At the Stow water components rechecked September 20, 2026, the calculation is $21.63 at 5 HCF, $40.83 at 10 HCF, and $60.03 at 15 HCF in one month.
Those amounts combine only the City’s published Stow water usage rate and administrative fee. They are not complete bills. Sanitary sewer is handled separately by Summit County, and an actual account can contain other lines, adjustments, balances, or classifications.
The two published inputs
The City’s Water Department page says Stow water customers are billed monthly and lists:
| Component | Published input used here |
|---|---|
| Stow water consumption | $3.84 per hundred cubic feet (HCF) |
| Monthly administrative flat fee | $2.43 |
The formula is:
selected monthly water components = (HCF × $3.84) + $2.43
The flat fee is added once to each modeled month. It is not multiplied by HCF.
Three reproducible examples
| Monthly usage | Usage calculation | Flat fee | Selected water total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 HCF | 5 × $3.84 = $19.20 | $2.43 | $21.63 |
| 10 HCF | 10 × $3.84 = $38.40 | $2.43 | $40.83 |
| 15 HCF | 15 × $3.84 = $57.60 | $2.43 | $60.03 |
Moving from 5 to 10 HCF adds $19.20. Moving from 10 to 15 HCF adds the same $19.20. That happens because each interval adds five HCF at $3.84 while the $2.43 flat component is already present in both totals:
5 × $3.84 = $19.20
This is a component check, not evidence that household demand or the next statement will change in five-HCF steps.
Keep three service questions apart
Stow water
Use the Stow rate only after the statement and provider record identify the account as a Stow water customer. Keep the meter-reading dates and HCF quantity with the calculation.
Hudson water billed by Stow
The same City page separately lists $4.90 per HCF for Hudson customers billed by Stow. That is a different row. None of the three examples substitutes the Hudson rate or assumes how the administrative charge applies to a Hudson account.
Sanitary sewer
Both the department page and the City’s Who to Call reference send sanitary sewer connections or problems to Summit County. The reference URL still says December 2024, but the current PDF’s first page is marked March 10, 2026. Its sanitary-sewer row confirms the County contact; the filename is not evidence of the current document’s publication date. No Summit County sewer rate, base charge, usage rule, or billing treatment is included here.
Do not label the water-only subtotal “water and sewer” simply because both appear on or relate to service at the same address.
Audit an actual statement without forcing a match
Put the provider, billing/read dates and HCF quantity beside the two-component calculation. Recheck the live City rate first: it labels the inputs current but supplies no formal effective date. Keep all other statement lines separate until their own authority and formula are documented.
If the selected subtotal does not match a statement, do not invent a balancing charge. Meter timing, another service, prior balances, credits, adjustments, penalties, or a different classification may explain the difference. Ask the responsible billing office to identify each line.
What is excluded
The examples exclude sanitary sewer, stormwater, taxes, deposits, service calls, penalties, prior balances, adjustments, credits, meter-specific items, and any other charge not named in the two-row model. They also do not convert HCF to an estimated household gallon figure or infer future rates.
Source and method
LSL rechecked the Water Department’s operative rate text and the contact reference on September 20, 2026. The PDF’s dated first page and sanitary-sewer row on page 5 were also visually inspected; this was not a full visual audit of all seven pages. We multiplied the published Stow consumption rate by each selected HCF level, added the flat monthly fee once, and preserved the Hudson and Summit County boundaries. The three amounts and $19.20 increments were reproduced in integer cents. We did not inspect a customer statement.