About this industry
Whoever pays the utility bill wants it split fairly — by tenant, by building, by bay — and that takes a metering layer built for billing: cold-water sub-meters on the risers, BTU meters on the chilled- and hot-water loops, steam meters on the campus mains, and encoded registers that report every read automatically. Prater Technical Partners supplies that layer across the Badger Meter family — RecordALL and Dynasonics tenant water meters, ModMAG mag meters, Dynasonics and Impeller thermal-energy (BTU) metering, Vortex steam sub-metering — read through HR-E encoders and the AquaCUE cellular AMR platform. Prater Technical works with you to spec each metered point from the line size, the fluid, and how the reads reach your billing system.
- Facility water-use tracking tied to AquaCUE—Dynasonics TFX-500w
- AquaCUE encoder connectivity for automatic meter reading—E-Series Ultrasonic G2·Dynasonics U500w
- Campus steam sub-metering on new or scheduled-outage piping—VN2000 Compact Insertion
FAQ: sub-metering & tenant billing
Which meters fit tenant water sub-metering for billing?
For cold-water tenant billing the workhorses are the RecordALL Disc series on 5/8–2 in. service lines and the Dynasonics U500w ultrasonic — a sealed, tamper-protected meter built for apartment, condominium, and commercial-tenant billing points, with an encoder output for automatic reading. Larger domestic mains step up to RecordALL Turbo and Compound meters. Start at the RecordALL and Dynasonics pages.
How do we sub-meter heating and cooling energy per tenant?
Thermal-energy (BTU) metering pairs a flow meter with a supply/return temperature pair. The Dynasonics UHC-120 is the compact tenant heat/cool billing meter; the TFX-5000 Energy build computes BTU from clamp-on transducers and an RTD pair with no pipe intrusion; and the FC-5000 BTU Monitor or the Impeller Series 380DS handles chilled- and hot-water plant sub-metering and cost allocation. See the flow meters page.
Do sub-meters need billing-grade approvals?
When the reads become invoices, approvals matter. The Dynasonics UHC-120 carries EN 1434 custody-grade heat/cool billing approvals (MID and Measurement Canada), and the ModMAG M2000 carries OIML R49 / MID MI-001 type approval for regulated water billing. Where the split is internal cost allocation rather than regulated resale, a standard build is usually enough — we help you draw that line. See ModMAG and Dynasonics.
How are the sub-meters read — manually or automatically?
Automatically, if you want the billing to run itself. HR-E LCD encoders put the register on the wire, and the AquaCUE cellular platform reads commercial and industrial accounts on 15-minute intervals to the cloud — no walk-by routes. AquaCUE-ready encoder outputs run across the family, from the U500w and E-Series G2 to ModMAG mag meters. Telog cellular RTUs can consolidate one or two encoded registers onto a single transmitting unit where that fits the site. See AquaCUE and Telog.
Can we add sub-metering without shutting down the line?
Often, yes. The Dynasonics TFX-5000 clamps onto the outside of the pipe — no cutting, no drain-down — and the Vortex VN2000 hot-tap insertion meter installs on existing campus steam and energy mains under pressure. If a flow meter is already in place, the Dynasonics FC-215 adds EN 1434 billing on top of it without replacing it. Start at the flow meters page.
Working a tenant-billing retrofit, a campus energy-allocation project, or a metering spec? Talk to Scott — send directly to Scott Prater at scott@pratertechnical.com, or call him directly at 917-580-0878 during business hours.
Compiled by Prater Technical Partners.