Arlington Water Utilities Alerts Help Residents Save Water and Money
By Traci Peterson, Arlington Water Utilities
Posted on July 06, 2020, July 06, 2020

Know Your H20

More than 70 percent of Arlington Water Utilities customers who responded to a recent survey about a high usage/high bill alert they received from the utility said it motivated them to check for a possible leak or change their behavior to use less water. This summer, the water department is using the results of two recent email surveys about high bill/high use alerts and continuous usage alerts to improve service and the customer website at www.ArlingtonTx.gov/KnowYourH2O.

“Arlington Water Utilities’ goal with the introduction of the Know Your H2O website and the citywide remote read meter project is to give residents the tools they need to control their water usage and their bills. High bill/high usage alerts and continuous usage alerts are a valuable addition to our city’s water conservation efforts. Gathering information from residents helps us continue to fine tune and improve our services,” said Arlington Water Utilities Director Craig Cummings.

More than 73,500 Arlington Water Utilities customers have remotely read water meters, with more being installed throughout the City each year. The remotely read meters measure water flow in the same way as traditional water meters, but remote read meters do not have to be read in person by Arlington Water Utilities employees each month. Instead, electronic readings are transmitted by secure radio signal several times a day to Arlington’s billing system via an advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI.

In 2018, Arlington Water Utilities updated its customer access website, now known as Know Your H2O, to allow customers with remote read meters to access their daily water usage information and give all customers access to up to two years of past billing information.

High usage and high bill alerts, which customers sign up for under the profile tab of their Know Your H2O account, were introduced in 2019. The alert systems let customers set a threshold for how much water they expect to use or how much they expect to spend on their water bill during the month. Then, an email is sent automatically to warn customers if they are on pace to exceed their desired threshold. The alerts thresholds can be adjusted or even turned off at any time by the customer.

Continuous usage alerts are proactive email alerts that the water department began sending in fall 2019. A customer receives an alert when the remote read meter at their address registers more than 3 gallons of water usage for 48 hours straight, which could be an indication of a leak.

Two email surveys about the alerts were sent to groups of about 600 customers each in June. With a response rate of 17 percent and 26 percent, the surveys showed that:

Most customers who signed up for high bill or high usage alerts (about 65 percent) did so because they wanted to prevent high bills or were worried about leaks.

More than 80 percent of respondents who received a continuous usage alert found and fixed a leak or other unintended water use.
And about half of customers surveyed had visited the Arlington Water Utilities website or trouble-shooting guide for help in managing their water usage.

Survey responses have already helped Arlington Water Utilities clarify some language used in the email alerts and other changes, such as offering additional printed information to customers and more detailed usage data, are upcoming.

For customers to receive continuous usage alerts or water outage alerts offered by Arlington Water Utilities, the department needs to have a valid email address on file. Residents can update their contact information online at www.ArlingtonTX.gov/KnowYourH2O or by calling 817-275-5931.

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