Old meters lose accuracy over time. Perhaps you've been underpaying for a few years? Is the new meter a remote read? If so, it will be more accurate than the previous one read and recorded by humans.

Have you checked outdoor faucets for leaks? Maybe a water hose left on and leaking? Is there a floor drain trap primer installed in your house? They also fail or leak over time.

Our bill went up $7.54!

Is that an equipment fee? Or did your rate and/or usage go up?

No hoses left connected, or faucets dripping. We would have split hoses and broken pipes for the cold we have. Yes it's a new remote read. I have no idea what a floor drain trap primer is, but our house is 60 years old, so I doubt it. Our bill had already gone up $8 a year ago. Looking at the statement, there is no extra fees listed. There is only the 2 of us here. No extra usage. The RV is still winterized, so we haven't been filling the fresh water tank. We were afraid it would go up. I'm just hoping it wont be triple that, since we are billed every 3 months, and it's only been the new meter for a month.

Your rate can go up not only because of additional usage, but because the water company may have raised the price of water by a small amount?

My bill just had an annual Water Primacy charge on this months for both water and sewer from the state. Ever so often there are seasonal charges added or taken away. You can check your usage but remember it will be higher because when the water meter is changed at least here the pipes are drained to prevent several problems.

Rather than looking at the money which could be a rate increase look at the amount of water used first then read any of the literature that comes with your bill.

Have you asked for an explanation?

The inaccuracy of the old meter is a possibility, maybe even a likelihood if quite old.

If that 7.54 is for 3 months, a $2.52 increase per month would not be outrageous where we live. Our garbage collection is part of our utility bill, is yours?

Is this water and sewer?

I wish! My water bill has basically tripled in the past several years -- from around $60/quarter to $150 or more. My usage hasn't changed, it is all the surcharges for improvements to the water and sewage systems.

In fact last quarter I decided to minimize my water consumption as much as possible -- went back to "California water rationing" procedures, took several showers at the gym instead of home each week, and didn't have to do any exterior watering because it rained so much. I dropped my usage by 20% -- and dropped my bill by a whole $10.

At $150/quarter it is still a bargain. When I sold my house two years ago, water/sewer/trash was $60/month for me, and the city was fixing to raise it to $90/average household/per month. They were honest about telling us that the aging system was going to start needing work throughout the city and they had not built a fund to take care of this foreseeable occurence.

tami, if your house is 60 years old, and if you haven't done so already, you would benefit in your water usage by replacing old faucets (kitchen, bathrooms, and elsewhere) and showerheads with new reduced flow models and switching to low water use toilets too.

I agree with all Michael said but would add - most of the things done for better husbandry of the earth's resources are more expensive. But that's relative and we shouldn't forget that many of the past practices that were followed to keep costs down were very damaging to the ecosystem. The postponement of infrastructure maintenance and modernization by utilities (both public and investor owned) has come back to bite us in my area with steep increases on tap to catch up with the deferred costs.

Reading this thread makes me happy that when it comes to water and sewer we are self contained. If your bill goes up by almost 8.00/mo, I too suggest, that you reach out to the water company for some explaining. Also, from what I understand, some local utilities offer discounts and the like for seniors or those on fixed incomes, it can’t hurt to inquire.

When I see what you are paying for your water, I can only give a wry laugh. Ours is a LOT more, with our PUC granting the utility almost all raises they ask for. For a while we were told the high costs were because of the drought but when that pretty much went away, the high prices did not. One of our journalists nicknamed the company "The Golden Spigot."

Most of the faucets, and one toilet have been upgraded. I will have to go back and check usage. I am pretty sure that they didn't drain the lines when they installed the new meter. He was here a whole 15 minute for inside, and outside, work, except for the time he spent sitting in the truck in our driveway doing paperwork. We do not have sewer here. Sshhhhh. I sure don't want to pay the fortune it will cost us just for it to cross our property. Not to mention the tap in fees and tiling to the houses. I will also check into the senior rates, as DH now officially qualifies.

Thanks for all the input. I was mostly just venting! We kind of expected it to go up with the new meter. However, Cleveland did this a year or so ago, and the bills have gone ballistic. Mostly wrong charges, as in thousands of dollars, so when we were told we would have to have new meters installed, needless to say, we were not happy. And the thing is, when we have gone out of state for 3 months the last 2 winters, And turned the water off to the whole house, so we had no unpleasant surprises, the bill didn't go down. We were paying the minimum, at the time. It doesn't matter if you use water or not, there is a minimum fee charged. We were paying the lowest amount we could be charged. I will be watching it.

Did he change the whole meter, or just add a remote device to it? Fifteen minutes seems awfully quick for an entire meter change along with installing a remote.

Nope, whole new meter. DH watched him. We already had a box outside that they could read, this one will be a little different. Not sure how they are reading it now.

Fifteen minutes is about right if there are no complications.

I believe every utility company enforces a minimum fee.

LOL!! A $7.50 increase over 3 months is nothing!! Water rates for the greater Seatte area increase on an annual basis by 5.5%. And include both a basic service charge (per 100 gallon consumption) as well as a "residential commodity charge" that increases seasonally and with the amount of water consumption each individual household achieves. Water bills here are bi-monthly and as of 2015 (so not terrifically current) the average bill for a family of four was $172.00 (2 months). And that does not include the season surcharge, which could easily double or triple that amount.

