Ccf how many gallons

A crisis would be reached when it became necessary to expand the water system or seek a new supply because the original one that was supposed to last many decades was overtaxed. There are many articles in the early literature that emphasized water conservation usually involving metering instead of the huge capital investments to develop a new water supply and build a larger treatment plant. One source stated that water meters became available as early as the s in the US.

Allen Hazen usually known for his work in filtration wrote a book about metering in which he stated that the earliest reliable meters were available in the s.

The early meters measured water use in either gallons or cubic feet. Measuring water use in gallons made sense of course, because everyone used that unit of measure for volume for a variety of liquids. The use of cubic feet to measure volume of water use is a little more obscure.

Flow measurement in cubic feet per second has been a standard for centuries. An early mention of water usage being measured in cubic feet was in a letter to a customer that was printed in the September issue of the JNEWWA. I suspect that cubic feet might have been preferred by some early meter manufacturers because it was a larger volume than gallons each cubic foot is equivalent to 7.

An error of a few cubic feet was not as big a deal as an error of dozens of gallons. Allen Hazen was clearly frustrated with the dual reporting units for water use. In , at a meeting of the Committee on Meter Rates for the New England Water Works Association, he requested a vote of the committee members present on which unit of measure should be used.

The final tally was 17 in favor of cubic feet and 23 members who wanted to use gallons. It is worth quoting a letter that Walter P. Schwabe sent to the NEWWA committee on meter rates that exemplified the reasons why gallons should be used. Many of the reasons are as true today as they were 97 years ago. I find it much easier to talk with a customer on his water consumption in gallons than in cubic feet, and find the customers have greater confidence in meters and in our statements, as they can readily check up their meter readings and make tests themselves.

The public buys all liquid commodities by the gallon unit…. Pumps, standpipes, etc. There is some evidence that the cubic foot was used by many utilities to keep the measuring and billing processes mysterious.

Continuing to quote from Mr. In a book published in , rates using cubic feet as the measure of water volume were explicitly listed. Both units are in common use. In the early days of metering, the use of cubic feet predominated, and it seemed at one time as if this unit might be universally adopted.

Recently, however, there has been a tendency to go back to the gallon. The analog meters with multiple dials see accompanying image are really confusing. If you take a close look at the face of the meter, some of the dials spin clockwise and other spin counter-clockwise. A whole bunch of trees have been killed printing brochures on how to read these complex analog readouts. Many customers want to match up what they are being billed for with what they can read for themselves.

It would not work to bill in gallons but only have meters that register in cubic feet. Some of these problems may be solved with the conversion from analog water meters to digital water meters that are read remotely. However, the local readout may be still be in gallons or cubic feet. Also, water rates have historically been in cubic feet for many utilities and minimum usage amounts can also be in this archaic terminology.

Why is any of this important? Water conservation has become a critical part of the water resources planning for U. In other words, utilities are counting on a certain level of conservation in the future so that they do not have to build additional water supplies as the population grows. We should make it as easy as possible for the public to monitor their water use and adopt units that mean something to them so that conservation is encouraged.

Do not use calculations for anything where loss of life, money, property, etc could result from inaccurate calculations.

It's important to remember that the US gallon and UK gallon are different sizes. In the US, a gallon is equivalent to fluid ounces or 3.

But in the UK, it's fluid ounces or 4. You can learn more about the reasons for the difference in gallon sizes here. Should you wish to calculate the cubic feet of an object or space, give the cubic feet calculator a try. Should you wish to do so, you can convert between liters and gallons and liters and imperial gallons.

Conversions for other units of volume are available in the volume converter. Salem Community Profile. Community Development and Planning.

Community Services Department. Municipal Services Department.