
>community's total bill into unit bills based on each unit's actual usage.
>This eliminates the accuracy issue.
...
>The research
>I've found confirms that sub-metering also provides a conservation bonus:
>When people can see (and know that they're gonna pay for) their own water
>usage, their usage drops by 15% or more.  And it makes it easier to
>determine the location of leaks that are driving up the community's water
>bill.
...
>A rough estimate from one vendor indicates that we could have it
>installed and operating for a one-time cost of $200-$300 per unit.

I assume that is an estimate for adding meters to an existing
community.  I wonder if it could be considerably cheaper if included
with the original construction.  How much do meters themselves cost?
That is how much of 2-300 is labor?

I wonder if there are ways to make rough estimates of household usesage.
My guess is that households in general vary considerably in their useage
tho maybe not generally conscientious cohousing households.
Even gotten me to wondering if I can tell the difference in our water
bill now that our 28 year old son who takes lots of showers is living
at home for a while.

Other alternatives:
Divide total bill on per person basis.
Divide total bill on per person basis self ranked factor based on
a little survey - who often do you shower?  run dish washer?
do laundry in unit? water plants? water grass?

Fred

--
Bassett Creek Cohousing, Minneapolis  http://mn.cohousing.org/bcrk/
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org