Personnel from the West Iredell Water Company read the meters around the 15th of each month. This is a Automatic Meter Reading system (AMR) where we just drive by the meters and the computer retrieves the readings being sent out by the yellow transmitter located inside the meter box. Bills are then mailed to customers around the 20th of each month.
You can read your meter at any time by following the directions below.
STEP 1 Locate your meter box, generally found towards the front of a property, near the street. It is housed in either a plastic or concrete box. Remove the lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver. Insert the tool into one of the holes and pry the lid off.
STEP 2 Once you open the meter box lid, lift the protective cap on the meter. On the face of the meter, there is a large dial and a display of numbers (see picture below). For the residential meter, each rotation of the dial measures 10 gallons. Read the number display from left to right. Read all the numbers across the dial except for the stationary zero at the end. This is your meter reading. We do not read the stationary zero because we bill by the 10's of gallons used. Meters measure water in gallons. Subtract the previous meter reading from the current meter reading and multiply the difference by 10 to calculate the number of gallons used during a billing period.
STEP 3 If, after receiving your bill, you look at your meter and realize that the actual reading is lower than the current meter reading that we used for billing purposes, then there was a misread on your meter. Please give us a call so that we can reread your meter and adjust your bill accordingly. If your bill indicates that your water usage is up considerably from what you typically use, and the meter reading appears to be correct, then you possibly have a leak. Please refer to the section below to use your meter to help you detect leaks.
USING YOUR METER TO DETECT LEAKS
The triangle that you see on the face of the meter (see picture below) is a leak detector. When checking to see if you have a leak, make sure no one is using water in the house. Go to the meter box and lift the lid so that you can see the face of the meter. If the triangle is moving any at all, then you have a leak. At this point, go to the place where the cut-off valve is located to cut off the water going into the house. This cut-off valve could be located in the basement, under the house, etc. Once the water is cut-off to the house, go back to the meter and notice if the triangle is still moving. If the triangle is still moving, then you have a leak somewhere in the ground between the meter and the cut-off valve to the house. If the triangle is not moving, then the leak is somewhere after the water passes through the cut-off valve to the house.
AMR Meter & Transmitter
