Leak detection system drives multi-family housing water savings

The H₂O Degree system provides both property management and tenants with interactive online tools that can dramatically reduce water consumption and improve property profitability. Utilising the system, managers of master-metered facilities now have the ability to measure and bill individual unit tenants for their actual water usage and for the energy required to provide hot water. Facilities managers also receive regular usage data that can pinpoint water leak problems that result in excess water consumption. To show how H₂O Degree’s submetering and leak detection system results in significant savings, the company’s website provides a detailed case study about how a master-metered, 60-unit apartment building achieved a 50% reduction in its water utility expenses. 

H₂O Degree’s comprehensive submetering system tracks water, electric, gas and BTUs – which is more than is monitored by other systems. The company’s differentiating technologies include two-way wireless mesh submetering, Green Thermostats and daily water meter and leak-detection reporting. The system allows for both visualization and control. Landlords can access energy dashboards to view consumption of individual tenants in order to bill them according to usage, as well as leak reports that enable them to proactively prevent wasted water.

Tenants can use a mobile app to adjust thermostat temperature and set-points to save costs on heating and cooling. Through the H₂O Degree web-portal, tenants can view, and adjust, their power and water consumption to lower electricity and water bills. Moreover, the sophisticated systems allow building services personnel to control temperatures in vacant units as necessary, leading to further energy cost reductions. 

A submetering installation at Cheverly Crossing, a 60-unit apartment building in Hyattsville, Maryland, offers a case study on the success of the H₂O Degree system. The case study describes how the landlord monitored submeter data to adjust tenant billing, which motivated the tenants to reduce their water consumption. It also shows how water leak reporting prompted the landlord to proactively fix maintenance issues and reduce water loss. Results of the study document how the landlord was able to cut water utility expenses at the multi-family apartment building by more than half. 

“Our system has the remarkable ability to change both tenant and building management behavior in a positive way,” says Don Millstein, H₂O Degree’s President. “People’s behavior changes when they have access to the information and are held accountable through tenant billing. Our system provides not just data but useful, actionable information. We encourage facilities managers and other building contractors to download our Cheverly Crossing case study. This is just one of the multi-family buildings that have significantly reduced their water consumption by using our comprehensive submetering system.”