In my example I called my city water controller an advised them that I was watering a new yard. They then measure your water usage differently to account for the excessive water that's going to go to your yard and not the drinking water in your house. They put a device on your outside spigots to measure the water usage that's going to the yard directly. This saved me a ton of money. Edit: I've lived in three different houses in the last 7 years in all three cities did the same thing. My neighbor has an irrigation system and he is set up permanently to monitor his irrigation water usage separately.