Actual meter usage over £750 for 2 adults & 1 child in Yorkshire - what's wrong??

craze4you

Hi,

Since buying the property in Hull (Yorkshire Water) and moving our actual metered water bills keep going up and up. It started with £25 per month, but now we are paying £61 per month DD, account is £217 in debit and projected usage over 12 months is 178 cubic meters. Actual meter reading is also higher than the estimate by about 50 cubic litres - what is going wrong???

Firstly, about the meter. It does not seem to move when everything is closed - so I assume no leaks. 3L milk carton does clock-up about 0.0031 in meter values on the front. Although, that was my third attempt: my wife tried to fill it up twice before as I was watching the meter and each time it registered about 0.0038. She did not overfill it by a litre, maybe 100-150ml, yes, but not a 800ml! That's an extra quater of the carton, it would not fit in!!! - should I look into that?

Secondly, our household has 2 adults and one child who is just under 2 years old. Both of us have a shower daily, the kid also gets a wash before going to bed. We obviously use the toilet normally, wash our hands and mainly cook our food. Once or twice a year my mum comes and lives with us for a couple of weeks.

We run small dishwasher daily (or maybe 8 times a week) on economy setting and the washing machine is used once every 2-3 days also on economy setting. Usually someone has a bath once a week instead of a shower.

Our friends who live down the road in a newly built house have 2 adults + 2 kids, their washing machine is always on as they say, there are always guest around who sometimes stay overnight, kids have regular baths and they always cook their food (and for the guests) themselves. They pay under £20 per month, do not think about water usage at all and are really surprised at my bills!

I do not think we are THAT high users of water. We are probably above average, but not twice. Average water bill in Hull is reported as £333 per year, I assume that is for 3 in the household, living normal life, cooking and not washing in the gym, at work or their friends. I am really shocked to our bills, just do not know where to start looking now.

bigblackdog

call the water board and ask them to check your meter , you could phone and tell them you have no water and they will send an inspector round within the hr i reckon, then tell him they must of misunderstood you on the phone and explain your problem , he will be only too happy to change your water meter and check for leaks etc , it will put your mind at rest if you know for certain that the water meter is working correctly and that there are no leaks , it does sound like something might be up

craze4you

Just to say, our gas & electric are about £100 capped per month and again, I would say we use a little more than an average user. Our friend's bill is around £150-£170 uncapped per month (the ones with guests). I think our water usage is roughly higher by the same amount as our gas&electric are. Its definatelly not double the average consumption (we are not swimmers), we live in a 2-bedroom terraced house! No garden pipes or car washing...

craze4you

Just filled-in the 3L milk carton again, as close to the level as I can:
start xxxx.3861.7 (the digit was changing nearer to 2 than 1)
end xxxx.3893
difference 31.3 readings

So 3 litres on a meter actually equal 3L and 130ml.
I then weighted that carton full and empty and the difference was 3.070kg. I remember 1L of water = 1kg so the meter is pretty close, although it is not on my side of rounding up...

craze4you

Just spoken to Yorkshire Water and they said that our average consumption during 2008 was about 23-24 c.m. per quarter. They said it was very consistent. But from February to April 2009 alone it registered as 109 cubic meters! Now it is around 55 cubic meters per quarter..

To get things right - is 24 cubic meters per quarter about right for a family of 3 where one is a toddler? Is this on the lower/average/higher side? Could it have been that they messed-up the readings and our values were estimated? Yorkshire water says that 24 cubic meter readings were actuals, not estimates... My wife & son usually go abroad for a couple of months per year, so for two months it's just me and I work 5 days a week as well as wash clothes not so often because of the uniform. I hardly cook for myself too and dishwasher runs 1-2 times a week.

We have not changed much how we wash from February 2009, if anything we are trying to save water now more than ever.. We did not have new appliances during that time, no work on the building.. I am totally puzzled.

DVardysShadow

Looks like the meter is OK. It might or might not be off by a few %, but not by enough to give rise to your issues.

When did you move in?
What sort of property is it?
What is the latest full quarter you have readings for [rather than estimates]?

craze4you

We moved in Jan 2008, terraced 2-bedroom property. It was about 24 cubic meters per quarter until April 2009. At that time from February 2009 to April 2009 we used 109 cubic meters according to actual readings from Yorkshire Water, not estimates.

Last meter reading was mid July = 813
Current reading = 912

So in 5 months we used 100 cubic meters, which is 20 per month or 60 per quarter. About double what we used to have according to Yorkshire Water.

Does this look too much for 3 people?

craze4you

Just a thought.
Our neighbours nicked out rubbish bin in february 2009. We caught them on hidden cctv and confrunted them with evidence once they blatently denied it (and even said they saw our bin while taking their's back). They did return it within 3 minutes of seeing the printout.
Later in spring they were evicted from the house, so I guess they already had a place to go and no black bin there. I do not want to point fingers, but our meter and all pipework run in the shared wall with them.

If it's not them I just cannot see what has changed from February to April this year.

DVardysShadow

craze4you wrote: »

Just a thought.
Our neighbours nicked out rubbish bin in february 2009. We caught them on hidden cctv and confrunted them with evidence once they blatently denied it (and even said they saw our bin while taking their's back). They did return it within 3 minutes of seeing the printout.
Later in spring they were evicted from the house, so I guess they already had a place to go and no black bin there. I do not want to point fingers, but our meter and all pipework run in the shared wall with them.

If it's not them I just cannot see what has changed from February to April this year.

This is why I asked about the type of premises. I think you need to get your present neighbours assistance and see whether there is any way that water could be drawn from your supply. Your meter looks to be reasonably accurate.

craze4you

DVardysShadow wrote: »

This is why I asked about the type of premises. I think you need to get your present neighbours assistance and see whether there is any way that water could be drawn from your supply. Your meter looks to be reasonably accurate.

Evicted house was bought by a developer that is currently renovating it. I will try to pop-in tomorrow to have a look. While it was on the market for sale we did go to have a look and did not see anything suspicious.

My main question - is usage of around 24 cubic meters per quarter too high or too low for 2 adults and 1 child?

DVardysShadow

craze4you wrote: »

... My main question - is usage of around 24 cubic meters per quarter too high or too low for 2 adults and 1 child?

Sounds normal.