What kind of system allows them to control water, gas, and electricity flow to a certain house?
In: 21
Meters. There’s one for each of the utilities.
Electricity: Your breaker has a measure for kWh.
Gas: there’s a meter for how much gas is used in BTUs.
Water: how many gallons go past also meter sometimes measured in cubic feet or BU.
They charge you a rate (sometimes tiered) by unit of measure.
So if you used 1000 gallons and are charged let’s say $0.10. Then you pay $100.
The rates should be on the bull your local utilities website.
Meters. There’s one for each of the utilities.
Electricity: Your breaker has a measure for kWh.
Gas: there’s a meter for how much gas is used in BTUs.
Water: how many gallons go past also meter sometimes measured in cubic feet or BU.
They charge you a rate (sometimes tiered) by unit of measure.
So if you used 1000 gallons and are charged let’s say $0.10. Then you pay $100.
The rates should be on the bull your local utilities website.
It’s not controlled. Water, gas and electricity are being “pushed” to every house all the time. It’s basically waiting there for you to be used. Water and gas are probably the easiest to understand. It’s just there in your pipes with some pressure behind it. Open a faucet and water starts running out that was already there. It’s not like the faucet sends a signal to the water company which then starts sending water to your house. What the water company does do is measure how much water you’re using, using a meter placed somewhere on (or right near) your property. In an extreme scenario, they could cut off your water supply, but this involves someone physically traveling to your house to close a valve (which you don’t have access to).
Utilities do need to make sure that there is enough supply at all times. So e.g. the water company (and possibly your building’s management) has to make sure the water pressure is high enough, using a combination of pumps and water towers. If the pressure is too low, then water won’t be pushed into your pipes and be waiting there when you open a faucet. There will either be no water at all or just a trickle.
Gas and electricity follow the same basic principles, though for the latter this is a bit harder to imagine. Basically you can think of voltage as taking the place of the water pressure. When someone starts using electricity, the voltage drops a little. If it drops too low (or threatens to), the electricity company has to make its power stations work harder (for instance) to compensate.
It’s not controlled. Water, gas and electricity are being “pushed” to every house all the time. It’s basically waiting there for you to be used. Water and gas are probably the easiest to understand. It’s just there in your pipes with some pressure behind it. Open a faucet and water starts running out that was already there. It’s not like the faucet sends a signal to the water company which then starts sending water to your house. What the water company does do is measure how much water you’re using, using a meter placed somewhere on (or right near) your property. In an extreme scenario, they could cut off your water supply, but this involves someone physically traveling to your house to close a valve (which you don’t have access to).
Utilities do need to make sure that there is enough supply at all times. So e.g. the water company (and possibly your building’s management) has to make sure the water pressure is high enough, using a combination of pumps and water towers. If the pressure is too low, then water won’t be pushed into your pipes and be waiting there when you open a faucet. There will either be no water at all or just a trickle.
Gas and electricity follow the same basic principles, though for the latter this is a bit harder to imagine. Basically you can think of voltage as taking the place of the water pressure. When someone starts using electricity, the voltage drops a little. If it drops too low (or threatens to), the electricity company has to make its power stations work harder (for instance) to compensate.
In all three cases, when they hook up water, gas, and electricity to the house they install a “meter” to measure how much of the stuff you use (somewhere near where it comes into the house), and there’s a “shut-off” outside somewhere where they can turn off the utility. Gas and water often have a valve hidden in a little covered hole in the yard or street, sometimes on the meter (with a way to lock it). For electricity, they can disconnect the wires between the source and the house. They don’t “control” who gets what so much as they have the ability to turn it on or off; you can use as much as you want as long as you pay for it.
In some places, they pay a “meter reader” person to come out and look at the numbers on you meter to see how much gas/water/electricity you used. They just wander around one day each month and jot down the numbers, which someone later types into a computer that they use to calculate your bill. A lot of newer meters have little radios built in, and a person can read the meters simply by driving down the street (you need a truck, but a lot fewer “meter readers” that way; it’s very quick and there’s a lot fewer mistakes too).
In all three cases, when they hook up water, gas, and electricity to the house they install a “meter” to measure how much of the stuff you use (somewhere near where it comes into the house), and there’s a “shut-off” outside somewhere where they can turn off the utility. Gas and water often have a valve hidden in a little covered hole in the yard or street, sometimes on the meter (with a way to lock it). For electricity, they can disconnect the wires between the source and the house. They don’t “control” who gets what so much as they have the ability to turn it on or off; you can use as much as you want as long as you pay for it.
In some places, they pay a “meter reader” person to come out and look at the numbers on you meter to see how much gas/water/electricity you used. They just wander around one day each month and jot down the numbers, which someone later types into a computer that they use to calculate your bill. A lot of newer meters have little radios built in, and a person can read the meters simply by driving down the street (you need a truck, but a lot fewer “meter readers” that way; it’s very quick and there’s a lot fewer mistakes too).
I am not exactly sure what you are asking, but most public utilities are monopolies by political choice, and often exist because they have replaced private suppliers which were monopolies or near-monopolies and could not be trusted (well, that was mostly the argument anyway) to consider the best interests of the entire population when it came to pricing and provision of services to everyone.
