Reading the water metre!

the_little_one

Hi All

Just recieved our 6 month water bill from Anglian Water and nearly choked on my breakfast when I saw the amount.....£633 !!

Bearing in mind there are 2 adults living in the house who both work full time we are convinced the high amount is due to a leak. Compared to ast bill our usage has increased by 40 m3 !

Last night I did a flow test on the metre, where I turned our red stop tap off and viewed the metre to see if it was still moving - the small dial (which normally spins rapidly when water is being used) was slowly moving round clockwise - does this indicate a small amount of water is being recorded.....i.e a leak?

Any help will be gratefully recieved!

Ephemera

Yes, if the needle on the dial is moving it indicates water is flowing through the meter.

Check all your taps are off and not dripping, check the toilet overflow and your loft tank if you have one. Make sure that you are happy that you cannot see any water leaking and then repeat the experiment - if you still see the dial moving then you COULD have a small leak somewhere in the house.

skiTTish

Sounds like a leak ,we only used 26m3 in 3 months and there is 4 of us .
Have you rang them and expressed a concern ,if you dispute the bill ,the sooner you contact them the better

the_little_one

skiTTish wrote: »

Sounds like a leak ,we only used 26m3 in 3 months and there is 4 of us .
Have you rang them and expressed a concern ,if you dispute the bill ,the sooner you contact them the better

Yep phoned them straight away and they advised we do the leak tests. I'm going to take a reading last thing tonight, then first thing in the morning to see if anything is recorded when I no-one is using any water, then phone them again with the results.

Cardew

Ephemera wrote: »

Yes, if the needle on the dial is moving it indicates water is flowing through the meter.

Check all your taps are off and not dripping, check the toilet overflow and your loft tank if you have one. Make sure that you are happy that you cannot see any water leaking and then repeat the experiment - if you still see the dial moving then you COULD have a small leak somewhere in the house.

That would only be the case if the meter was also in the house!!

Many(most?) meters are sited at the boundary of the property and this would indicate that a leak is in the pipe to the house.

Nobody seems to have picked up that the OP stated they had use 40m3 in the 6 months since the last bill. Well a couple would on average use 120m3 in a year, so there is no way 40m3 indicated a leak as they are using a lot less than average.(60m3)

In any case 40m3 with Anglian would cost around £120 not the £633 stated - so something is very wrong!!!!

Gothicfairy

They said it had increased by 40m3, not that the bill was for 40m3 for 6 months.

Flow test: Turn off stop tap and record reading, leave for several hours and record reading again..Movement then it is either a meter recording without flow (smart meters can do that) or an internal leak
Check toilets, over flow pipes, taps etc
Internal leaks are normally down to the customer but try your water company and see if they offer a one off allowance or something like that........but to get that the leak has to be repaired.

the_little_one

Gothicfairy wrote: »

They said it had increased by 40m3, not that the bill was for 40m3 for 6 months.

Correct - thanks Gothicfairy

Cardew

the_little_one wrote: »

Gothicfairy wrote: »

They said it had increased by 40m3, not that the bill was for 40m3 for 6 months.

Correct - thanks Gothicfairy

OK so if it had increased by 40m3, that is an extra £120 or so on your last bill.

So if this bill is £633 was your last bill over £500?

Are there any estimated meter readings in this or your previous bill?

deanos

Check your last bill wasnt estimated, if so it may have been under estimated and this bill is catchup, ive seen alot of large bills lately because of this.