Water Meter Reading Help

Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
1,675
Location
San Antonio, Texas
Could someone please help me read these water meter readings?

The water company says I used 13K gallons last month. Is this correct?

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13,576.2 gallons used yep it's pretty much right. That little dial center left of gauge will show if you have a leak. Turn everything off and look at it. If you do have a leak look for areas of greener taller grass if no visible water.
 
I know a 5' diameter kids pool will go thur 15K+ gallons in a month. Water gets dirty, grassy. Dump the pool. Repeat. Repeat. Plus my darling children found a lawn sprinkler to further help their water sports.
So yes you can go thur 13K gals in a month. No kids playing water sports. Leaking toilet. Leaking pipes. Leaking feed line from water meter into your house will all get you to 13K.
 
Yep, I get about 13,500 gallons which is high but not impossibly so. That comes out to a bit over 400 gallons a day.

What're your family size/water use habits? Do you have water-saving fixtures? Do you water your yard? (I think that's the key there!)

If you have, say, 6 people showering a day (2.5 gal*10 min *6), that's 150 gallons. Add in toilets/sinks/dishwasher plus a few loads of laundry (call it 50 gallons each wash load), and you're probably right around 200-250 gallons a day. Any amount of watering, car washing, etc. would increase that rather quickly.

I just dug out some of our old bills... looks like we use around 7-8,000 gallons in months we don't water the yard (underground sprinkler system, plus manual watering of flowerbeds with hose which at least doubles our water usage if used heavily - e.g. in later summer). Comes to about $30 in non-watering months and $75-100ish in the summer.
We have 5 people showering, do plenty of laundry, run the (new) dishwasher daily, but do have water-saving showerheads (2.5 gpm), low-flow toilets (1.6 gal), and newer faucets.

Of course, ymmv, but I think the usage really depends on how many people in the home, and if you do outdoor irrigation.
 
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Well you didn't really use that much. Even in Texas but I'd be giving some serious consideration to looking for a leak between you meter and your house.
 
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The average person uses 75 gallons of water per day. Being on a well I had no meter and did not believe that we would be using that kind of water. I had a water meter lying around at work so I installed it on my water main and sure enough that was about what we were using per person. And of course if I was doing anything extraordinary like power washing or the lawn it shot up.
 
Just wife and I, we do have a sprinkler system, don't use it often.

I'll check the flow meter to see if they're might be a leak.

If I think there is, do I call a plumber or the water company?
 
Originally Posted by samven
Looks like you used 1815 CuFt which would convert to 13577 gal.


What are the two readings you used? I'm confused about what is showing...
 
30,830 - 29,015 = 1,815. One rotation of the pointer equals one cubic foot. No need to count the tenths (pointer)
 
A few years ago , our water bill started to rise . Our youngest son and I eventually found a leak in the back yard , between the meter ( in the alley right of way ) and the house .

He dug it up for me and I patched it .

To no big surprise , about a year latter the water bill started to rise again . Then it jumped to ~ $ 700 for water , trash , sewer , storm drainage , etc. . ad to do something . Planned things out , rented a mini-excavator ( Home Depot ) one weekend and with the help from my Wife , we installed a new PEX water line . next weekend we rinted the mini-ex , again , and covered the ditch back up .

The 2 rentals cost way more than all the rest of the supplies / materials .
 
Usually the water company is only concerned with a leak before the water meter. If it is after the meter it is on you to get a plumber to repair it.
 
my water meter is in my basement.. (everywhere I have i lived) is it at the curb or something? for people saying leak after meter.

1 cubic foot is aprox 7.48 gallons might be the number you are missing while reading that meter.
 
Turn off everything in the house for a couple of hours and watch that the pointer doesn't move.
 
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
How does the city read the meter , in your basement ?

As I mentioned , ours is in the alley .


We had these little RFID things they'd drive down our road and scan from a truck. It would transmit the meter number as well as the current reading. Water meter in my 1st house was in the dead center of the home in a closet.
 
Family of 5, 3 of which are little kids. When not irrigating we use 165 gallons a day. When the pool is full and the lawn is being watered, that shoots way, way up to over 7,000 gallons per day on days I run the sprinkler. Kind of stupid how much water we use for turf and landscaping.
 
Originally Posted by RhondaHonda
Family of 5, 3 of which are little kids. When not irrigating we use 165 gallons a day. When the pool is full and the lawn is being watered, that shoots way, way up to over 7,000 gallons per day on days I run the sprinkler. Kind of stupid how much water we use for turf and landscaping.


Either water is dirt cheap/on a well, or you have a huge water bill
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IIRC it roughly equaled out to $10 per 1,000 gallons for us, but I bet your yard looks amazing! We just let ours go brown...
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by RhondaHonda
Family of 5, 3 of which are little kids. When not irrigating we use 165 gallons a day. When the pool is full and the lawn is being watered, that shoots way, way up to over 7,000 gallons per day on days I run the sprinkler. Kind of stupid how much water we use for turf and landscaping.


Either water is dirt cheap/on a well, or you have a huge water bill
crazy2.gif
IIRC it roughly equaled out to $10 per 1,000 gallons for us, but I bet your yard looks amazing! We just let ours go brown...


It works out to about $0.006 per gallon from our water company in my last bill. So I pray for rain! Irrigating an acre of new sod to keep it alive is going to make for an expensive summer. Fortunately we got tons of rain in May so I hardly had to run it. It's been hot and dry now, so I'm watering just about every other day. We will see what the bill looks like at the end of the month.
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