What's the evaporation rate in the midwest in inches per week?

[jseyfert3]

So my house has a clear water meter installed, but it needs a new electronic reader for the utility to use it for billing. For those not aware, the clear water meter is used for measuring all outdoor spigots or any other water that doesn't go down the sanitary sewer system. They take the main water reading and charge you for water ($2.19 per hundred cubic feet or CCF), then subtract the reading of the clear meter from the main meter to charge you for sewer, so you aren't charged for sewer treatment on outdoor water ($2.01 per CCF).

Since clear water measurement is optional, the customer is responsible for all meter purchases, repairs, and required upgrades. It's $135 to add an electronic reader, or $214 if I want a new meter and reader. Our AGP we're putting in is about 15,000 gallons, or 2000 cubic feet, so if we don't have a clear meter we'll pay $40 in sewer charges we wouldn't have to otherwise pay. But since we don't drain it every year, the real question is what can I expect evaporation to be? Trying to figure out if upgrading the clear water meter is worth it.

Pool is a 26' Intex. Will have a solar cover when not in use.

Obviously the spa needs draining and refill every few months, but that's only about $1.20 in sewer charges saved per fill.

Biggest other usage will be a potential veggie garden and establishing some trees and bushes. Not sure how much water that will be.

There is an underground sprinkler system the previous owners put in, as he was crazy about his yard, but I don't plan on using that much, if at all. Probably only for repairing the yard after equipment for leveling the pool and installing the fence tears it up. As an aside, in 2015 the previous owners stopped using the clear meter because the city required this reader upgrade, which is $135. Based on the reading from the last time that was used, and what it reads now, ~330 CCF worth of water that went through the clear meter, which means since they refused to spend $135 to upgrade their meter they instead spent $663 on sewer treatment for water that didn't go into the sewer!

I could wait and see how much usage we have this year before deciding, but if it seems likely we'd pay the meter upgrade off within 3-4 years it seems worth it to get it upgraded now so we don't miss that $40 worth of savings on the initial fill.

 

[usedtobeayooper]

Are you basically asking how often you have to top off the pool to replace lost water?

If so, I live in southern Michigan, and can say that I rarely ever need to add water with regular use of a solar cover. Most of what I lose through evaporation has apparently been replenished with rain fall, as it remains fairly even.

 

[jseyfert3]

Yes, exactly. I should have said that. Basically I wanted an idea of how much water I could expect to go through besides on the initial fill or in the spring when I bring the water back up over the skimmer (I won't be draining in the winter except to lower below the skimmer).

I was wondering if rainfall would cause me to need to add little, if any, water.

 

[ajw22]

It depends on how rainy the summer is. If you are not going to have a heater on the pool you are not likley to get a lot of evaporation until you get to the late summer when you have warm water and cool nights.

 

[gonfishin]

Last summer was wet. Summer before much drier. This summer, who knows?

We originally purchased rain barrels for watering the garden that we no longer have. Since I've got the rain barrels, I use the water collected in them (add 1/8 cup 12% chlorine in each barrel after each drain to prevent algae). If I didn't have the rain barrels and I had the option to reduce my water bill by buying a an electronic reader with outdoor measuring device and knowing the cost of the barrels in today's market is much higher than the reader, I would get the reader. I see it as an insurance policy for a dry summer.

 

[tim5055]

I paid for the extra meter. In my calculation it was not only pool water, but any water I used to water the lawn, shrubs, wash the car.......

 

[jseyfert3]

Thanks for the feedback all. Sounds like with a solar cover and midwest rain, I probably won't pay off the meter with the pool filling and top offs, but with a planned garden and establishing trees and bushes it will probably pay for itself.

I'll plan on getting the meter upgrade done.

If I didn't have the rain barrels and I had the option to reduce my water bill by buying a an electronic reader with outdoor measuring device and knowing the cost of the barrels in today's market is much higher than the reader, I would get the reader. I see it as an insurance policy for a dry summer.

Interestingly enough, I got not one, but four of those 275 gallon, steel cage reinforced plastic totes from work, for free. I intended to do rainwater collection for garden watering. Didn't do anything for a year, then we moved. I decided I wasn't going to bother with them do to less space, the fact that they'd stick out (be uglier) at our new place compared to our old one, and that if I hadn't done anything in a year, I probably wouldn't for another few years. So I sold them. $150 for the lot of four. That was pure profit there. Guess that's my meter upgrade money.

 

[Pv2]

if you are using a sand filter there will be backwashing and refilling for that...prob not more than a 100 gal or so per on the large intex (I can't remember what you are getting, I think you had a line on something else) as an aside here in the arid west we can lose 8 or 9 FEET per year to evap

 

[jseyfert3]

I'll start with the included Intex filter. I had a Hayword filter already that was a little bigger than the Intex I may use.

8-9 feet per year? Wow! That would totally make a clear water meter worth it. Crazy how much things change across the country.