My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

Terry wrote:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

Hi,
Here in Calgary, Alberta, the unit is by cubic meter measure by water
meter which transimits the reading via radio wave.

"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
news:rGgsh.704966$1T2.366556@pd7urf2no...
Terry wrote:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

Hi,
Here in Calgary, Alberta, the unit is by cubic meter measure by water
meter which transimits the reading via radio wave.

If Terry only used 2 cubic meters in a billing period, I wouldn't want to
sit near him on a bus.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
news:rGgsh.704966$1T2.366556@pd7urf2no...

Terry wrote:


My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


Hi,
Here in Calgary, Alberta, the unit is by cubic meter measure by water
meter which transimits the reading via radio wave.


If Terry only used 2 cubic meters in a billing period, I wouldn't want to
sit near him on a bus.


Hi,
LOL! My family of four with 4 bathrooms use more or less 25 cubic meter
on the average.

In article ,
Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


The actual unit could vary with the billing agency. In my area a IIRC
a "unit" is 100 cubic feet.
--
Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland -

Terry writes:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

Have a look at your meter. The units will be listed there on the dial
plate. Cubic ft, I believe is what you may find if you're in the US.

Your usage, barring the subject period being only a few days, was
likely very low because prior bills were estimated and not based on
actual meter readings, and the water usage over the prior months was
lower than the estimate.

--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:03:29 -0500, Terry
wrote:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

One unit equals 748 gallons. I believe I pay $3 per unit

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

--
Steve Barker



"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Have a look at your meter. The units will be listed there on the dial
plate. Cubic ft, I believe is what you may find if you're in the US.

Your usage, barring the subject period being only a few days, was
likely very low because prior bills were estimated and not based on
actual meter readings, and the water usage over the prior months was
lower than the estimate.

--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/

wrote in message

One unit equals 748 gallons. I believe I pay $3 per unit

True, but your meter probably reads cubic feet. One cubic foot = 7.48
gallons, so, 100 cubic feet as read off the meter is one unit or 748
gallons.

Use care in reading your meter as there are different types. Some are
dials, others have a single dial and numbers like an odometer, some read
decimal points and others do not, some have a multiplier where the meter
reading is X10 (mostly for industrial use). Sometimes even the water
company meter readers don't get it right. I've had the problem of under
billing on one meter, over billing on another, in the amounts of thousands
of dollars.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:19:29 -0600, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

Water is measured in units. One unit equals 100 cubic feet (hcf)
1 hcf equals 748 gallons

"Steve Barker" writes:

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

But you are aware a gallon is simply a unit of volume though, right?
Approximately equal to .1336 cubic feet?

Just ran down and checked my meter since this has all gotten
interesting... my meter is a speedometer typer and reads in cubic
feet.

My municipality's bill though doesn't indicate starting and ending
readings though like electric and gas bills do, just dimensionless
usage numbers. For 61 days, I used 21 somethings.

On the back of the bill, it explains "Water volume is billed in units
of 100cubic feet (HCFT). One unit of HCFT equals seven hundred
forty-eight (748)gallons of water."

Which matches what tnom very nicely said.

FWIW, we pay 2.57/unit for the water, plus 1.20/unit sewer
maintenance, and 1.17/unit for sewer treatment.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/

Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


This thread is a hoot. I'm glad I live in a place
where the water company has enough sense to say
what the units of measurement are. If fact, I
would bet that most bills define the units of
measurement. In my case the units are CCF which is
defined at 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons. 2 month
usage is 11-12 CCF (1,100-1,200 cubic feet, you do
the math for gallons) when not irrigating.

Course the real problem is that the customer
charge (mainly billing) is as much as the actual
water charge (deliver costs plus maintenance). I
should be so lucky as to have a business that
charges as much to bill a customer as it does to
actually provide a service/product. In my region,
only the domestic water and irrigation water
companies do this. Apparently the electric
company, the gas company, and the sewer and trash
companies realize that billing (every month) costs
less per year than billing 6 times a year
(domestic water) or only once a year (irrigation).

