Mixed-use properties can be difficult to manage. Submetering a property that has both residential and commercial tenants can be challenging as the tenants tend to have wide utility use disparity. A single family living in an apartment or condo will consume significantly less water and electricity when compared to a brewery or a restaurant that resides in the same building.
This makes submetering vital in efficiently managing and properly allocating energy use on site. Outdated utility billing methods such as ratio based billing are unfair for tenants and can increase tenant disputes within these properties.
Installing a wireless submetering solution to your mixed-use property will have a positive impact on your tenant relationships and your bottom line, but there may be some challenges. The initial investment of purchasing the necessary water, electrical, gas or thermal meters will come at a cost, and those units will need to be combined with communications devices that transfer data to a utility data management platform. Fortunately, these costs are easily recouped through accurate tenant billing, reduced property damage and decreasing water waste through algorithmic leak detection.
Accurate billing will improve your relationship with your tenants as they will be charged for their actual usage. Some tenants will be displeased paying for their actual utility usage but, with access to real time utility data those customers will easily be able to reduce their consumption and their utility bills. This will result in a positive impact on the environment and reducing your properties overall consumption.
Submetering your property has multiple positives that outweigh any negatives, especially for property owners who are focused on the future. Submetering your property can be broken down into 3 primary advantages:
Submetering each unit for any utility allows the property owner to individually invoice each tenant for their consumption. Property managers can use this to separate utility billing and rent costs into two independent bills and contract a billing company to handle all utility billing, saving them time and stress.
Leak detection is available with robust utility data management platforms. Platforms like Truety can be set up to send an alert to the building's stakeholders as soon as irregular flow is detected within the system. This allows property managers to act quickly, mitigating potential damage to their property.
With the utility data transparency provided by a submetering system, it's easy to improve your building’s efficiency and reduce its impact on the environment. This opens the door for government grants related to sustainability and assists in following net zero guidelines.
The Truety solution supplied by QMC Metering Solutions is the best water and electricity metering solution available to the North American market. Our solution combines proven and reliable encoded readings with robust and highly accurate metering devices.
Secure wireless LoRaWAN communications and a mobile NFC-based tap and go verification system will streamline your operation, and reduce equipment costs. The Truety ecosystem eliminates errors, improves quality and builds client trust.
Contact us today to learn more about our solutions and take the first step towards cost effective property management.
