Water saving technology is the set of equipment and systems that measure, reduce, or reuse the water a property consumes. For a landlord or property manager, water conservation technology divides into five practical categories: smart water meters and submetering, smart irrigation systems, water-efficient fixtures and high-efficiency appliances, greywater recycling systems, and rainwater harvesting systems. Bluebot builds the first of those five. Our clamp-on smart water meter goes on any pipe, in any place, without cutting the line or shutting the water off, which is why we recommend a portfolio start there: measurement is the only category that tells you where the other four will actually pay.
The scale is not subtle. The average American family uses more than 300 gallons of water per day at home, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2026) puts routine household leaks at 180 gallons a week, or 9,400 gallons a year for a single average family. Multiply either by unit count and it becomes a line on your operating statement.
This page takes the five water-saving technologies in the order a portfolio should evaluate them, not by price, and gives you what each does, what it costs, and when it is worth doing. Metering tells you which units and zones are costing money. Irrigation is usually the largest outdoor line item. Fixtures and appliances are the cheapest water-efficiency upgrades at turnover. Greywater and rainwater carry the highest capital cost and the most regulatory friction. As of 2026 the fixture, appliance, and irrigation figures below are the current EPA WaterSense and ENERGY STAR criteria.
Key Facts for a Property Portfolio
Figure | What it covers | Source |
|---|---|---|
300+ gallons per day | Average American family household use | EPA WaterSense (2026) |
9,400 gallons per year | Household leak waste, per average family | EPA WaterSense (2026) |
15.3 percent | Lower use in submetered apartments, 21.8 gallons per day per unit | Aquacraft for EPA (2004) |
Up to 15,000 gallons per year | Saved by a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller | EPA WaterSense (2026) |
30 percent | Reduction at Legend Property Management with Bluebot | Bluebot case study (2023) |
1. Smart Water Meters
A smart water meter is a category of water saving technology that measures flow in real time and alerts you when use goes abnormal. That is a different job from everything else here. A low-flow showerhead saves water at one fixture whether or not anyone is watching. A smart water monitor tells you which fixtures, units, and irrigation zones are worth touching at all, and FloDash(TM) puts one meter or hundreds on a single screen.
Two things follow for a rental portfolio. The first is billing: Aquacraft’s National Multiple Family Submetering and Allocation Billing Program Study for the EPA (2004) found that submetered apartment properties used 15.3 percent less water than properties billed in-rent or by allocation, a difference of 21.8 gallons per day per unit. That study is two decades old, its age should be stated, and nothing of equivalent scale has replaced it. Bluebot covers the billing mechanics in its submetering guide. The second is leak detection: a hidden leak on a tenant line or an irrigation main runs until a bill arrives, which on a quarterly cycle is ninety days of loss.
Placement matters more here than accuracy specs. A traditional meter sits inside the pipe, so metering a tenant line or a valve box means cutting, a shutoff, and a plumber per line. A clamp-on water meter never touches the water. A transit-time ultrasonic meter reads flow through the pipe wall, so it goes on the line you care about rather than the convenient one. Across a portfolio, that is the deployment plan.
The Bluebot smart water meter family splits three ways. Read the row, because these specifications differ by model:
Model | Pipe size (Standard) | Ingress rating | Low-flow sensitivity | Field flow accuracy | Connectivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3/4 inch and 1 inch | IP68 | 0.3 GPM | 95 to 97 percent | Wi-Fi, no gateway | |
3/4 inch through 2 inch | IP65 | 0.1 GPM | 98 to 99 percent | Wi-Fi, no gateway | |
3/4 inch through 2 inch | IP65 | 0.1 GPM | 98 to 99 percent | LoRaWAN, requires a Bluebot Gateway |
The Mini is the unit-level and irrigation-branch meter, and its IP68 enclosure is why it can live in a valve box. The Hero and the ProLink share a sensing platform and measure identically; only the radio differs. One gateway carries up to 100 ProLink meters, at typical range up to 1.2 miles urban and 10 miles line of sight. Pipe above 2 inch is covered by the Bluebot Hero Prime and Bluebot ProLink Prime, and the Hero and ProLink support more than 80 pipe size and material combinations. Every meter is individually calibrated to NIST-traceable standards and ships with a Calibration Certificate. Those are field figures; real performance varies with pipe material, installation quality, and straight-pipe length. Installation takes about 10 minutes with the Bluebot app.