"Terry" wrote in message
...
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


My bill was $60 for one unit. I was charged $18 for one unit, turning the
meter on was $28 via radio signal and the rest was various charges including
sewer maintenance. Don't you love how the City pad the bill. Just moved into
the house so we see what my real bill will be when I use more water.

$11 is so cheap!!

"Steve Barker" wrote:

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

You need to get out a little more and expand your horizons. The quantity being
measured has a great deal to do with the units of measure. For example, time can
be measured in years, months, days, hours, minutes or seconds...

In the case of residential water, many water systems use "units". A common
conversion for residential water units is 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons.

To the OP who was billed for 2 units (presumably in a month), that equates to
1498 gallons, or around 50 gallons a day. Pretty much the average per person
usage in the US.

"George E. Cawthon" wrote:

Course the real problem is that the customer
charge (mainly billing) is as much as the actual
water charge (deliver costs plus maintenance).

And then you run into the municipalities that use the water bill as a back door
way of taxing the residents without having to get voter approval...

Ours is measured in gallons.

--
Steve Barker



wrote in message
...

Water is measured in units. One unit equals 100 cubic feet (hcf)
1 hcf equals 748 gallons

Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.

--
Steve Barker


"Rick Blaine" wrote in message
...
"Steve Barker" wrote:

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

You need to get out a little more and expand your horizons. The quantity
being
measured has a great deal to do with the units of measure. For example,
time can
be measured in years, months, days, hours, minutes or seconds...

In the case of residential water, many water systems use "units". A common
conversion for residential water units is 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons.

To the OP who was billed for 2 units (presumably in a month), that equates
to
1498 gallons, or around 50 gallons a day. Pretty much the average per
person
usage in the US.

"Steve Barker" wrote in message
...
Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.


Same here. I don't understand why some nerd with a pocket protector would
bother to create an arbitrary unit of measurement, other than to justify his
job at the water authority.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Steve Barker" wrote in message
...
Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.


Same here. I don't understand why some nerd with a pocket protector would
bother to create an arbitrary unit of measurement, other than to justify his
job at the water authority.

Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K

Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

I expect that the unit is 100 Cubic Foot. About 1500 gallons. Possible
for one person in cool weather.

Most cities have a minimum fee.

Then comes the cost of delivery. If close to a river or lake the cost
can be very low. However, take Los Angeles which brings much of their
water in from the center of the state. The city of Denver, has a tunnel
under the continental divide bringing their Colorado River water in from
100 miles away. Their neighboring city of Aurora came late and the
nearby water rights were gone. Their main supply is on the Arkansas
river near Leadville. Their portion of the water flows to near the city
of Pubelo and then is pumped north over 100 miles. Aurora rate is
something over $4 a thousand gallons.

Las Vegas gets their water from the Colorado River, same as Denver but
they just let it flow to Lake Mead so their cost is much lower than Denver.

"Harry K" wrote in message
ups.com...

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Steve Barker" wrote in message
...
Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived
had
read out directly in gallons.


Same here. I don't understand why some nerd with a pocket protector would
bother to create an arbitrary unit of measurement, other than to justify
his
job at the water authority.

Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K


I guess I'm not a big fan of dumbing things down for certain types of
people.

Our water is measured in cubic metres and I suspect that's true for
most of the world (i.e., outside of the United States). There are
1,000 litres per cubic metre.

I received my water bill earlier this week. Here's the breakdown:

Days in billing period: 102 days
Total consumption: 14 cubic metres
Daily consumption: 137 litres/day (36.4 US gallons)

Total charges came to $55.23 and consisted of the following:

Basic meter charge: $34.98
Water: $5.28
Environmental Protection: $10.46
Wastewater Management: $4.60

We are a two-person household and our home is equipped with low-flush
toilets, low-flow showerheads, and a water-efficient front load washer
and dishwasher (BOSCH). We're not overly cautious in our water use
(e.g., during this billing period I power washed our home, back patio
and driveway), but neither do we believe in wasting it.

