Harwich Water Department - Frequently Asked Questions

Read any good meters lately?

You want to do your part to help conserve our natural resources. And, you want to save money.

Monitor your water use by reading your meter ... help preserve the environment while you save money.

Reading your water meter is simple ...

Here's how to read your water meter:

Your meter is located either in your basement or outside. To access outside meters, simply remove the meter box cover.

There are two common types of water meters.

Some are read like odometers.

Others are circular with several dials on the meter face.

For circular-reading meters, start with the lowest dial, in this case marked 10, and continue reading up to the highest dial.

If a dial pointer isn't centered exactly on a number or is located between two numbers, read the lower number. This dial reads 987498. For example, if the above meter measured in gallons, one complete (360¡) revolution of the pointer on the "10" dial would indicate 10 gallons of water used. If the pointer on the 10 dial moved from "8" to "9," only one gallon was used.

Meters record in either gallons, cubic feet, or cubic metres. Town of Harwich meters measure your water by gallons.

Meters are not usually reset between readings. To find out how much water you've used in any given period, just subtract the reading on your last bill from the current meter reading.

How much water are you using?

Turn on the sprinkler and watch the meter dial move for precisely one minute. Multiply the number of gallons times 60 to calculate the quantity used per hour. Then estimate how long you usually leave the sprinkler running. How many gallons of water are sprinkled on your garden each week?

Follow the same timing routine when a family member steps into the shower. Check the volume of water consumed in one minute and multiply by the number of minutes normal showers take. How much water could you save yearly if everyone in your family shortened their showers by just one minute?