The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: nawhite on January 26, 2015, 05:06:17 PM
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Definitely only applies to a small number of people on here but figured I'd mention it.
If you have Denver Water as your water and sewer provider be sure to minimize your water usage as much possible in February. Your sewer bills for the year are based on your February water usage. So if you can minimize your February usage (even temporarily) you'll save money on your sewer bills for the entire year.
Last year my wife and I were very aware of our water usage and got our February usage down to 2000 gallons (they only measure to the nearest thousand unfortunately) but this lowered our sewer bills to $10/month.
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That is a weird policy. I'd shower at the gym for the entire month if my bill was determined that way. And only use the toilet at work.
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OP, we live a little north of you. Jan and Feb set our sewer rates for the year. I've been going days between showers and encouraging the kids to skip also. The wife doesn't give a shit what our sewer rate is. She's taking her 1-2 showers a day no mater what.
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The same was done in San Antonio a few years back when I lived there. I forget which month. I think they use a winter month because people aren't watering lawns, filling swimming pools, washing their cars - so hopefully you get a measure of household water that actually ends up in the sewer system.
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They do something similar in my Dallas suburb. The difference is they take usage from Nov through Feb and use a 3 year running average. This makes it hard to "cheat" down your sewer bill.
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I am on Denver Water and, honestly, I think they just take your lowest winter month. Mine is always based off of December because that ends up being lowest due to billing cycle. Course, low for me means 2k gallons instead of 3k gallons (they only bill in increments of 1k) so it doesn't exactly make a huge difference.
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I am on Denver Water and, honestly, I think they just take your lowest winter month. Mine is always based off of December because that ends up being lowest due to billing cycle. Course, low for me means 2k gallons instead of 3k gallons (they only bill in increments of 1k) so it doesn't exactly make a huge difference.
I agree it doesn't make a huge difference but it is $3.50/month for a year. Here is one reference to it being February:
https://www.denvergov.org/wastewatermanagement/WastewaterManagement/BillingandRates/CalculateYourStormDrainageBill/tabid/437966/Default.aspx
Every residential sewer customer has a one-month winter billing period (February meter reading). Metered water consumption for this winter period establishes sanitary sewer charges (beginning with the March bill) for the entire year- until the next winter billing period. Even though your water use may increase during the summer, your sanitary sewer charges will remain constant.
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I had no idea - thank you! We will be cognizant of this over the next month.
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I think this is a pretty common practice. I've lived in several places and they all do it this way.
They use winter months because your usage tends to be lower then. If they based it on your July bill, too many customers would complain.
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Let's see. - 3 loads, 20 showers, 30 flushes, should be able to be well below 1000 gallons for month.
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Thanks! I'm not a Denverite but I've passed this along to my family.