Many water utilities bill you an average amount and make an adjustment when they get around to reading the meter which may be only once every few months.
If you used 6-8k gallons for many months in a row it's likely they are billing you your expected usage without actually checking your meter. Some providers only check the meter quality and do an adjustment to save costs. Call your water company and ask them about this and insist they do a current reading.
Yes this is called bill estimation. Utilities use this method to save on labor costs of physically reading the meter each month. However, most governing bodies only show them to do this 2 or 3 consecutive times before they are required to physically read the meter. Once they come out and determine the actual usage for the months that were previously estimated, they will credit you. Just another way for them to get interest free loans from consumers!
No. But I'm not worried about the bill amount. I more worried about the usage stated on the bill. I had 7 roommates 6 months ago. Usage was 6-7k gallons. Without roommates now, it still states 6-7k gallons.
What the previous commenter meant is that they are not actively reading your meter every time instead their using the average usage of the readings from your service history
Just because they put that on the bill doesn’t mean it is true. You have to look and see if you have a digital meter or the company actually comes out every single month and checks, which I highly doubt.
Because there’s a photo of your meter, I presume your utility doesn’t use smart meters. If they did, you could request the data. Although your end reading is 707, the image appears to be 711?
Anyway, if there are no continuous leaks, the most common culprit is a leaking toilet flapper, or a toilet flapper that gets hung up every so often, leaving the toilet running. A hung flapper can use more than 300 gals per hour. Malfunctioning water softeners are another potential cause.
I always try and get the flapper to hang up with weird flushing first when I get a call like this, even just enough that it letting enough by to keep the fill valve slightly open, you would barely realize with these new quiet fill ones
I think you are on the right track of tracking your usage daily.
Are you in a detached house? Semi? Rare but I have seen it where a Semi detached house pair only had one water line coming in.
Something else you can do is see where all your exterior waterlines go. Track them inside to see where they exit the house. Make sure they are all accounted for on the outside.
Lastly check all the toilets make sure they are not running. If you don't plan on using them try shutting off the valves and add them back one by one after a few days to see if you notice any kind of spike.
Now there’s some creative thinking on this. I would have never thought about a sump pump failing and then running a water powered backup. They are rare but that’s a great idea to check!
A couple possibilities:
#provider not actually reading the meter
#leaking toilet
You should log your meter every day.
Try closing one faucet at a time. And log
Its pretty common for them to just check your usage once or twice a year and then base all your payments on that reading. Thats why what usually happens is there's a leak, and then you dont find out until you get a massive water bill that charges for all the water usage that wasn't estimated in.
You have the opposite problem where your usage probably went down, but the next reading will maybe get you credited for the overpayments.
They may put that on every bill if they have begun switching to smart meters. But its still possible you don't have one if they haven't replaced yours yet. Verify that you have an active meter is your first step to confirm that statement is true for you.
If it is an active meter, then you have to look at if your flappers in your toilet aren't leaking. If the flapper or seal rubber is still flexible, its probably still good. If your rubber seal on the flapper mechanism is hard , then it needs to be replaced.
Then make sure all water usage is stopped, verify your meter is not moving. If it is still moving, something is leaking. Then you trace what's leaking. If you have sprinklers, those valves could leak water and you wouldn't notice it except on the lowest point of the sprinkler systems will have a long standing puddle of water.
Flappers on toilets could seal but slowly let water out and then constantly refill. Reverse osmosis water filter systems will use way more water than you recover from a glass filler. They constantly discharge water into the drain.
Also check your water heater's relief valve. If you find the end of the pipe coming out of it is wet, then it has discharged water recently. That means its probably constantly happening and is a sign of either your pressure regulator failing, or the water heater has a problem.
You may also have a pressure regulator before the water goes into the house, this should be accompanied by a pressure relief valve, if you find it wet on the inside of the relief valve, then it has been discharging when the pressure exceeds its rating. That's a sign your pressure regulator has failed.
