Hear water meter 'clicking' throughout the pipes when in-ground sprinkler running

[Mark Lloyd]

And I thought I had high water bills this June and July (temperatures over 100 degrees much of the time).

[blueman]

We pay (water & sewer): $9.95/HCF (for 1-20) [1.3 cents/gallon] $11.95/HCF (for 21-27) [1.6 cents/gallon] $14.34/HCF (for >70) [1.9 cents/gallon]

Our *quarterly* bills with no watering (winter months) are about 30 HCF and up to 100 HCF during peak summer quarter. This is for 6 people which comes to about 41 gallons/day/person not including watering.

[blueman]

Problem is that the smallest whell in our meter reads in 10ths of a HCF increments which is about 75 gallons and so I would need to run and measure a lot of water to get an accurate reading.

[blueman]

Ours reads HCF (hundreds of cubic feet) with smallest increment being

1/10 of a HCF.

[blueman]

Yes - it seems volume related.

I scheduled someone from Water & Sewer to come by tomorrow morning.

We now have an electronic type where I think they just hook up a card reader on the outside of the house. Supposedly we are moving to a drive-by system so maybe they will replace mine with that type.

Right now: Static pressure: 90 Pressure with full sprinkler running: 72.

I agree it is high and probably causing wear & tear on valves.

- How much would it cost to install a pressure reducer?

- Wouldn't I also then need a (thermal) expansion tank for my water heater?

It's been this way for a long time and I assume my neighbors all have similar pressure. Is it really worth fixing or should I be thankful for "good pressure"?

[blueman]

Well just had it replaced by the city today. New meter is nicer in that it easier to read and includes (digital) wheels down to the 1/100th of a cubic foot plus a nice tattle wheel.

However... the meter is now actually a little louder when the sprinkler runs.

I checked the flow rate and the sprinkler is using about 11 gallons/minute to feed the heads in each zone. The city input pipe is

1.5" galvanized (but 110+ years old so effective diameter is probably less). With the new meter I am getting slightly higher static and dynamic pressure (about 198 and 180-185 respectively).

By the way, the water & sewer guy didn't think I should worry about the high pressure. It seems like it is common in much of the city.

[blueman]

Just my luck, they sent a guy. Though he was quite helpful and not particularly large-built.

[blueman]

I guess on our system it must be pretty normal because the sound if anything got louder when we replaced the meter. Must have to do with the high flow rate of the sprinkler system. Kind of annoying though...

[JIMMIE]

When I lived in Ga the meter was mounted in the basement and would click loudly whenever we filled the pool. I used to refer to this sound as money falling down the drain. This was particularly expensive when the city quit charging a flat rate for sewer and it was based on

2 times water usage. Shortly after that there was a company opened up that started filling pools from a tanker truck.

Jimmie