My new water meter....

[onefast99]

just had the old one replaced because the water company said they test them for efficiency, but they don't let you know if there was an issue per the installer. New one seems to be working fine, I will purchase some of the water companies stock today as my first bill came in and it is 11% higher than the previous month.

[Inner Dirt]

Rate increase or did it claim 11% more water usage? I used to live in California I think they charge more for public utilities than any other state.
If pay full rate for water (farmers get cheaper rates) you get hosed bad. I think I broke it down once and I paid 2 cents a gallon. It cost me $150 a month to water a garden the size of a small one car garage. I actually weighed the vegetable yield which was pretty good. The tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash and peppers barely compensated for the water.

I have a well here so I just pay for the electricity to pump the water out, not sure what that amounts to but it is pretty cheap.

[woodtoo]

I installed a sump pump last year that fills large barrel next to my garden.
That and house eave trough. Never needed to water even once.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by woodtoo

I installed a sump pump last year that fills large barrel next to my garden.
That and house eave trough. Never needed to water even once.

Mother nature usually takes care of the watering where I live now. Back in Southern California it could go months without raining. In the summer I would have to water the vegetables twice a day or they would start wilting.

[thaskalos]

As soon as a new water meter was installed in my Chicago-area home...my water bill increased by 50%.

[onefast99]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

As soon as a new water meter was installed in my Chicago-area home...my water bill increased by 50%.

Exactly, the new meter caused the increase in my bill. I'm sure the water company will never release the results of the efficiency testing they do to the replaced meters to anyone.

[davew]

I live in a small town that spent a lot of money a few years ago on new infrastructure - water, sewer, storm drainage, road...

A couple months ago, they checked everyone's home to make sure no one was pumping basement sump pumps into sewer. I asked the Mayor what was going on, and they said the water coming back in the sewer is 20% more in volume than the water going out. They said the most obvious reasons for that are old meters reading flow rates low or extra water pumped backed in. The cost of new meters and installation is rather high, but I expect we will probably get them in the next couple years.

[Longshot6977]

Originally Posted by onefast99

just had the old one replaced because the water company said they test them for efficiency, but they don't let you know if there was an issue per the installer. New one seems to be working fine, I will purchase some of the water companies stock today as my first bill came in and it is 11% higher than the previous month.

See if this helps any:
I live in central NJ and was forced to have a new water meter installed (I held the town at bay for about 2 years because they insisted I call a plumber to replace some leaking (rusted?) pipe right next to the meter and they didn't want to be responsible if the pipe broke. i told them just do it and I'll be responsible.. No way Jose; not hiring a plumber. So I finally got a letter and huge bill/fine since I did not have the new meter installed yet after all this time. If I had the new meter installed by a certain date, the town would erase the fine. Ok Mr meterman, come in and install it (he wasn't complaining at all about the leaking pipe which really wasn't leaking as it just had some very old water spots under it from years ago.) The installation took about 5 minutes and the pipe was very sturdy.

I questioned the meter guy about the new meter compared to the old meter and he said the old ones were inaccurate and people were getting gypped. (actually, the town was getting gypped). The new meter counts almost every drop of water that passes thru it so if you have a tiny leak in your bathroom or faucet or whatever, the new accurate meter will count it and it adds up. The old meters were too old to advance the digits when a tiny flow of water was present.

My bill did go up slightly (same water rate, but more water was used) Just go to your new meter and write down the numbers all the way to the .01 of a gallon (yes, the new ones in NJ are that precise). Flush a toilet and record the numbers again after the toilet refills. If you see ANY increase, then you may have a leaking bowl/toilet or whatever device you turned on. The town is now making more money. The next year the bastards raised the rate so everyone got screwed anyway. Hope this helped and sorry it was so lengthy.

[cj's dad]

The water meter scam in Baltimore is alive and well. We used to be billed quarterly and are now being billed monthly. It is all screwed up. Bills coming in every month which do not reflect past payments.

Another city billing disgrace !! More $$ from law abiding folks to pay for the anchors in society !

[Rise Over Run]

Originally Posted by Longshot6977

My bill did go up slightly (same water rate, but more water was used) Just go to your new meter and write down the numbers all the way to the .01 of a gallon (yes, the new ones in NJ are that precise). Flush a toilet and record the numbers again after the toilet refills. If you see ANY increase, then you may have a leaking bowl/toilet or whatever device you turned on. The town is now making more money. The next year the bastards raised the rate so everyone got screwed anyway. Hope this helped and sorry it was so lengthy.

There is no way that a residential water meter is measuring usage down to 0.01 of a gallon. Repeat, no way. It's just not possible if you understand how these meters operate. Most water companies bill usage on 1,000-gallon basis; i.e. $X per 1,000-gallons. If you use 3,900 gallons on month A, you're billed for 3,000-gallons, but the next month you'll hit the 1,000-gallon billing point at 100 gallons.

[Longshot6977]

Originally Posted by Rise Over Run

There is no way that a residential water meter is measuring usage down to 0.01 of a gallon. Repeat, no way. It's just not possible if you understand how these meters operate. Most water companies bill usage on 1,000-gallon basis; i.e. $X per 1,000-gallons. If you use 3,900 gallons on month A, you're billed for 3,000-gallons, but the next month you'll hit the 1,000-gallon billing point at 100 gallons.

If you leave a very slow drip running over an hour or so, you will see it advance 1 gallon. I have one installed. It is possible it is .1 gallon, I'll have to check it. These are digital meters now, not the old analog types. But if you leave it on for 1 month, it will advance many gallons compared to the old meters. That's his answer of why his bill may be higher with the new meter.

[Longshot6977]

Here are two that measure down to .01 of a gallon.

[Rise Over Run]

A one gallon per hour leak at a faucet is significant, and should be fixed. Not condoning ignoring water leaks, but if you think high water bills are the result of leaking faucets, you're probably wrong. It's a usage issue.

[Rise Over Run]

They can read out whatever they want to digitally, it's still based on a mechanical process for residential flow meters. It's internal flaps that cause a magnet to rotate which calculates flow. Even the analog flow meters had tic marks down to 0.1 gallons. I doubt your water bill is based on anything other than 100 gallons per month; and in most cases its 1,000-gallons.

[Longshot6977]

Originally Posted by Rise Over Run

They can read out whatever they want to digitally, it's still based on a mechanical process for residential flow meters. It's internal flaps that cause a magnet to rotate which calculates flow. Even the analog flow meters had tic marks down to 0.1 gallons. I doubt your water bill is based on anything other than 100 gallons per month; and in most cases its 1,000-gallons.

So how would YOU explain Thask's and Onefast's bill increase? I feel it's because of the more accurate digital water meters as explained It simply measures down to .1 or .01, as it keeps adding up and measures small leaks while the old meters didn't. Do you have any input for the OP? I guess you liked the 2 photos I posted of meters measuring down to .01.