Cheers,
Paul

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:12:52 -0600, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:19:29 -0600, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

Or acre-feet, or whatever gives you reasonable-sized numbers to
feed into your spreadsheet. Does anyone but the U.S. still
use gallons?

On 20 Jan 2007 08:05:29 -0800, "Harry K"
wrote:


Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

I think if this were designed for single family homes, it would be
better to use an average of 30 units, for example. So one wouldn't
have to cut or increase his usage by a whole third to see the number
change.

Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K

Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


Here in Winchester, Taxachusetts, a unit is a hundred cubic feet (ccf),
costing us us around $3.25/ccf at our household usage level of about 10
ccf/month. (The rate escalates from $1.22/ccf to $4.94/ccf as usage
increases from 0 to 45 plus ccf per quarterly billing period.)

But, we also pay an egregious "sewer charge" based on water consumption
which ends up coming out to be about 10% MORE than what we pay for the
water.

That's the result of our town being one of forty communities whose
sewage had flowed into Boston Harbor for a couple of hundred years. When
the gummint began cleaning up the harbor and installing new sewage
treatment/disposal systems about 15 years ago, they started whacking
those forty towns real good, and I presume that'll probably never stop
in my lifetime.

Our town won't even allow you to install a second water meter for
irrigation use only and waive the sewer charge on it. So, I don't treat
our lawns to as much water as they really need, 'cause I get just too
annoyed when the water bill arrives.G

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.98*10^14 fathoms per fortnight.

Jeff Wisnia wrote:

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

And unfortunately in many incorporated areas, that is prohibited.

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:39:09 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


Here in Winchester, Taxachusetts, a unit is a hundred cubic feet (ccf),
costing us us around $3.25/ccf at our household usage level of about 10
ccf/month. (The rate escalates from $1.22/ccf to $4.94/ccf as usage
increases from 0 to 45 plus ccf per quarterly billing period.)

But, we also pay an egregious "sewer charge" based on water consumption
which ends up coming out to be about 10% MORE than what we pay for the
water.

That's the result of our town being one of forty communities whose
sewage had flowed into Boston Harbor for a couple of hundred years. When
the gummint began cleaning up the harbor and installing new sewage
treatment/disposal systems about 15 years ago, they started whacking
those forty towns real good, and I presume that'll probably never stop
in my lifetime.

Our town won't even allow you to install a second water meter for
irrigation use only and waive the sewer charge on it. So, I don't treat
our lawns to as much water as they really need, 'cause I get just too
annoyed when the water bill arrives.G

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

Water catchment and a cistern. In Massachussets, you get easily
enough rainfall to not need a well.

Hi Jeff,

For outdoor water use, you might consider some sort of catchment
system. When I lived in Toronto, the city was providing residents
with rain barrels that could be hooked-up to drain spouts. I don't
recall if they were free (most likely there was a nominal charge), but
I obtained a couple and collected enough water to keep my gardens in
pretty good shape throughout Toronto's hot summers (the lawn had to
fend for itself).

With my current home, I built a good size pond with a plastic liner
and it collects more than enough runoff to see me through the dry
spells (not that there's any shortage of rain here in the Maritimes).

Cheers,
Paul

Jeff Wisnia wrote:

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K


I guess I'm not a big fan of dumbing things down for certain types of
people.

Not so much dumbing down, but ease of reading/billing. My home meter
registers hundreds of gallons. Our meters at work read cubic feet. You
need less space to print out in hundreds rather than individual cubic feet.
Many items I buy are priced by the thousand, but most of these are items
that cost pennies and bought in large quantities or we'd be into four to six
decimal places.

