Slashing Water Use in Garden-Style Apartments in Texas
Immediate major water savings were made following the installation of Mertron’s smart water meters for each building of a garden-style housing campus.
Polaris Real Estate Partners owns and manages approximately 4,500 residential units in multifamily properties spanning Texas and Missouri, with a focus on properties developed from 1980 onward. In many cases, there is no visibility into how water is used within the property, making it difficult to manage costs and consumption, or to detect leaks. By installing Metron’s smart, cellular-connected water meters on a per-building basis at two of Polaris’ properties, immediate water savings were realised, leading to major cost reductions and better water conservation.
THE CHALLENGE
Polaris’ properties are garden-style apartments and were constructed with various plumbing configurations ranging from one utility meter serving the whole to a dozen or more utility meters serving a 20-30 building property. The properties were built in the 1980s with plumbing that didn’t allow for submetering. As a result, Polaris site managers have no downstream visibility into how much water is being used across the property as a whole.
To bill residents, Polaris uses the Ratio Utility Billing System, or RUBS, to divide up each site’s total water costs using a formula based on square footage and occupancy. With no way to track an individual building’s water usage, leaks at the buildings and within the units often go unnoticed. Over the years, those leaks often accumulate or worsen, significantly driving up total water consumption.
THE SOLUTION
Polaris launched a pilot project, installing several dozen Metron smart water meters at a single Texas apartment campus. As soon as the monitors were installed, data began flowing – and using Metron’s dedicated WaterScope portal, site managers were instantly able to identify several buildings with unexpectedly high water usage. That simple insight meant they could send teams out to specific apartments to make targeted repairs – a dripping faucet here, a leaky toilet there – that cumulatively made a big difference.
RESULTS
Within a day Polaris realised a 40% reduction in total water use across the property, equivalent to a $100,000 annual reduction in water bills for the site’s residents. Polaris is currently working with Metron to install smart sensors across many others of its garden-style apartment complexes in Texas and beyond.
– Travis Pacoe, General Partner, PolarisWe saw immediate operational gains that lowered costs for our residents, and that alone was enough to deliver up to 20X ROI for the pilot project.
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