Could ants have interfered with our water meter?

TomandBarbara

So annoyed typed a really really long message and the internet connection disspeared along with my message!:mad: So heres the shorter version....

Basically at the end of 2004 we got a bill from anglian water which was almost double its normal amount. Anglian Water came and looked at our meter, were going to replace it then decided they didnt need to. We tried taking it further but to no joy so we had to pay the 235 pound bill.

At the time we had an ants nest in the water thingy and we think the only logical explanation was that ants got into the meter and made the dial move. We had no change in living circumstances, were very very careful with water, no leaks and the amount they said we used was crazy going by their how much water it takes chart.

I stupidly didn't keep track of any of AWS correspondence, phone calls or anything but when I see our bill this month for 123.76 and you look at the bills since 2000 this one stands out a mile and I'm still so frustrated and angry about it. :mad:

deanos

The Ants would have not made the dial move they are sealed units and if they did get in they would have to be very strong to move the cogs inside, ants nests in chambers are a reguar occurance, if you have a bit of foam in the chamber then remove it as they love to make nests in the foam.

TomandBarbara

Damn thats put paid to that explanation then :mad: not that I can do anything about it now.....any ideas as to what could have happened?

deanos

Sounds strange, did you leave a tap running or had a leak inside, has one of your neighbours got a pond ?

mute_posting

what volume of water had the house (allegedly) used?

Popular opinion is that an average person users 50-60 m3 per year.

MP

TomandBarbara

deanos wrote: »

Sounds strange, did you leave a tap running or had a leak inside, has one of your neighbours got a pond ?

Its extremely strange though Anglian Water didn't seem to agree :mad: No taps running/leaking, no ponds...the amount of units more that we used was the equivalent of having about 4 baths and 4 showers a day, washing the car each day, and other things. It was a crazy amount.

TomandBarbara

mute_posting wrote: »

what volume of water had the house (allegedly) used?

Popular opinion is that an average person users 50-60 m3 per year.

MP

I can't remember off hand as I'm at work so haven't got the info to hand, but we are normally in the below average bracket and in that particular period only we jumped to the highest bracket available!

davetrousers

Any hosepipe use?

mute_posting

maybe stating the obvious but did you read the meter yourself both occasions, i.e. could earlier bills have been estimated low and the last bill in question was an actual read?

TomandBarbara

davetrousers wrote: »

Any hosepipe use?

Nope nothing. We are extremly careful with our water and everything which is why we so strongly believe that the reading was wrong. It might sound disgusting to some (!) but we don't flush our chain everytime we go to the loo (for a no1!) we turn taps off when brushing our teeth etc etc etc.

TomandBarbara

mute_posting wrote: »

maybe stating the obvious but did you read the meter yourself both occasions, i.e. could earlier bills have been estimated low and the last bill in question was an actual read?

No definitely not can't remember if we read them but the difference between the est and actual was huge compared to what it normally is.