Reading the irrigation water meter
 

Is there any way for a human being to read the irrigation water meter that is buried underground under the green cover? I opened the green cover and all I see is lots of dirt, pipes and wires. I don't see any numbers that a person can read. It would be useful to be able to measure your water usage for each irrigation zone over the course of a day rather than having to wait for the aggregated monthly bill to arrive.

You probably need to carefully dig out some of the dirt to get to the face of the meter. Be careful, there may be some animals in there, I have seen frogs, and snakes.

The plastic cover and pipes should be purple, not green. The green one is the electric power.

You might have to shine a light on it. That could activate the dial so you can read it.

1. What village do you live in?
North of 466, homes have one water meter. The water is for both human consumption and irrigation. South of 466, homes have two meters - one for potable and another for irrigation. The covers for these meters are nearer the street.

2. There might be a cover nearer the house that contains the valves and pipes - one for each zone. Mine does not have a meter. I don't think any of them do because the meter is near the street.

3. There is no way to "to measure your water usage for each irrigation zone."

3. If you are south of 466, what you would do is read the meter nearer the street which is for your irrigation system.

You could measure the water usage for each irrigation zone by turning off all zones but one and check the meter for each zone one day at a time.

Your monthly bill will not show cost/use by zone but rather the total cost of water used to irrigate. It’s fairly nominal if you follow the rules of watering twice a week. If you water for hours at a time, it will cost more but considering the amount of rain we normally get during the summer, you may not even need to water.

Yes there is way to measure water, catch it in bucket for minute and take that times there number of heads you got on the line. Plus, the sprinkler head have flow rate on them in most cases. IMO most have each zone times running too long. If you see water running down the street for 15 mins you are wasting water, cut the zone time down. Now you can adjust the heads also so the don’t spray on driveway or street wasting water. I understand for those have grass yards, but if water running down the street to storm drain like river you wasting water ( cause it’s just running off rather than soaking in) and you’re wasting money even those it recycled you are paying twice for it.

Not at our house..Green is water..:MOJE_whot:

I thought there was a calculation based on how many gallons per minute you system outputs

I'm curious, if you had the water usage by zone on a daily basis, how much of an advantage would that information be for you?

If you have had an unusually high water bill, you may have a leak somewhere in the underground pipes. Also if you are North of 466, and have an unusually high water bill, you may have a toilet running and need to replace the gasket or something. Village tinker will know. My husband knows too but he is asleep.

At a recommendation from this forum, I purchased and installed a “FLUME” water meter. It is magnetically activated by your water meter (it very easily straps to the outside of your existing water meter - 2 minute installation). This device connects to my WiFi and gives me lots of detailed information on my irrigation water usage.

I can get flows in gallons per minute (so I can figure out the flow per zone), overall water use per day and others. It will let you know if there is a leak in your system.

If you have a water meter, this can help you. Research it to be sure it will work with your water meter.

PS - I have attached a photo of our meter with the FLUME sensor. Our water meter is pink and has a cover over the face that needs to be flipped up to read the numbers. Our home is about 3years old, so the irrigation water was probably installed 4 years ago.

Hope this helps you!

The only way to measure each zone is to place containers throughout that zone (or all zones if you have many containers) when your irrigation runs or do one zone at a time by manually running a zone you want to test;this will allow you to see amount of water being dispersed throughout that zone. You can then adjust zone times to amount of water recommended weekly for type of grass you have;I do this all the time to make adjustments after replacing a sprinkler or adding a new sprinkler to a zone.

Well it's read monthly so if its
all covered with and what you say,that can't be what the reader looks at every month

They don't do a visual read they use some kind of computer device that they touch that circle outside the box with

1/2" pipe. 14 gpm.
3/4" pipe is 23 gpjust multiply minutes by gpm
Most zones are supposed to be only 20 -25 minutes each

The utility worker does not have to look at your meter. They have an electronic gadget on a pole. They wave the gadget over your meter and the numbers are quickly registered. Much faster than looking and writing the numbers, and less chance for error.

I have a Courtyard Villa with some small trees & bushes.I turned off the irrigation system two years ago and nothing has died.Most people water too much.If you have grass you need to irrigate but don't over do it.

Wonder if the meter reader has any idea of how to read it without their gadget.

Most assuredly they do. Simply lift the flap and look at the numbers.

Not the water meter
 

From what you describe it sounds like you are looking at the electric valve that sends water to a zone of irrigation. The main controller box sends a signal to activate each Zone for a set period of time.

You need to lift the ‘door’ to the LED readout to activate the numbers - they will stay up for only 2 mins and then go blank again....

Where did youget the Flume, and how much?

You share one box with your neighbour, one box two houses

Here's a lawn irrigation primer:

How To Water Your Florida Lawn - YouTube

Scary
 

We watched the man as he opened ours and a poisonious snake crawled. I moved LOL
:faint:

I had that happen to me at our house on Louisiana. Had a $300 water bill. Found out the upstairs bonus room toilet was running for a week while out of town.

It depends on where you live. This is not always the case.

I run my sprinklers for a complete cycle for 10 minutes and then they shut off . Then in 20 minutes the cycle starts up again. Works much better gives the water a chance to soak in instead of running down the street.

We got ours on Amazon. It was ~$200.00 and included everything needed. You will also want to download the free app for your phone / tablet. You will need to have WiFi at your home that will reach the water meter to use this device.

Do be careful opening the box in your yard. I have found many things like to hide in there... mostly frogs and lizards, but I have heard of people finding snakes and such. ALWAYS open the lid away from you :22yikes: !!