There are three main ways to determine consumption units for this estimator. You can use:
- The average household usage
- The consumption units from your bill
- The consumption units you track with your meter
Average Household Usage
The average City of Columbia residential customer uses 8 units or 800 cubic feet of water each month. To see the average customer's bill total, type 8 in the box above.
You can also sign up for online-bill-pay with the City of Columbia. Once registered, you can log in to see how much you used on previous bills.
Consumption Units From Your Bill
In the above example, the customer used 8 units or 800 cubic feet. If this were your bill, you would type 8 in the box above.
Consumption Units You Track With Your Meter
Your water meter is designed to read cubic feet. You are charged for your water use in units of 100 cubic feet. When City forces read your meter, they do not round up. Instead, they drop the two black boxes on your meter from the reading. This means you are only billed for complete units of 100 cubic feet.
To track your usage over a period of time:
- Find your meter. It is most likely in a box in your front yard near the street.
- Write down all but the last two numbers showing on your meter face. This is your starting reading. The example below is showing 221.71 units of water. You would write down 221 (drop the .71).
- Wait for a period of time. You may wait a day, a week, or a month to gauge how much water your household uses.
- Write down all but the last two numbers showing on your meter face. This is your ending reading. The example below is showing 229.85 units of water. You would write down 229 (drop the .85).
- Subtract the starting reading from the ending reading. In this example,
229-221= 8 units. You would type 8 in the box above.