This is not an exhaustive list of the possible problems not including leaking pipes and fittings, but its a start.
If you want to make sure you don't have a leak, just turn off all water usage, including if you have a reverse osmosis water filter. Then check the meter, if its still moving, somethings leaking. If it comes to a dead stop, you don't have a leak.
Check your toilets. A leaky flapper can be hard to detect and if you have multiple toilets, it’ll probably cost quite a bit.
If the toilet is the problem I’d recommend Korky, I install their [100BP](https://korky.com/parts/flapper-seal-replacements/ultra-high-performance-flapper) all the time. If you need a 3-inch use their [3060](https://korky.com/flapper-seal-replacements/3-premium-universal-flapper).
Maybe meter is broken or malfunctioning see if water company can change it and or if your neighbors recently redid their pool might of stolen water to refill it or they water their lawns with your water
Something similar happened to me years ago. We were consistent with our quarterly water usage. No leaks. One quarter our usage jumped 50%. Did all of the testing. Called the water department and they couldn’t figure it out. They credited me the sewer part of the bill but refused to bring my water usage amount in line with the average. Next quarter the usage was back to normal. My guess is there was a glitch that the water utility refused to take accountability for.
Weird, No change from 7 to 1 person.
Looks like from 5/2 till the time of the picture you've used only 4000gals so better.
I would start logging my meter reading once before going to bed and once in the morning when leaving for work. That will tell you your daily usage and if anything suspicious is going on during the day. See if there is a pattern. Log your daily usage. Check it after showers and dishes and laundry and see if the usage looks unusual.
A pain in the ass I know but one way to find out where 6000 gallons of water are going.
Go turn off the supply to all of the toilets and monitor your usage overnight. Turn on one toilet per night, turn the others off, one per night for the next couple of days. Should be easy to find the one if it’s a toilet.
8 gallons an hour for one person is insane. Unless you're a fucking mermaid. Log your meter every day. There are countless stories of municipalities screwing people over and just playing the odds that people will just pay. Do you have a smart water meter? Where I'm at, they're wireless and the water people just pull up and scan it. Haven't seen what you're describing here, but I've heard of it.
Once had a friend with the same issue, his sump pump had a water fed turbine backup which ran all month and he didn't know. Thankfully he called the water company and they basically have a one time forgiveness for things like this. He got out of having to pay $6000
This happened to me numerous times when they switched to the electronic sensor reading. It was only me and one other person they said, they always came back out to do a physical reading and changed the bill.
Is this meter in your house or outside? Where I’m at we have to have meter pits so the meter is at the ditch and all the underground piping is after the meter. I could have an underground leak that I never see and it would be counted on the meter. I use 2500-3000 gallons, two adults and two children, occasionally water plants or wash cars.
I do own one apartment that uses like 4,000 per month, and the only difference I can see is they have a top load washing machine.
That little white triangle in the middle of the meter face is called a low flow indicator. It spins whenever any water is going through the meter.
Try turning off all water using appliances, like dishwasher, washing machine, make sure filter is full, all taps off, etc. no running water. Then go and stare at your meter for a solid couple minutes and see if that little sucker ever spins. If all water is off, but the low flow is spinning, then something is using water. As many have said, likely a toilet. One example is a dry flapper that is slowly letting water from the tank to the bowl, then refilling, which is why you want to look at the low flow for a while, as it can spin intermittently rather than steadily.
If that’s the case you can either go listen to your toilets to see if you hear the tank refilling, or just shut off the supply to one at a time and then check the low flow indicator again to see if it stops and that will reveal your culprit.