One limit changes what you buy, so it belongs here, not in a footnote. A Bluebot meter detects and alerts. It does not shut the water off. It is a meter, not a valve, and that is deliberate: a valve sits in the line, which is exactly what stops other systems reaching a tenant line or a valve box. We trade the valve for visibility everywhere.
As of the 2026 catalogue, a Bluebot Mini is $258.76 and a Bluebot Hero is $558.34, each including the first year of premium data. A Standard ProLink is $613.84, and because it needs a gateway, the honest entry figure is $1,012.84 with the LG63 at $399.00. Utility rebates can offset part of that, and Bluebot publishes its owner reviews as well.
Two properties show what the measurement layer does at scale. Legend Property Management reduced water use by 30 percent after deploying Bluebot. At the University of the Nations Kona campus, 38 Bluebot smart water monitors across 17 buildings and 21 irrigation zones measured use at roughly 90,000 gallons per day against a planning projection of 250,000, and that evidence avoided about $3.5 million in water credits. Both are single properties, not averages.
2. Smart Irrigation Systems
A smart irrigation system replaces a clock timer with a controller that waters against weather data and soil moisture readings instead of a fixed schedule. On any property with landscaping it is usually the largest single water line item outdoors.
The reason is arithmetic. Outdoor use accounts for more than 30 percent of total household water use on average and as much as 60 percent in arid regions, and the EPA (2026) estimates that as much as 50 percent of outdoor water is lost to wind, evaporation, and runoff caused by inefficient irrigation. An unmaintained automatic system can waste up to 25,000 gallons a year on its own.
Smart irrigation controllers are governed by the EPA WaterSense specification, and a WaterSense labeled controller can save an average home up to 15,000 gallons annually against a clock-based unit. EPA puts the national potential at $4.5 billion and 390 billion gallons a year. The New York Times Wirecutter maintains an independent testing roundup of current models.
A controller schedules water. It does not tell you the line broke. Pairing a controller with a meter on the irrigation main closes that gap, and it is the pairing property managers adopt first.
Water-Efficient Fixtures and High-Efficiency Appliances
Fixtures and appliances are the lowest-friction water-saving equipment here: no network, no permit, no change in tenant behavior, and published per-unit numbers you can underwrite.
- Showerheads. WaterSense labeled showerheads use no more than 2.0 gallons per minute against 2.5 for a standard head, saving the average family 2,700 gallons of water and more than 330 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. Bob Vila keeps a model roundup.
- Bathroom faucets and aerators. WaterSense labeled faucets use a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute against a standard 2.2, saving about 700 gallons per family per year and nearly 11,000 gallons over the fixture’s life.
- Toilets. A WaterSense labeled toilet saves roughly 13,000 gallons and $130 a year against an older model (EPA WaterSense, 2026).
- Clothes washers. ENERGY STAR certified washers use about 20 percent less energy and about 30 percent less water than regular machines. A full-sized certified washer uses 14 gallons per load against 20 for a standard one.
At turnover, fixture swaps are near-free relative to the rest of the unit refresh, so they belong on the make-ready checklist, not a capital plan. More options are in Bluebot’s guide to saving money on your water bill.
3. GreyWater Recycling Systems
Greywater is gently used water from showers, tubs, bathroom sinks, and washing machines. It is not clean enough to drink, but it is serviceable for irrigation and, in some jurisdictions, toilet flushing. A greywater recycling system captures it before it reaches the sewer and routes it to that second use.
The simplest version is a laundry-to-landscape system, which takes washing machine discharge straight to planted areas without a pump or a surge tank. Greywater Action documents the configuration, and in many jurisdictions it needs no permit.
That last clause is the whole caution. Greywater recycling systems are governed by state and local plumbing code, not a single federal rule, and the EPA notes that permitted uses and treatment requirements vary by jurisdiction. On a rental property the exposure lands on the owner, so verify locally before you design, not after.
