We bought a new house in the same neighborhood as our old house, so we were surprised when our base rate on our water bill jumped from 4.00 to 22.40. We learned that our old house had a 5/8" water meter and our new house has a 2" water meter. The new house has an additional bathroom and a sink in the laundry room, but nothing fancy like a pool. So we were wondering why the new house would require such a large meter. Would the city require a certain meter size or is this something we could have replaced by a plumber?

Actually, what you pay for water every month should be based on water usage for that particular month - not on size of the meter.

Larger meters are installed on larger lots and/or at big houses to meet heavier water demand. If you have - let's say - 6,000 sq. feet lot and 1,200 sq.house on it, than 3/4" meter will probably be adequate. However if you have 1/3 + acre lot or huge house than City will give you larger meter so you have enough water volume for irrigation purposes...

In my area City doesn't charge for the meter installation. If you request larger meter yourself than there is a hefty charge.

Call City and ask them to explain their charges in detail... Let us know what they said... Milo

We live Dallas, TX and they do charge based on the size of the meter and of course water usage. See link: http://www.dallascityhall.com/dwu/billing_rates_monthly.html
Our lot size is about a half acre, however, it's heavily treed with a ton of shade and doesn't require much irrigation even in the summer months.
We are going to talk to the city and a plumber to see if we can have a smaller meter installed. I will let you know what they say. Thank you for your help!

I think 1/2 acre lot justifies 2" meter. At least by standards applied in my area of operation....

The last project we did, customer had 15,000 sq. feet lot (1/3 acre) with 3,500 sq.feet / 5 bathrooms house and City gave them 2" meter automatically...

I assume that if you pay for the meter itself, it should be your decision what size of meter you want...

Please, let us know what you've found out. We all are learning as we go... Milo

A friend of mine told me that they have two water meters, one for their house and one for their sprinkler system. They have the same size house as us but a smaller yard. Do you know if this would be an option for us? Even if we had two 1" meters, we would save a lot more than we would with one 2" meter because the city's base rate is only 7.00 for a 1" versus 22.44 for a 2".

I am not sure how your City charges you for your water / meter usage.

Yes, the sub-meter (2nd meter) is for irrigation. With this meter present you don't pay sewer charges for water used for irrigation only. However, with only one water meter on the property, City assumes that all water that enters your property is drained into the City sewers. Then, they charge you your montlhy Sewer usage fees.

Looking at your present charges, two 1" meters would be about 47% cheaper than one 2" meter.