Something doesn’t add up for me

I am somewhat confused by Ian Orchard’s letter regarding his water usage (Jan 27).

On the one hand he states that he read his meter, filled a 10 litre bucket, checked his meter again, and it showed he had indeed used 10 litres.

This would not have been the case if his meter was recording gallons. The units used would have read two and a bit. There are approximately 4.5 litres in a gallon so one unit on the meter would actually be a consumption of 4.5 litres.

If his friends already consider that their readings are high then could I suggest that they will consider them astronomical if they multiply the gallon reading by 4.5 to produce the true metric reading.

Red Sapwell, Amberley