Point of Use (POU) meters are designed to provide a submetering solution for those properties that cannot be submetered by conventional submeters due to plumbing designs that bring multiple pipes into the apartment or office (stacked risers). The meters were specifically designed for stacked riser plumbing configurations typically found in properties that utilize a central boiler to provide hot water.
In a typical installation very small flow meters are installed inconspicuously on each hot & cold outlet to the shower/tub, toilet, sink, dish washer and clothes washer. Depending on the manufacturer the flow meters either have a transmitter built in or are connected to an interface board/ transmitter. The transmitters report usage information to a central Processing computer that in turn forwards the usage information to a billing center where bills can be printed and sent to the end user.
Equipment and installation costs are typically higher that traditional systems but the payback is still usually less than a year. When deciding on a POU meter, a principal consideration should be that the meters can be read by any Automated Reading System (AMR). This allows the property owner to choose between many billing companies and does not tie the owner to equipment that can only be read by a few companies.
Submetering has been proven by numerous studies to reduce usage by as much as 39{7871f4c91f79cbddef59511eb5b9899c6f1d497baab0afdeab5a98ee6e504626}. Although POU meters have been available for over ten years they have not been widely used until recently. With the current interest in green solutions and the ever rising water and sewer costs properties that in the past could not be traditionally metered are now installing POU meters and benefitting from the same type of usage reductions that properties with conventional plumbing have realized for years. Since roughly 50{7871f4c91f79cbddef59511eb5b9899c6f1d497baab0afdeab5a98ee6e504626} of apartments and 90{7871f4c91f79cbddef59511eb5b9899c6f1d497baab0afdeab5a98ee6e504626} of office buildings utilize stacked riser plumbing the benefits of submetering with POU meters have barely been touched.