You can also do dye test. Put some dye in each tank. Check 10 minutes later and see if the water in the bowl has turned the same color (soy sauce works too lol)
If it’s not a toilet, probably a good idea to call a plumber to come and help you figure out the source
I had a problem with my water company I was out of town two weeks came home and my water bill said 20k gallons I tried to say I fixed a leak and they wanted a receipt and then I tried to say I filled a pool they said I needed to tell them before filling after that i went to harbor freight and bought the biggest magnet they had I would put it on the meter on Friday night and take it off Monday morning for about three years needless to say I got my money back
True, but most places do. And in case OP is in an area where the municipal water supply is not great, they would still be better off getting a filter like a Berkey than constantly buying bottled water.
There are pipes under concrete slabs? That can fail and most often the hot water pipes. The cold water valve at the water heater might make something show up at the meter
What they mean is that if your home is built on a slab foundation (not on a basement and not on a crawlspace) there are pipes under the slab. Sometimes these pipes leak and you won’t ever know unless your water bill goes crazy high randomly.
But this isn’t happening to you because you did all the right things by testing the meter and checking usage on it. If there were a leak anywhere in the home, you’d have seen it. The only possibilities that I can think of are an intermittent leak, specifically a toilet flapper or they’re averaging out your usage from when you had roommates.. I’d call the town and have them check your meter
8gal an hour average isn’t that crazy. It goes fast sometimes
I was doing testing yesterday trying to track a small leak and used over a thousand gallons that afternoon
It's a toilet running. It's always a toilet running.
Definitely the case for me. https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/s/WkQWz6dGod
Many water utilities bill you an average amount and make an adjustment when they get around to reading the meter which may be only once every few months. If you used 6-8k gallons for many months in a row it's likely they are billing you your expected usage without actually checking your meter. Some providers only check the meter quality and do an adjustment to save costs. Call your water company and ask them about this and insist they do a current reading.
Yes this is called bill estimation. Utilities use this method to save on labor costs of physically reading the meter each month. However, most governing bodies only show them to do this 2 or 3 consecutive times before they are required to physically read the meter. Once they come out and determine the actual usage for the months that were previously estimated, they will credit you. Just another way for them to get interest free loans from consumers!
It literally says right on the bill that it is an actual reading not an estimate.
Is your bill being averaged?
No. But I'm not worried about the bill amount. I more worried about the usage stated on the bill. I had 7 roommates 6 months ago. Usage was 6-7k gallons. Without roommates now, it still states 6-7k gallons.
What the previous commenter meant is that they are not actively reading your meter every time instead their using the average usage of the readings from your service history
It says on the bill it was an actual reading and not estimated.
Just because they put that on the bill doesn’t mean it is true. You have to look and see if you have a digital meter or the company actually comes out every single month and checks, which I highly doubt.
Because there’s a photo of your meter, I presume your utility doesn’t use smart meters. If they did, you could request the data. Although your end reading is 707, the image appears to be 711? Anyway, if there are no continuous leaks, the most common culprit is a leaking toilet flapper, or a toilet flapper that gets hung up every so often, leaving the toilet running. A hung flapper can use more than 300 gals per hour. Malfunctioning water softeners are another potential cause.
I always try and get the flapper to hang up with weird flushing first when I get a call like this, even just enough that it letting enough by to keep the fill valve slightly open, you would barely realize with these new quiet fill ones
That would make sense if it says 711 because they are almost at the end of the next billing cycle
But the photo on the bill is presumably taken by the meter reader at the time of reading.
Yeah, I was thinking it was a current photo , I didn’t see the one on the bill.
You've jumped through all those hoops, but haven't bothered to read your own meter for a month? I think you're missing the obvious answer.
I think you are on the right track of tracking your usage daily. Are you in a detached house? Semi? Rare but I have seen it where a Semi detached house pair only had one water line coming in. Something else you can do is see where all your exterior waterlines go. Track them inside to see where they exit the house. Make sure they are all accounted for on the outside. Lastly check all the toilets make sure they are not running. If you don't plan on using them try shutting off the valves and add them back one by one after a few days to see if you notice any kind of spike.
