Can/Should I install water meter in Single Family well fed system?

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Rmgolob

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I am in the process of "fixing" our water well system. Pump has been replaced and Pside-Kick has been purchased.

Ultimately will deal with softener, iron removal, drinking water, etc.

As I go here for advice, I feel it useful to know our water consumption. Our old house was city water and we averaged just under 4,000 gallons per month (130 +/- gal per day.)
I can't hardly believe that it is now so low.

3 adults. Wife that takes a bath every night. 3 small grand kids visiting at least 3 days a week and constantly flushing toilets. Frequent overnight guests.......

Can I install a meter?
If so, I assume before the Pside and "everything else?"
Is so, any recommendations?

At the end of the day, does it matter? Is 100, 200, 300 per day relatively the same when doing all of the mentioned treatments?

As always, Thanks in advance for all of the sage advice and comments!
 

Reach4

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You want to get a lab water test before planning your water treatment. There are probably local sources who can test your water, including iron, manganese, hardness, pH, arsenic, and more. I like kit90 from http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/ for most wells. They mail a kit, and you mail it back. You get a result in a little under 2 weeks from when you order typically. Others like other testers. Act sooner, whatever test you do.

I am thinking that you are saying that you are surprised that your usage for 3 people was only 130 gallons per day (43 gallons per day per person), and that you wonder if you should not figure 180 per day when planning. That is not that different.

Remember that lawn watering will not go through the softener. You should have a way to get unsoftened water for house plants. I can see one hose spigot running soft water outside would be nice for mixing spray chemicals and maybe car washing if you do that at home.
 
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Valveman

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A meter is nice just to know how much water you are using. But most well systems do no have a meter. The well and pump just supplies as much or as little water as you need. A 10 GPM pump can supply over 14,000 gallons everyday if you need it. So 130 gallons per day is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of water available to you. The pump system will supply as much as you need, and a meter is not really needed.
 

Boycedrilling

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Don't know about the water softeners sold in the big box stores, but most quality water softeners have a water meter built into them. I sell and install the WaterSoft brand. It has a meter built into it that determines when it regenerates. I can go into the programming and look back and see how many gallons per day you have used for each of the last 90 days, also how many gallons have been thru the softener since it was installed. Can also look and see the instantaneous gallons per minute going thru the softener.

The average or gallons per day we size a softener for is 75 gallons per day per person.
 

JamFlowMan

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If you want to meter the usage from the well, a good meter to try is the WM-NLC (lead free brass) or WM-PC (plastic) sub-meters from flows.com. They are just like a typical city water meter in residential homes. They are low cost and easy to install. if you want remote reading, there is a pulse output wire that can be run to a digital display in a more convenient location. The display can be reset easily at any time, or locked out. I have this setup (x2) on a well that I am sharing with another house in the mountains and it has worker great for a few years now.
KAL-D06-in-frame__58643.1509641306.png

WM_NLC_Pulse__15839.1403720920.png
 

Rmgolob

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If you want to meter the usage from the well, a good meter to try is the WM-NLC (lead free brass) or WM-PC (plastic) sub-meters from flows.com. They are just like a typical city water meter in residential homes. They are low cost and easy to install. if you want remote reading, there is a pulse output wire that can be run to a digital display in a more convenient location. The display can be reset easily at any time, or locked out. I have this setup (x2) on a well that I am sharing with another house in the mountains and it has worker great for a few years now.
KAL-D06-in-frame__58643.1509641306.png

WM_NLC_Pulse__15839.1403720920.png
Thanks - Do you have brass or plastic?
 

WorthFlorida

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FYI... My wife and I have been empty nesters for nearly twenty years and in our current home, we average 2000-3000 gals per month. We have a second city meter for reclaimed water for irrigation. My last home we did average about 3000-4000 gals per month on city water and had a well for irrigation. The difference between the homes is in my current home I have four 1.2 gallon per minutes bath sink faucets and a modern kitchen faucet, three 1.6 gallon flush toilets, no bathtub use in either home. Recently i changed to a HE washing machine. The old top loader used maybe 20 gallons per load, HE machine maybe 10 gallons. But with my last home the wife and I were working everyday and took showers most days and I washed my work clothes almost daily in a HE machine.
 
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