Steve Barker wrote:
Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

Steve Barker

Oh ye of little faith (And a narrow outlook).
There are many units of volume used world wide.
The most common, universal and easy to use metrically around much of
the world, is litres.
US neighbour Canada officially uses litres but still 'thinks' in
gallons, but that's Imperial gallons (which are about) 20% larger than
US ones.
In North America we use so much water that even domestically measuring
in gallons is cumbersome.
So units such as those mentioned (One unit = 748 gallons etc.) are the
norm.

In article ,
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Steve Barker" wrote in message
m...
Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.


Same here. I don't understand why some nerd with a pocket protector would
bother to create an arbitrary unit of measurement, other than to justify his
job at the water authority.



Go back in history to that dim time when primitive computer systems
used tape storage, magnetic core memory and single registers of
limited capacity. Processing bills for say, a thousand residential
customers took hours rather than seconds as it would today.
Every reduction in the number of bits manipulated by a computer meant
that less expensive hardware could be used, and resulted in signifcant,
measurable reductions in expensive and limited processing time.

At the same time, the units used in engineering to calculate
resevoir and tank capacity, volume flow in pipes and tubes, etc.
all used cubic feet or other units more directly related to cubic
feet rather than gallons. So in fact, the historical measure in
a given area may well have been cubic feet from the beginning
of metered water supply in that area, rather than gallons. In such an
area, changing to gallons would be the arbitrary decision.


--
When the game is over, the pawn and the king are returned to the same box.

Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland -

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:03:29 -0500, Terry wrote:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

My usage was 6 units.
Water $20.64
Water service charge $9.97
Sewage fee $9.36
Sewage service charge $12.10
Total $52.07

Sewage fees are for the use of the sewer system

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Retired Shop Rat: 14,647 days in a GM plant.
Now I can do what I enjoy: Large Format Photography

Web Site: www.destarr.com
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Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K

I guess I'm not a big fan of dumbing things down for certain types of
people.

Not so much dumbing down, but ease of reading/billing. My home meter
registers hundreds of gallons. Our meters at work read cubic feet. You
need less space to print out in hundreds rather than individual cubic feet.
Many items I buy are priced by the thousand, but most of these are items
that cost pennies and bought in large quantities or we'd be into four to six
decimal places.



My meter reads down to the gallon. Charged by the thousand. However,
there is a little pointed dial that turns about 20 times per gallon.
Very handy if you are trying to verify a leak.

It has a little round flat antenna mounted on the metal cover. The
meterreader reads the usage while driving by at 30 mph!

terry wrote:
Steve Barker wrote:
Ours is in gallons. Can't imagine why they would measure water in cubic
anything. Liquids are measured in gallons.

Steve Barker

Oh ye of little faith (And a narrow outlook).
There are many units of volume used world wide.
The most common, universal and easy to use metrically around much of
the world, is litres.
US neighbour Canada officially uses litres but still 'thinks' in
gallons, but that's Imperial gallons (which are about) 20% larger than
US ones.
In North America we use so much water that even domestically measuring
in gallons is cumbersome.
So units such as those mentioned (One unit = 748 gallons etc.) are the
norm.



I have lived in several North American cities. Some used thousands of
gallons and others used hundreds of cubit feet.

Rick Blaine wrote:
"George E. Cawthon" wrote:

Course the real problem is that the customer
charge (mainly billing) is as much as the actual
water charge (deliver costs plus maintenance).

And then you run into the municipalities that use the water bill as a back door
way of taxing the residents without having to get voter approval...

Do not how that would work since water is
usually/often provided by a public utility.
However, water usage during 4-5 months when
irrigation use is highly unlikely is used to
determine the sewer bill.



The water is provided by a utility not the
government. As such it is regulated by a state
agency, but the state or the city do not get the
money.

Harry K wrote:
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Steve Barker" wrote in message
...
Having lived within 300 miles my whole life, I guess I'm am in fact not
familiar with other places water meters. Every place I've ever lived had
read out directly in gallons.

