Reading Your Water Meter

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Reading Your Water Meter

Reading Your Water Meter

Finding your meter

In Birch Bay, your water meter is generally located near the curb or street in front of your home. Meters in Birch Bay tend to share property corners so check the front property corners first. You should see your meter box and your neighbors. Meters are typically found in a plastic or concrete box (as shown in the photo). Carefully remove the smaller lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver, and then pull the whole lid off the box. If your meter is buried or not visible when you remove the lid you may need to uncover it. There will be a wire attaching the meter to the box lid, follow the wire down and it will attach to the top of the meter.

Reading your meter

Water meters in the Birch Bay measure volume in cubic feet. One cubic foot = 7.48 gallons and 100 cubic feet = 748 gallons. Your water charges are based on 100 cubic feet (cuft) units.

Birch Bay water meters are all straight-reading meters, which resembles the odometer in a car. Although Birch Bay Water and Sewer only bills by hundereds of cubic feet, there are 2 different types of meter registers and each read slightly different.

Sensus Touchread Meter	Sensus ICE Touchread Meter

To Read: The numbers on the dial in white give the meter reading, the numbers in black are the 10’s and 1’s on the meter reading. You may want to read these for calculating your own usage, but they are not used for billing. This meter would read 550 for billing. Check for Leaks: To check for a leak make sure all water in the house is turned off and check to see if the black triangle is moving.	To Read: The numbers on the dial give the meter reading to the 100ths of a cuft. You may want to read these numbers for calculating your own usage, but they are not used for billing. For billing, you would not read the last four digits. Check for Leaks: To check for a leak make sure all water in the house is turned off and check to see if the black line on the red circle is moving.
Sensus iPERL Meter
To Read: There are 9 digits/bars on the Sensus iPERL meter at the top of the digital display (see 1 in diagram below). Only the first four numbers at the far left will be programmed in 100 cubic feet and read for billing. Check for Leaks: To check for a leak make sure all water in the house is turned off and read the Flow Direction/Empty Pipe Indicator. If there is a plus sign in the middle of this circle, water is passing through the meter (see 4 in diagram below). You can also monitor the ninth number to the far right to check for leaks (see 2 in diagram below).

If you have problems finding your meter or reading it clearly, please call our office so we can try to assist you.