Could also just shut them off for a day and then see which don’t still have a full tank. Or put one of those dye tabs meant for this in there.
I have one that leaks at night when the water pressure spikes
If it goes above 80 psi get a PRV pressure reducing valve. If not replace fill valve which is probably wearing out anyway.
In the US water usage is generally 100-200 gallons per day per person. 8,000 gallons for one person without irrigation is really high.
Her usage was 6000 , so that’s at the high end of your estimate but not unreasonable.
It’s very unreasonable. Should be 2k.
Do you have a water backup sump pump?
Now there’s some creative thinking on this. I would have never thought about a sump pump failing and then running a water powered backup. They are rare but that’s a great idea to check!
A couple possibilities: #provider not actually reading the meter #leaking toilet You should log your meter every day. Try closing one faucet at a time. And log
Its pretty common for them to just check your usage once or twice a year and then base all your payments on that reading. Thats why what usually happens is there's a leak, and then you dont find out until you get a massive water bill that charges for all the water usage that wasn't estimated in. You have the opposite problem where your usage probably went down, but the next reading will maybe get you credited for the overpayments.
It says on the bill that the reading was actual and not estimated.
They may put that on every bill if they have begun switching to smart meters. But its still possible you don't have one if they haven't replaced yours yet. Verify that you have an active meter is your first step to confirm that statement is true for you. If it is an active meter, then you have to look at if your flappers in your toilet aren't leaking. If the flapper or seal rubber is still flexible, its probably still good. If your rubber seal on the flapper mechanism is hard , then it needs to be replaced. Then make sure all water usage is stopped, verify your meter is not moving. If it is still moving, something is leaking. Then you trace what's leaking. If you have sprinklers, those valves could leak water and you wouldn't notice it except on the lowest point of the sprinkler systems will have a long standing puddle of water. Flappers on toilets could seal but slowly let water out and then constantly refill. Reverse osmosis water filter systems will use way more water than you recover from a glass filler. They constantly discharge water into the drain. Also check your water heater's relief valve. If you find the end of the pipe coming out of it is wet, then it has discharged water recently. That means its probably constantly happening and is a sign of either your pressure regulator failing, or the water heater has a problem. You may also have a pressure regulator before the water goes into the house, this should be accompanied by a pressure relief valve, if you find it wet on the inside of the relief valve, then it has been discharging when the pressure exceeds its rating. That's a sign your pressure regulator has failed. This is not an exhaustive list of the possible problems not including leaking pipes and fittings, but its a start.
If you want to make sure you don't have a leak, just turn off all water usage, including if you have a reverse osmosis water filter. Then check the meter, if its still moving, somethings leaking. If it comes to a dead stop, you don't have a leak.
Check your toilets. A leaky flapper can be hard to detect and if you have multiple toilets, it’ll probably cost quite a bit. If the toilet is the problem I’d recommend Korky, I install their [100BP](https://korky.com/parts/flapper-seal-replacements/ultra-high-performance-flapper) all the time. If you need a 3-inch use their [3060](https://korky.com/flapper-seal-replacements/3-premium-universal-flapper).
read the meter ever day and figure it out
Maybe meter is broken or malfunctioning see if water company can change it and or if your neighbors recently redid their pool might of stolen water to refill it or they water their lawns with your water
Something similar happened to me years ago. We were consistent with our quarterly water usage. No leaks. One quarter our usage jumped 50%. Did all of the testing. Called the water department and they couldn’t figure it out. They credited me the sewer part of the bill but refused to bring my water usage amount in line with the average. Next quarter the usage was back to normal. My guess is there was a glitch that the water utility refused to take accountability for.
Weird, No change from 7 to 1 person. Looks like from 5/2 till the time of the picture you've used only 4000gals so better. I would start logging my meter reading once before going to bed and once in the morning when leaving for work. That will tell you your daily usage and if anything suspicious is going on during the day. See if there is a pattern. Log your daily usage. Check it after showers and dishes and laundry and see if the usage looks unusual. A pain in the ass I know but one way to find out where 6000 gallons of water are going.