Same here. I don't understand why some nerd with a pocket protector would
bother to create an arbitrary unit of measurement, other than to justify his
job at the water authority.

Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.
I agree, it certainly makes no sense to measure in
gallons. In fact, acre-feet is used for large
amounts of water.
OTOH, it makes no sense to call the units "units."
It would be much simpler to use CCF (for 100
cubic feet) as the unit, as apparently do many
water utilities.



Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.
Hundred weight and tons as well as bushels are
simply long used standards for sales, but they
currently often make no sense. Why would you
measure potatoes in sacks instead of hundred
weight and why would you use bushels instead of
tons for corn? There is an obvious reason for
doing so but it has little meaning to the ordinary
consumer.


Harry K

mm wrote:
On 20 Jan 2007 08:05:29 -0800, "Harry K"
wrote:

Because a 'unit' is a much more useable measure for that much volume.
Much easier to look at a bill and see "oh, I used 3 units this month
instead of the usual 1' rather than seeing the volume in thousands of
gallons.

I think if this were designed for single family homes, it would be
better to use an average of 30 units, for example. So one wouldn't
have to cut or increase his usage by a whole third to see the number
change.

I would agree, but the units are probably measured
to the third decimal place not just whole numbers.
I know that CCF on my bill are to the fourth
decimal place as is the charge per CCF in dollars.


Same reason some items are measured/sold by 'hundred weight' or 'tons'
vice pounds.

Harry K

writes:
On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:03:29 -0500, Terry
wrote:

My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.

One unit equals 748 gallons. I believe I pay $3 per unit

Here in the wonderful state of Massachusetts, we pay a whopping $13.80
per CCF (or almost 2 cents a gallon) for combined water & sewer
despite the fact that water is plentiful and the stuff is treated and
dumped in the nearby ocean.

I believe that water is cheaper in the Middle East...

Jeff Wisnia writes:
Terry wrote:
My bill was 11$. It said my usage was 2 units. I know that is not
gallons.


Here in Winchester, Taxachusetts, a unit is a hundred cubic feet
(ccf), costing us us around $3.25/ccf at our household usage level of
about 10 ccf/month. (The rate escalates from $1.22/ccf to $4.94/ccf as
usage increases from 0 to 45 plus ccf per quarterly billing period.)

But, we also pay an egregious "sewer charge" based on water
consumption which ends up coming out to be about 10% MORE than what we
pay for the water.

That's the result of our town being one of forty communities whose
sewage had flowed into Boston Harbor for a couple of hundred
years. When the gummint began cleaning up the harbor and installing
new sewage treatment/disposal systems about 15 years ago, they started
whacking those forty towns real good, and I presume that'll probably
never stop in my lifetime.

Our town won't even allow you to install a second water meter for
irrigation use only and waive the sewer charge on it. So, I don't
treat our lawns to as much water as they really need, 'cause I get
just too annoyed when the water bill arrives.G

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.98*10^14 fathoms per fortnight.

You are lucky -- are Taxachusetts charge is $4.19/hcf for water and
$6.38/hcf for sewer (total of $10.57/hcf) if you use more than 20
hfc/quarter. And if you use more than 70 hcf/quarter you pay $5.03 for
water and $7.66 for sewer (total of $12.69/hcf).

You see here in the land of Kennedy and Kerry, even water is "taxed"
progressively.

In our town, you pay the sewer even when watering lawns. So, in the
summer when we exceed 70 hcf/quarter, we are paying 1.7 cents per
gallon.

In fact, I am seriously considering putting in a well (at least for
non-drinking consumption) even though we live in a near-city suburb
since I figure the payback will be less than 5 years.

Rick Blaine writes:
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

The only way to beat that sewage charge is to drill a well.

And unfortunately in many incorporated areas, that is prohibited.

Luckily our otherwise overly regulated and bureaucratic town allows
wells for irrigation as long as you satisfy some minimal setback
requirements.

You are not supposed to use the water for anything but irrigation,
but...