The Real Numbers Behind PhantomH2O, From Real Properties in the Field

Numbers matter more than the pitch.

That line isn't a slogan. It's the standard we built the company around. Our co-founder Dan Prescott puts it this way:

"If you want to have success in anything, you have to be able to measure it."

Most water management conversations stop at abstract benefits. Lower consumption. Less waste. Smarter buildings. Those are fine framings, but they don't move a CFO or property owner to act. What moves them is dollar-denominated proof from a comparable property.

So let me give you the actual numbers. Two real properties. The full monitoring cost. The full savings. The annual net.

Property A: 400-Unit Multifamily

- Monthly monitoring cost: $1,329
- Average monthly water savings: $4,800
- Net annual savings: $41,652

Property B: 161-Unit Multifamily

- Monthly monitoring cost: $1,063
- Average monthly savings: $3,030
- Net annual savings: $23,604

In both cases, the system is generating consistent net positive cash flow, and the savings scale with the size of the property.

But where those numbers come from matters as much as the numbers themselves. Because not every monitoring system produces the same savings categories.

Where the savings come from

The savings come from three distinct sources, and which combination applies to your property depends on the Water Engineering Study.

1. Leak prevention

Alerts get sent the moment an anomaly is detected, before a 30 or 60-day billing cycle accumulates the damage.

One major leak caught early can offset months of monitoring fees on its own.

Without real-time monitoring, that leak runs silently for the full billing cycle. With it, you get notified in dollars, not gallons, at the moment the pattern shifts.

2. Conservation

When property managers and staff can see real-time consumption data, behavior changes.

Across monitored properties, use drops 15 to 20% consistently. Not because of a campaign. Not because of a tenant memo. Because visibility itself changes behavior. The same way a calorie label on food changes the way people eat.

This number is well-documented in the utility AMI literature and continues to hold across property types.

3. Utility bill adjustments

AWWA-certified meters produce data utilities accept for sewer deduction credits.

For large water users, we've seen sewer credits reduced by upwards of 19% on properties where the data quality was high enough to support the adjustment.

This category is the single largest lever on most commercial properties, and it is not available with edge sensors or clamp-on devices. The meter has to be utility-grade for the data to be utility-acceptable.

Why the Water Engineering Study matters

Each of those three sources can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per year. But they apply differently to different properties.

- Some properties have a single leak driving most of the loss. Leak prevention does the heavy lifting.
- Some properties have stable consumption but no documented baseline. Conservation helps fix that.
- Some properties have strong sewer-to-water ratios that have never been validated against certified data. Utility bill adjustments deliver the immediate win.

The Water Engineering Study tells you which combination applies to your property, and projects the specific dollar impact before a single meter is installed.

That means you walk into the decision with the real numbers in front of you. Not a projection based on national averages. Not a sales pitch. The actual projected savings for your building, based on your numbers and our experience. 

What to do next

If you'd like to see what the study finds for your property, schedule a free call with us here. 

We'll walk through what's involved, review your water bill profile, and tell you up front whether the numbers make sense for your building or not.

The study is $2,500. It's credited in full toward your contract if you move forward. There is no obligation if the numbers don't work.