Meter Reading

As of May 2018, all houses have “Smart Meters”, which collect data hourly, and send it in once a day. If you want to see your water use immediately, such as if you are trying to track down a leak, you can do so by looking at the meter itself. Contact the Cooperative if you need help locating your meter.

  1. Lift the black plastic lid (on the ground, about 12″ in diameter). These are not locked, so you can use a water meter key (from Home Depot or Lowes) or just a screwdriver. Some of the lids fit tight, so may take a little effort to lift.
  2. In most cases, mounted to the bottom of the lid is a device (called a cellular endpoint), about the size of an orange juice can. This is a stripped down cell phone, with a battery and electronics, so be a bit gentle, and not drop it on rocks.
  3. Down in the hole is the brass water meter, with a gray unit on the top, called an encoder. This has a hinged cover that you’ll have to flip open.
  4. The encoder display cycles through four modes:
    • Reading (stays the longest, 45 seconds) is the number of gallons, since the meter was new, down to hundredths of a gallon
      This number, as of the end of each month, appears on your water bill.
    • Reading, divided by 10 (stays for 5 seconds)
      This also has, in the upper right corner, a series of moving segments that indicate if there is any current flow, comparable to the leak indicator on a mechanical water meter.
    • Meter model: always d 25 9 (stays for 5 seconds)
    • Current flow, in gallons per minute, down to hundredths of a gallon (stays for 5 seconds)
  5. When you’re done, please close the cover of the encoder to keep dirt off the display. And be a little careful about putting the wires to the endpoint back in the hole when you replace the lid.