Company Offers To Pay People For Cutting Back On Water, Power Usage

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — What if we told you there was a way to get paid just by doing your part to conserve water during the fourth year of California's drought?

Now that we have your attention, that isn't just an idle question. MeterHero, a Bay Area startup, is offering cash for conservation, and anyone in the world can sign up for free.

"In fact, you get paid for using MeterHero, so there's absolutely no reason not to sign up," said CEO McGee Young.

He's the man behind MeterHero, a former college professor in Milwaukee who left academia to head west. He hopes to change the world from his company's tiny office overlooking Oakland.

"We wanted to start really small because nobody had ever done this before, and we weren't sure," he said.

The MeterHero taps into your existing utility accounts to measure how much water and energy you use. It collects and presents all that data in one place. You get paid based on how much you consistently cut back.

A complex algorithm keeps people from gaming the system.

On average, he says it's about $10 a month, with the biggest savers earning upward of $100 in monthly rebates.

"It's almost like people get started a little bit," he said. "They take a little shorter shower, and then they get inspired."

Count Leah Granger among those inspired. She dumps shower water on her plants and Leah loads up laundry in new Energy Star appliances.

"Trying to save on the big scale and on the small scale," she said.

For this MeterHero user, there's a little extra incentive to get creative with conservation.

"You're saving water and you're like, I know that's good for the Earth or whatever, but it feels different to get that $10 like, let's go out for ice cream," she said.

"Just adding that small layer of payment, even if it's not a lot money, reminds you that you're doing something," Young said.

The company is still small. One-third of its nearly 4,000 users are in California, but the startup says that number doubles about every six weeks. People have signed up on four continents.

To McGee, it's about more than giving people a break on their bills.

"Water's going to be the biggest issue we face in the 21st century, and I wanted to figure out how we could start solving it," he said.

He's thinking big, as in becoming a global utility.

"We don't want to own any plants or pipes or wires or anything, but we want it to create a virtual utility that creates value around water and energy without actually touching water and energy," he said.

He says the company could become the go-between for customer and utility, quantifying the value of conservation. McGee believes unlocking tremendous potential for better managing our resources.

"It becomes in some ways like a social movement in some ways, people making changes in their own lives to improve the world around them," he said.

And a few extra bucks has a way of convincing people to try.

The money comes from companies MeterHero partners with that care about conservation. They fund the rebates.

Businesses are allowed to sign up to track usage, but are not eligible for rebates.