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Reading Your Water Meter
Overview
There are several reasons why you'd want to be able to locate and read your water meter. First, you might be interested in just how much water you use in a day. By reading your meter at the beginning and the end of the day, you can compare the 2 totals to tell how much water you and your family has used. The second reason is to check for leaks. If you turn off all the taps in your house, look at your meter and it is still turning, chances are you have a leak somewhere.
The water meters used by the City of Sebring are designed and manufactured to accurately measure water usage. Upon request by a customer, the city will have the meter serving that customer tested. If the meter is found to be accurate within 1%, the testing fee will be retained by the city. If the meter is found not to be accurate within 1%, the fee will be returned to the customer, and appropriate adjustments will be made to the customer’s bill for the prior error.
Step 1: Locate Your Meter
The majority of our water meters are located below ground level, near the street or in the easement, in a plastic or concrete meter box. Carefully remove the lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver. Please, do not use your fingers. Insert the tool into 1 of the holes and lift the lid up. Visually examine the area around the meter to make sure there are no harmful insects or other animals. Opening the lid of this box and wiping away or sometimes removing several inches of dirt will reveal the water meter. Many of our meters remain covered with dirt because it is quickly moved away to obtain a reading then the dirt simply falls back over the meter. If this causes question as to whether your meter was actually read or not, you can compare the reading on your monthly billing statement to ensure accuracy.
Step 2: Read Your Water Meter
All customers within the City of Sebring have their water use measured by a meter. This results in each customer paying their share of operating the system based upon the amount of water used.
All City of Sebring meters measure water in gallons. Charges for the amount of water consumed are based on the number of gallons of water used during a billing period.
Located inside the glass face of the water meter is a row of numbers, much like the odometer of a car. This is the meter register that indicates the number of gallons that have passed through the water meter since it was manufactured. Since we bill only in whole thousands of gallons, although most meters register as small as a single gallon, we do not read all the meter dial digits. Our meter readers only read the numbers indicating thousands of gallons, usually all but the last 3 numbers on the dial including the stationary zero. Compare your meter reading on your monthly bill to the meter to determine which digits we actually read.
There are several reasons why you'd want to be able to locate and read your water meter. First, you might be interested in just how much water you use in a day. By reading your meter at the beginning and the end of the day, you can compare the 2 totals to tell how much water you and your family has used. The second reason is to check for leaks. If you turn off all the taps in your house, look at your meter and it is still turning, chances are you have a leak somewhere.
The water meters used by the City of Sebring are designed and manufactured to accurately measure water usage. Upon request by a customer, the city will have the meter serving that customer tested. If the meter is found to be accurate within 1%, the testing fee will be retained by the city. If the meter is found not to be accurate within 1%, the fee will be returned to the customer, and appropriate adjustments will be made to the customer’s bill for the prior error.
Step 1: Locate Your Meter
The majority of our water meters are located below ground level, near the street or in the easement, in a plastic or concrete meter box. Carefully remove the lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver. Please, do not use your fingers. Insert the tool into 1 of the holes and lift the lid up. Visually examine the area around the meter to make sure there are no harmful insects or other animals. Opening the lid of this box and wiping away or sometimes removing several inches of dirt will reveal the water meter. Many of our meters remain covered with dirt because it is quickly moved away to obtain a reading then the dirt simply falls back over the meter. If this causes question as to whether your meter was actually read or not, you can compare the reading on your monthly billing statement to ensure accuracy.
Step 2: Read Your Water Meter
All customers within the City of Sebring have their water use measured by a meter. This results in each customer paying their share of operating the system based upon the amount of water used.
All City of Sebring meters measure water in gallons. Charges for the amount of water consumed are based on the number of gallons of water used during a billing period.
Located inside the glass face of the water meter is a row of numbers, much like the odometer of a car. This is the meter register that indicates the number of gallons that have passed through the water meter since it was manufactured. Since we bill only in whole thousands of gallons, although most meters register as small as a single gallon, we do not read all the meter dial digits. Our meter readers only read the numbers indicating thousands of gallons, usually all but the last 3 numbers on the dial including the stationary zero. Compare your meter reading on your monthly bill to the meter to determine which digits we actually read.