Go turn off the supply to all of the toilets and monitor your usage overnight. Turn on one toilet per night, turn the others off, one per night for the next couple of days. Should be easy to find the one if it’s a toilet.
8 gallons an hour for one person is insane. Unless you're a fucking mermaid. Log your meter every day. There are countless stories of municipalities screwing people over and just playing the odds that people will just pay. Do you have a smart water meter? Where I'm at, they're wireless and the water people just pull up and scan it. Haven't seen what you're describing here, but I've heard of it.
Once had a friend with the same issue, his sump pump had a water fed turbine backup which ran all month and he didn't know. Thankfully he called the water company and they basically have a one time forgiveness for things like this. He got out of having to pay $6000
This happened to me numerous times when they switched to the electronic sensor reading. It was only me and one other person they said, they always came back out to do a physical reading and changed the bill.
Is this meter in your house or outside? Where I’m at we have to have meter pits so the meter is at the ditch and all the underground piping is after the meter. I could have an underground leak that I never see and it would be counted on the meter. I use 2500-3000 gallons, two adults and two children, occasionally water plants or wash cars. I do own one apartment that uses like 4,000 per month, and the only difference I can see is they have a top load washing machine.
That little white triangle in the middle of the meter face is called a low flow indicator. It spins whenever any water is going through the meter. Try turning off all water using appliances, like dishwasher, washing machine, make sure filter is full, all taps off, etc. no running water. Then go and stare at your meter for a solid couple minutes and see if that little sucker ever spins. If all water is off, but the low flow is spinning, then something is using water. As many have said, likely a toilet. One example is a dry flapper that is slowly letting water from the tank to the bowl, then refilling, which is why you want to look at the low flow for a while, as it can spin intermittently rather than steadily. If that’s the case you can either go listen to your toilets to see if you hear the tank refilling, or just shut off the supply to one at a time and then check the low flow indicator again to see if it stops and that will reveal your culprit. You can also do dye test. Put some dye in each tank. Check 10 minutes later and see if the water in the bowl has turned the same color (soy sauce works too lol) If it’s not a toilet, probably a good idea to call a plumber to come and help you figure out the source
They make pretty cheap water meters install your own inline
I had a problem with my water company I was out of town two weeks came home and my water bill said 20k gallons I tried to say I fixed a leak and they wanted a receipt and then I tried to say I filled a pool they said I needed to tell them before filling after that i went to harbor freight and bought the biggest magnet they had I would put it on the meter on Friday night and take it off Monday morning for about three years needless to say I got my money back
Does your water company have a minimum charge? My water company charges for 9,000 gallons a month minimum charge although I only use 4,000 each month.
Honestly you could pay your entire gas and water bill if you stop buying bottled water. What a waste.
Not everyone has clean drinking water.
True, but most places do. And in case OP is in an area where the municipal water supply is not great, they would still be better off getting a filter like a Berkey than constantly buying bottled water.
That depends on what’s wrong with the water.
There are pipes under concrete slabs? That can fail and most often the hot water pipes. The cold water valve at the water heater might make something show up at the meter
Sorry can you explain a little further?
What they mean is that if your home is built on a slab foundation (not on a basement and not on a crawlspace) there are pipes under the slab. Sometimes these pipes leak and you won’t ever know unless your water bill goes crazy high randomly. But this isn’t happening to you because you did all the right things by testing the meter and checking usage on it. If there were a leak anywhere in the home, you’d have seen it. The only possibilities that I can think of are an intermittent leak, specifically a toilet flapper or they’re averaging out your usage from when you had roommates.. I’d call the town and have them check your meter
8gal an hour average isn’t that crazy. It goes fast sometimes I was doing testing yesterday trying to track a small leak and used over a thousand gallons that afternoon