Water Leak and Detection Survey and Audit in Mobile Home Park

The above leak was indicated only by a soft spot in the grass nearby. The majority of the water ran into a nearby lake. The 3/4 inch line was broken and thousands of gallons a day were leaking with only a high water bill to show for it. The lot where this leak occurred did not have a water meter on it. Had a water meter been installed, this leak could have been found more easily as the meter would have indicated the broken line.

Many mobile home communities do not have meters on individual homes. Without water meters on each and every home, the community cannot know how much water is being used by tenants, and how much is lost to leakage with no hope for recovering the cost of the water. Sub-metering all of the lots in the community can alleviate many of the issues with water loss, and can help to increase profitability. In theory, sub-metering is the practice of using a water meter to measure master metered water consumption by individual users.

The owner of the community resells the water that has been read by the meter and provides invoices to the residents or tenants. Recent interest in water metering is due to water conservation issues increasing the cost of water service thereby providing the incentive for the use of sub-meters and non-metered water allocation charges for mobile home communities. Issues keeping the bills accurate have limited the use to non-metered allocation charges. The increases in water bills and charges have resulted in the installation of sub-meters and changes in billing practices. Additionally, local and regional rent control regulations, while limiting rent increases, may permit billing separately for utility costs when they previously were billed at a flat rate.

Frequently, consumers who are billed separately for utilities use often:

• question the reason for certain water charges
• question the basis for calculating the charges
• complain they are being assessed improper, or illegal, charges for water service
• claim the water meters are inaccurate
• claim the utility charges are another form of rent increase

Quality accurate water metering can eliminate many of these concerns while allowing for the passing along of water usage to the tenants using the most water, while allowing for savings for the water conservation-minded residents to benefit from lower utility bills.

A master meter, is a utility meter typically owned, maintained, and read for billing purposes by the water utility to multi-unit businesses and residences including mobile home communities. Sub-meters are installed on each of the lots in the community. Once the total cumulative sub-metered totals are compared to the master metered water consumption, the total unaccounted for water loss can be calculated.

Once a community knows how much water is being lost, a cost/benefit analysis for a comprehensive leak detection and repair program can be conducted, and the money savings can start. It is not uncommon for a mobile home community to save thousands of dollars a month once water leaks are repaired throughout the community.

Call United Leak Detection today for a professional review of your water bills in order to start you on the road to water savings, increased cost efficiency and significant savings and increased profitability. United Leak Detection does not charge to review water bills and can provide both leak detection and leak repair solutions to help you start saving money now!