In the meantime, if a homeowner’s battery has failed, the village will send them an estimated water bill. The village has steadily been replacing the batteries as they fail, but with so many meter batteries reaching the end of their life at once, the village is hoping to replace all the remaining batteries in the next few months. “It really should only take 15-20 minutes.” “We have to physically get to the meter to change the battery,” Gillian said. Just this week, the village started dropping fliers off at homes asking residents to schedule an appointment with the water department to get their battery replaced. Homeowners can schedule replacement visit “Also the chemicals to treat the water.” Nonetheless, he added, “Conserving water is important it’s a precious commodity.” “A lot of energy goes into pumping the water … and that adds up to electricity ,” Gillian said.
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Gillian and Barger both said that savings alone shouldn’t be the only factor of consideration when a homeowner looks to install low-flow toilets or water-conserving dishwashers. Even if the homeowner is saving 1,000 gallons of water a month, that won’t make a significant dent in their bi-monthly bill. “That has to do with the relative low cost of water,” Gillian said.īarger said a rough estimate was that 750 gallons of water costs residents about $7. Village Administrator Tim Gillian said that while there can be significant savings in the long run for residents who conserve water, homeowners might be surprised to see that the saving on each bill are not as large as they expect. The resident said when he contacted the village, no one offered to inspect his meter.
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The village will test the water meter and the radio signal, as well as help the resident try to identify the source of a potential leak problem and show them how to read their meter. If a resident believes their meter reading is inaccurate or that their meter is defective, Barger said the water department will send staff to the resident’s home for an inspection. “Almost all of the time it’s a leak in the toilet.” “It’s almost never the meter,” Barger said. When he received his December water bill with a note asking him to contact the village regarding his meter, he wondered if the meter itself might be the problem.Īccording to Barger, the village generally gets about 10 calls from residents about a high water bill each billing cycle. If a new meter was needed, he would need to pay the cost of replacement. “Our bill was double even with the use of the high-efficiency washer and the low flow toilets,” he said, noting that he and his wife twice contacted the village and were told their water meter was working correctly. Additionally, he said he and his wife didn’t do any gardening that summer, as family obligations kept them from being able to keep up with their plants. However, by the end of the summer, he noticed his bill wasn’t going down - in fact it was going up. He also replaced his washing machine with a high-efficiency model that conserves water. In early 2015, he replaced the toilets in his bathrooms with low-flow models designed to use less water. “No resident in the village has received anything but a normal water bill,” Barger said.Ī Forest Park resident who asked to remain anonymous owns a two-story, three-bedroom home in the village.