Just take as a very obvious example, how fire departments were once often private, so only served some people, or would require payment before fighting a fire if the burning location was not a service subscriber. Public interests were seen as best served by making the service one provided by the government and supported by charging all citizens for the service, so fire departments became government owned and operated entities. The same things have happened with power, sewer, and water, in many places. Not everywhere has public sewer, public water, or public power though, and the exact ownership and regulatory structure/oversight varies from place to place.
The idea is that the needs are so basic and so universal that it is seen as unjust, I suppose is the best word, to allow private corporations to profit from providing the services while choosing, based on profit considerations only, to charge extreme prices or to deny service to some (generally more remote locations requiring a huge investment on infrastructure like pipes or wires but with no way to recover the cost without charging absurd rates so the people couldn’t afford it even if the utility were to provide it).
Public utilities provide the services the same way a private utility would. They build and run the central facility, or buy on the market like anyone would (for some things like gas or electricity) and distribute the service by installing the required infrastructure. They just have a much more strictly controlled pricing and delivery structure than a private provider would. Where the utility providers are private, or semi-private, the local government usually has a lot of regulations telling them what the can, must, and cannot do, but being private corporations, there are some limitations that can be imposed on how the utilities run themselves. A public utility is owned by the “People” (the government, in some way or another) so is supposedly more responsive to the needs of the people being served.
Whether public, private, or semi-private, though, they all do pretty much the same thing: run the systems, maintain the infrastructure, and make sure the clients (households, say) are provided with the service, however that needs to be done.
I am not exactly sure what you are asking, but most public utilities are monopolies by political choice, and often exist because they have replaced private suppliers which were monopolies or near-monopolies and could not be trusted (well, that was mostly the argument anyway) to consider the best interests of the entire population when it came to pricing and provision of services to everyone.
Just take as a very obvious example, how fire departments were once often private, so only served some people, or would require payment before fighting a fire if the burning location was not a service subscriber. Public interests were seen as best served by making the service one provided by the government and supported by charging all citizens for the service, so fire departments became government owned and operated entities. The same things have happened with power, sewer, and water, in many places. Not everywhere has public sewer, public water, or public power though, and the exact ownership and regulatory structure/oversight varies from place to place.
The idea is that the needs are so basic and so universal that it is seen as unjust, I suppose is the best word, to allow private corporations to profit from providing the services while choosing, based on profit considerations only, to charge extreme prices or to deny service to some (generally more remote locations requiring a huge investment on infrastructure like pipes or wires but with no way to recover the cost without charging absurd rates so the people couldn’t afford it even if the utility were to provide it).
Public utilities provide the services the same way a private utility would. They build and run the central facility, or buy on the market like anyone would (for some things like gas or electricity) and distribute the service by installing the required infrastructure. They just have a much more strictly controlled pricing and delivery structure than a private provider would. Where the utility providers are private, or semi-private, the local government usually has a lot of regulations telling them what the can, must, and cannot do, but being private corporations, there are some limitations that can be imposed on how the utilities run themselves. A public utility is owned by the “People” (the government, in some way or another) so is supposedly more responsive to the needs of the people being served.
Whether public, private, or semi-private, though, they all do pretty much the same thing: run the systems, maintain the infrastructure, and make sure the clients (households, say) are provided with the service, however that needs to be done.
I am not exactly sure what you are asking, but most public utilities are monopolies by political choice, and often exist because they have replaced private suppliers which were monopolies or near-monopolies and could not be trusted (well, that was mostly the argument anyway) to consider the best interests of the entire population when it came to pricing and provision of services to everyone.
Just take as a very obvious example, how fire departments were once often private, so only served some people, or would require payment before fighting a fire if the burning location was not a service subscriber. Public interests were seen as best served by making the service one provided by the government and supported by charging all citizens for the service, so fire departments became government owned and operated entities. The same things have happened with power, sewer, and water, in many places. Not everywhere has public sewer, public water, or public power though, and the exact ownership and regulatory structure/oversight varies from place to place.
The idea is that the needs are so basic and so universal that it is seen as unjust, I suppose is the best word, to allow private corporations to profit from providing the services while choosing, based on profit considerations only, to charge extreme prices or to deny service to some (generally more remote locations requiring a huge investment on infrastructure like pipes or wires but with no way to recover the cost without charging absurd rates so the people couldn’t afford it even if the utility were to provide it).
Public utilities provide the services the same way a private utility would. They build and run the central facility, or buy on the market like anyone would (for some things like gas or electricity) and distribute the service by installing the required infrastructure. They just have a much more strictly controlled pricing and delivery structure than a private provider would. Where the utility providers are private, or semi-private, the local government usually has a lot of regulations telling them what the can, must, and cannot do, but being private corporations, there are some limitations that can be imposed on how the utilities run themselves. A public utility is owned by the “People” (the government, in some way or another) so is supposedly more responsive to the needs of the people being served.
Whether public, private, or semi-private, though, they all do pretty much the same thing: run the systems, maintain the infrastructure, and make sure the clients (households, say) are provided with the service, however that needs to be done.
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