I recall one summer billing (July/August?) for my small urban household and garden was in excess of $750!! We did question it and it was reduced, as there was no possible way - outside of filling a swimming pool we did not have - we could have used that much water.

btw, wet, rainy Seattle has the highest residential water rates in the country. I wouldn't even blink at a mere $2.50 monthy increase!!

Well, actually, it’s not a 2.50/mo increase, it’s a 7.54 / mo increase. She’s billed every 3 months and was already 2 months into the billing cycle when the meter was installed. Her concern is that she will have a 30.00 (ish) increase. That can easily create a burden for someone on a tight budget.

I think every demographic pays higher than average costs for something. If it isn’t water, it’s heating or housing or insurance rates. Michigan has the highest auto rates in the country, we both have good driving records, live in a safer area and garage our cars yet we pay almost 3000 a year for our two cars. I guess it all washes out in the end.

3 x 8 = 24

Edit - My response was to the post above that I think stated in its original version that the total quarterly increase would be "$35-ish". It seems to have been changed.

A suggestion for everyone where your water service has it available for the general public is to look at your daily usage. Mine is odd in that if you do not use enough on a particular day to register enough it will show no usage. Once every quarter I have a higher bill where all of the less than full amounts are added together. Since except in the Spring during flower/veggie planting I normally use the base rate each month I would rather they do it this way than bill for the fractions each day. If you see a spike think about what you were doing that day. My spikes are washing clothing followed by a long hot shower.

About 80 years ago, when this house was built, they dug a hole in the ground about 3 feet across and around 20 feet deep, maybe originally walled with bricks and stones, but more recently with concrete tubes. Somewhat too close to the barnyard, populated by cattle

They ran a metal pipe in to the basement and hitched it to an electrically powered pump and a pressure tank, then pipes to a sink in the kitchen, another in the bathroom, and a tub and toilet there.

I don't know how many motors there have been since, but I think the original pressure tank was replaced by one with a bladder inside. I think that the bladder has developed a hole, for we have to pump air into it from time to time now, for the air in there gets dissolved in the water, causing the pump to start and stop every few seconds when a tap is turned on.

My landlord has an air tank in the shop and an old propane tank to haul some to fill a tire or my water tank (which needs that service now).

The power bill for the house, including the water pump, another water pump in the barn, minimally used, for garden and shop, and the shop, used to be about $100. a month or slightly more, and was recently reduced by about $15. per month (which is a similar amount to what my landlord pays me for the power used in the shop).

So - until some of the equipment needs repair or replaced ... our cost for water is pretty well ... peanuts.

There's almost always a proviso, a fly in the ointment, so to speak, right?

Following step-uncle's death, when the farm was for sale, the water was tested and, the well having been placed rather close to uncle, the beef farmer's barnyard, had too much E-coli and coliform to pass.

So ... ole joyful has hauled jugs of water from the city for drinking, and earlier for cooking, coffee perk, etc., but recently has used well water for cooking, to make coffee perky, etc.

No cattle around here for the past fifteen years, and we haven't tested the water since the sale, but crap persists in the ground for many years.

The irrational part of it is that, about 17 years ago now, following step-aunt's death, uncle, who had had three left hip replacements, still had some of his beloved cattle in the barn.

As he'd graduated from walker to cane, when there was a wife in the house, if he took too long doing chores - she'd have checked.

In February weather, we who cared about him thought that the probability of his falling into a snowbank and being unable to extricate himself ... were pretty remote. But, being unwilling to take the risk ... I came out here and spent most of the days, including chore times, with uncle for about two months, until the cattle went to pasture.

And I drank the water, as he did, that was tested to be bad, a couple to three years later - about sixteen years ago ... just after the cattle had gone.

Waste water from sink goes out into a clay-tiled weeping bed and is absorbed into the soil.

Water and freight from the bathroom goes into a septic tank, for digestion, and later into a clay-tiled weeping bed for absorption into the soil.

The septic tank was pumped out once during my 16 year residence, at a cost of about $200., I think. I have no idea how recently during uncle's time.

So, following installation of equipment, water and sewer fees are pretty low, at the inner end of this rural lane.

Uncle had upgraded most of the windows, a number of years ago.

ole joyfuelled

Yes Elmer, I don’t need your help finding my errors.

Can you recall the one participant who has frequently changed and also sometimes deleted her comments? It can make subsequent comments about her words in such threads look odd and dumb, because the words others are referring to are no longer visible. Many have expressed their disapproval of doing that .

That's why if making an after-the-fact edit that changes the meaning of what was previously said, or to remove something you can see another person has already commented about, both consideration for readers and perhaps even personal integrity suggest that the edit should be noted and explained.

You may not see it that way. Fine. One solution is to quote what's being commented on so that it remains clear. I do that sometimes when there may have been a number of comments, to avoid uncertainty about whom I'm responding to, but it can be done for this reason too.

Ok, no fighting on my posts. That is one reason I don't post, or read often. It gets very irritating to constantly see the squabbles.

Since the City of Calgary installed water meters in our homes, I rarely water my lawn anymore and just hope for a LOT of rain once a week to keep it looking decent. I understand why we have the meters, but I'm so done with having to pay outrageous prices to have the services we NEED. No, my lawn doesn't 'need' to be watered and I don't 'need' grass, but heaven help us if my yard fills up with weeds, because then the city sends bylaw over to tell us to get rid of the excess weeds or face a fine. This city is ridiculous............. I don't even look at my bill to see what I'm paying for anything anymore. All those fees and extra services they tack on to our bills more than triple the amount of electricity and gas we actually use. It's nuts.