Any idea how to estimate water usage on a shared meter?

Hi Guys,

Google was not very helpful so hoping someone can provide some guidance on this.

We own a group of 11 units. The common areas have a total of 3 taps however these are located at the rear of the site, too far for our hoses to reach and water the 2 small landscaping areas at the front of the site.

What we've done is hooked up our garden hoses to the taps that belong/are connected to 2 of the front units. We have it on a timer so that it automatically switches on and waters the plants (through the irrigation pipes) for 20mins a day.

How on earth do we estimate how much water this uses so that we can reimburse or pay for the portion of water we've used?

Any advice would be much appreciated!
 
I'm not sure who you would reimburse. Do you charge the tenants individually based on a shared meter? In NSW the owner must pay water usage unless each unit is separately metered and billed. One can't even charge based on a private meter.
 
Each unit has their own water meter. It just so happens that the closest water meters that we can access belong to the 2 units at the front of the site so we'd need to reimburse the 2 front units (We use the LHS units' tap to water the LHS garden bed and RHS units' tap to water the RHS garden bed)
 
Hi Guys,

Google was not very helpful so hoping someone can provide some guidance on this.

We own a group of 11 units. The common areas have a total of 3 taps however these are located at the rear of the site, too far for our hoses to reach and water the 2 small landscaping areas at the front of the site.

What we've done is hooked up our garden hoses to the taps that belong/are connected to 2 of the front units. We have it on a timer so that it automatically switches on and waters the plants (through the irrigation pipes) for 20mins a day.

How on earth do we estimate how much water this uses so that we can reimburse or pay for the portion of water we've used?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Just answering your question, not whether it is appropriate or not.

Time how long it takes to fill a 9 litre bucket (or similar known volume.) This will give you a flow rate (eg litres/sec or litres/minute).

Calculate how many litres per day are used (eg. 20mins x litres/min)

The water bill normally is normally for 60 or 90 days, so multiply number of days to get a total number of kilolitres (1000 litres) used.

The water bill has a cost ($) per kiloliter. So then simply multiply total used by rate per kilolitre.
 
Just ensure the relevant tenants know of this and it is documented on their lease. Otherwise the tribunal will not be kind to you in case of a dispute.
Marg
 
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