Water costs in the United States have been on the rise over the years. Most people might expect this anyway, given the rising cost of energy, as it requires a colossal amount of energy to filter and distribute water to diverse end users.
The United States Geological Survey research shows that water costs more than $1,000 per year for the average American family. So, there’s a possibility that people may want to bypass their water bills.
If you’re looking for a means to bypass your water meter, you should be reading this post right now. Why? We’ll be showing you how to get it done.
How You Can Bypass Your Water Meter
Let’s discuss the steps you need to take to bypass your water meter.
Tip 1: Turn the meter on
After the utility team has turned the meter off for nonpayment or other reasons, you can go back to your meter box to switch it back on.
Tip 2: Install a pipe in the meter box
You can keep collecting water after the utility company has removed the meter by plumbing a pipe into your meter box.
Tip 3: Disguise getting a legal permission
You can disguise yourself as a construction crew or farmer to get water from an unmetered fire hydrant with the knowledge or permission of the utility company.
Tip 4: Tap from a company
Some companies have an unmetered water supply to the fire sprinkler on their work sites. So, you can run water lines from the sprinkler supply to a tap, a tank, or anything else.
Where’s Your Water Meter Installed?
Once you know where your meter is in your home, you’ll be able to take regular meter readings, keep track of your water usage, and detect any leaks.
Most water meters are installed near the outside stop tap, usually located along a public footpath or the verge near your house. In addition, you can keep an eye for a black plastic cover or a little metal in the ground.
Use a screwdriver to lift the plastic or metal cover. The meter box usually contains a polystyrene cover to protect the stop tap and meter from snow.
Inside your house, you can find your water meter close to where the water enters your home, and your inside stop tap is located. Look closely under the sink in the kitchen, downstairs toilet, or in the garage.
How Do You Read Your Water Meter?
Are you a first-time homeowner? Or perhaps, you have had the home for years. Either way, know that knowing how to read your water meter is a valuable tool for proper home maintenance. Follow the steps below for simple tips.
Step 1: Locate your meter
Follow the steps above to locate your meter, then remove the lid of the concrete box using a large screwdriver. Next, insert the screwdriver into one of the holes to remove the meter lid. Be careful to avoid injury to your hands, as the lids are heavy.
Inspect the surroundings to ensure no dangerous insects or animals before reaching out for the concrete box.
Step 2: Know your water meter
Analog and digital meters are the two types of meters.
Analog Meters: The big red sweep hand measures the water in gallons or cubic feet on an analog meter. This measurement indicates that one gallon of water has flowed through your water meter when the sweep hand goes from one number to the next.
The red sweep hand makes one complete rotation when every ten water gallons flows through your meter.
There’s a design known as a low-flow indicator on your analog water meter because it can sense even the least amount of water. This indicator’s shape can be a star, little triangle, or gear.
You may notice that the low-flow indicator continues to move, even while water is turned off. This movement indicates that you may have a small leak, which you need to fix.
Digital Meters: The first thing to know about digital meters is that they run on solar energy.Then, shine a flashlight on it to power it up.Then,observe how the display changes when your meter has been charged.
The meter displays, “meter read” and “flow rate” alternately. The “meter read” is the number of gallons or cubic feet of water used, whereas the “flow rate” is the number of gallons or cubic feet of water used per minute and recorded by the meter.
Why Do People Use Water Meters?
There are several reasons people use water meters. Let’s discuss that.
To keep track of water wastage:
Water wastage in families is inevitable, especially when people leave the tap running while brushing their teeth or when they leave the flush running for too long. Installing a water meter can help to compare the water consumption rate of different families.
Therefore, there can be a significant difference between two or more families with the same number of occupants. This difference means that the families with the highest consumption are using more water than necessary.
Fairness in pay-per-use:
These days, flat rates are unacceptably high. A single man in a one-bedroom apartment uses less water than a family of four in a two-bedroom apartment, but he pays for what others waste.
Water bills in society are loaded with bias and exploitation. As a result, someone may end up always paying more than their fair share, resulting in constant arguments and conflicts.
However, using a water meter allows you to divide the total cost of water tankers equally by charging consumers a fixed amount per gallon based on the meter reading.
Spend less on water tankers:
It is undeniable that any community that carefully uses water with the aid of a meter will save money on water tankers.
Although mechanical meters are the most popular, there’s an advanced option. For example, a smart meter can report actual water consumption rather than manual reading monthly.
Your water wastage rate will decrease in real-time with digital meters because you’ll always receive a notification on your app if there’s a leakage.
Ways To Save Water
You can use water resources efficiently through water-saving technologies and simple household actions. For example, you can follow the water-saving steps below.
Fix a leak:
Even minor leaks in the home can waste hundreds of gallons of water every day. Therefore, Americans should inspect their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems every year during Fix a Leak Week in March.
Use the shower:
In America, the average shower lasts eight minutes. Therefore, reduce your shower time by three minutes to help save water.Also, learn how to take a better shower because showers use less water than baths.
Furthermore, turn the tap off while brushing your teeth in the bathroom. Instead, wet your brush before brushing, and fill a glass with water to rinse your mouth.
In your kitchen:
Always scrape off the debris in your plates instead of rinsing your plate with water. Rather than allowing the tap to run till the water cools, you can keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator overnight.
In the laundry:
Wash your clothes only when the laundry is full. Then, you can set the washing machine to the proper water level.
Outside your room:
Did you know that Americans use 30 to 60% of domestic drinking water in their gardens and yards? And most times, large portions of this water are wasted through evaporation, misdirected sprinkling, and over-watering.
Make sure you water your lawn long enough for the water to reach the roots where it is needed. When you sprinkle water that eventually sits on the surface, it will evaporate.
Also, rather than hosing off, you can clean the sidewalks, steps, and driveways with brooms. You can save more than 3,000 gallons annually if you sweep instead of hosing.
Keep a plastic bottle in your toilet tank:
You can weigh a one-liter bottle and add about two inches of sand or pebbles to the bottom.
Fill the bottle with water and place it safely in your toilet tank away from the toilet’s tank operator.
This bottle can save up to five gallons of water per day in your home without affecting the toilet’s performance.
Defrost frozen food in the fridge:
You can use a refrigerator rather than warm water to defrost your frozen food. Defrosting frozen foods in the fridge preserves them safely, whereas defrosting them in warm water allows destructive bacteria to thrive.
You can remove the frozen items for the next day and store them in the fridge to conserve about 150 water gallons monthly.
Conclusion
Americans love to obtain a free, unlimited water supply. They do this when they bypass water usage laws to reduce their water bills.However, in the long term, they may be causing harm to the utility and other customers.
In any case, there are four different ways to pass the water meter. The first way is turning the meter on after the utility team has turned it off. You can also install a pipe in the meter box, disguise it to get legal permission or tap illegally from a company.
