Some water authorities have created monthly "water standby" fees for commercial sprinkler systems. Their reasoning is that is that more connections mean more water and more maintenance. There is no basis for either position. Like residential sprinklers, commercial sprinklers will save huge amounts of water that would be needed to manually suppress a fire. As for maintenance costs, a large meter does not create that much more of a maintenance cost, certainly not the charges we have seen. Water standby fees can be hundreds of dollars a month, which the owner is stuck with. We have always argued against water standby fees for commercial sprinkler systems and have helped jurisdictions get them dropped. They certainly should not be applied to residential systems for the same reasons noted above, and this makes the charge a good candidate for a cost reduction incentive.