Bay Area Startup MeterHero Makes Saving Water Pay; Firm Offers Rebates For Conserving
(KPIX 5) -- A Bay Area based company is trying to convince Californians to get serious about saving water by handing out cash.
MeterHero pays cash rebates to homeowners and apartment dwellers who reduce their water consumption. MeterHero also offers rebates for saving electricity and natural gas.
Company founder McGee Young said his company's goal is to get people more engaged in dealing with the state's record drought. "Everyone thinks it's someone else's responsibility to solve the water crisis. In reality, it's all our responsibility," Young told ConsumerWatch.
INFOGRAPHIC: How Much Water Are You Actually Consuming?
"Our goal is to save a billion gallons of water in California this year," he said.
Berkeley resident Dana Ullman signed up with MeterHero about four months ago, about the same time he ripped out a patch of grass in his backyard and installed a rock garden in its place.
Ullman said he got a $25 rebate from MeterHero last month. "It's gotten us all a little more conscientious (about water saving,") he said.
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MeterHero offers customers one penny for each gallon of water saved. It also pays customers one penny for each cubic foot of natural gas saved and ten cents per kilowatt hour of electricity saved. Rebates are calculated based on customers past usage. Customers must provide access to their on-line bills or provide copies of paper statements so MeterHero can calculate their baseline usage.
Young said the company does not share customers information and customers personal information is not captured.
So who pays the rebates? For now, MeterHero. The company has set aside $10,000 to pay customers for saving. MeterHero says it is lining up sponsors who will ultimately take over funding, at which point MeterHero will collect what it says is a small fee for distributing the refunds.
MeterHero founder McGee Young says the program is open to utility customers in all 50 states and in other countries.
