A water meter measures the amount of water entering your plumbing system. Most meters are located in boxes in the ground near your street. If you can’t locate your box, call Syringa.
Open the box carefully and inside you will find the water meter. The meter dial can be found under the small, hinged cover. If the glass is dirty, wipe it clean to make it easier to read. Water meters used by the Syringa Water District measures water usage in gallons.
Until recently, the meter was read every quarter by a person who came around and opened your box, leaned down and recorded the numbers. Then, the District’s accounting service would calculate the bill. During the winter months, the meters didn’t get very often, so guess-ti-mates were made and the District was often behind in their estimations.
All that changed in 2011, when the District Board changed out all the meters and replaced them with automated meter reading (AMR) technology.
Now, the meters are read every month by simply driving by your house with an electronic reader. That information is ported into the Accounting Firm’s computer system, it generates the billing and then prints out your bill each month. Obviously, our accounting is much more accurate now-a-days.
Where Your Water System Begins
Syringa Water District provides service and maintenance up to, and including, the meter. Once water exits the meter, it enters the customer’s privately owned system and area of responsibility. If Syringa board members or agent of Syringa observes potential leaks or other problems with a customer’s plumbing, we will notify the customer. However, the customer is responsible for assessing and making any necessary repairs or calling a qualified plumber to do so on their behalf.
Reading Your Water Meter
Your water meter is much like your car’s odometer, showing the cumulative total of water that has run through your meter. The sweep hand, which moves like a clock hand, measures each gallon of water up to 10 gallons. Notice the first number on the right of the total is a stationary zero. There’s no need for it to move because the sweep hand does its work. Except for the stationary zero, the reset of the number is read like an odometer. The movable dials to the left of the stationary zero read in 10s, 100s, 1,000s of gallons, and so on.
Use the following example to help read
- Select a day to take an initial water meter reading.
- Write down the numbers you see on the meter odometer. (ex. 0260000)
- After a period of time has passed (such as a day or week), read your meter again. (ex. new reading of 0263000)
- Subtract your first reading from the second reading. This is your water usage for that period. (ex. 0263000—0260000 = 3000) The 3000 figure indicates that 3,000 gallons of water have been used during the time period between the two readings.