4. Rainwater Harvesting Systems
A rainwater harvesting system is part of a property’s non-potable supply. It has four parts: a catchment surface, usually the roof, conveyance through gutters and downspouts, storage in a tank or cistern, and treatment where the water will contact people.
Sizing is straightforward. The Texas Water Development Board’s Texas Manual on Rainwater Harvesting (3rd edition) puts collectible yield at roughly 0.62 gallons per square foot of catchment per inch of rainfall before losses, which makes a 5,000 square foot roof and one inch of rain worth about 3,100 gallons on paper. The TWDB manual is the reference to design from.
The same jurisdictional caution applies: collection rules and permitted uses vary by state and municipality. Harvested rainwater suits irrigation, cooling makeup, and toilet flushing far better than anything potable.
How to Choose What to Install First
These five water-saving technology categories are not alternatives, and they do not sequence by price. They sequence by what each one tells you, which is why the order below is about method, not a product ranking.
Start with measurement. Until a property has smart water metering, every other decision is a guess about which unit, zone, or fixture is costing money. A meter on the main plus meters on the irrigation lines usually pays for itself on the first leak it catches, and it is the only upgrade that quantifies the next four.
Then irrigation, if the property has landscaping. Outdoor use is the largest and most wasteful share on most properties, and a WaterSense labeled controller carries a published savings figure you can underwrite.
Then fixtures and appliances at turnover. The per-unit savings are modest, but the incremental cost at make-ready is near zero and the numbers are published rather than estimated.
Then greywater or rainwater, if code and site allow. Highest capital cost and most regulatory friction, worth it where irrigation demand is real and the hold period is long.
Three questions decide most of it. What pipe size and material runs where, which sets what can be metered. Whether site Wi-Fi reaches the mechanical room, which decides Wi-Fi against LoRaWAN and whether a gateway is in the budget. And what the local building department permits, which decides whether greywater and rainwater are on the table at all.
The category that answers the first two also proves the rest. That is the case for putting a meter on the pipe before you put money in the ground.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does water saving technology actually save a landlord?
Savings depend on what a property wastes now, which is why measurement comes first. EPA WaterSense (2026) puts household leak waste at 9,400 gallons a year for an average family, and a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller at up to 15,000 gallons a year. In multifamily specifically, an EPA-commissioned study (Aquacraft, 2004) measured 15.3 percent lower use on submetered properties.
Can a landlord bill tenants directly for water?
In many states yes, through submetering or a ratio utility billing system, but the rules are set at state and sometimes municipal level, and some jurisdictions restrict direct billing. Submetering charges actual measured use per unit, which is why the EPA-commissioned Aquacraft study (2004) measured 15.3 percent lower consumption on submetered properties. Confirm your local rules before changing a lease.
Are greywater recycling systems legal on a rental property?
It depends entirely on where the property sits. Greywater reuse is governed by state and local plumbing code rather than a single federal rule, and the EPA (2026) notes that permitted uses and treatment requirements vary by jurisdiction. Simple laundry-to-landscape systems need no permit in some states, while other jurisdictions require one for any reuse. Check with your building department first.
How do I find a leak inside a unit I do not occupy?
Put a smart water meter on the line serving that unit. It reports flow continuously and alerts on abnormal use instead of waiting for a bill, which on a quarterly billing cycle can mean ninety days of loss. A clamp-on meter installs on the outside of the pipe with no cutting and no water shutoff, so it can go on a tenant line without disrupting the resident.
Do I need a Bluebot Gateway?
Only for the Bluebot ProLink. The Bluebot Mini and the Bluebot Hero use built-in Wi-Fi and connect directly to the Bluebot Cloud with no gateway. The ProLink communicates over LoRaWAN and requires a Bluebot Gateway, a separate purchase starting at $399.00. One gateway supports up to 100 ProLink meters depending on model, which is what makes it economical across a campus or a scattered portfolio.
Are there rebates for water saving technology?
Often, yes. Many water utilities offer rebates on WaterSense labeled fixtures and irrigation controllers, and some offer incentives for submetering or leak-detection equipment. Programs are local, funding is limited, and terms change year to year, so check with the utility that serves the property before you buy. Bluebot maintains a rebates page covering the programs it tracks.
