high water useage - combi bolier to blame?

jaydani

Hi,

We had a problem with our combi boiler last year which meant that water leaked from the overflow. This was fixed after several months. Six months later our water bill had gone up as our useage had increased.

I told anglian Water about the leak but they said that since it had been fixed our useage was still high. Looking at previous bills useage has gone up since May 2005 but i can't think why. We are a 2 adult 2 children family who have a dishwasher, showers & washing machine but nothing (apart from the combi boiler prob) has changed.

Is it possible a combi boiler could use too much water but otherwise work OK? It is no longer overflowing. Any advice would be appreciated

Cardew

How much higher is your useage?

A leak somewhere perhaps. Depending where meter is situated could it be between meter and house.

Look at meter when no water is being used and see if it is moving?

deanos

Turn off the stop tap inside and then look at the meter outside, if it is spinning (look at the small round dial in the middle of the meter) then you have a leak between the meter and internal stoptap.

What sort of consumption are you using in cubic meters ?

jaydani

Thanks for replying - sorry for taking so long to get back but had internet probs.

looking back as far as I can we were using 0.50 units per day on average Nov 04 to may 05 & our monthly DDM was £36. Now on ave using 0.66 units & they want £48 to pay off some of the debt.

had a look at the meter today dial stops when water is cut off completely but when it is back on but nothing in use (no taps dishwasher etc) it moves slowly - checked my neighbours & his was doing the same so seems normal.

Had a chat with neighbours & friends & they think nearly £50 a month is mad. Another 4 person family I know with similar use says £25 to £30 would be more like it.

Just wonder if I have a faulty appliance?

withabix

Two adults and (normally) no kids in our house. £25-£28 per month water bill.

Dishwashers use a lot of water, so do power showers if you have one of those.

Do any of your toilets pass water when not flushing? If so you could be wasting loads of water - especially if you have a 'push button' toilet, as the overflow will go through the toilet pan and not cascade out of a pipe through your wall.

Do you have dripping taps? Drips add up!

How many times per week do you use the shower, bath, washing machine and dishwasher?

oldwiring

If you have a vakve type cistern, this ,ight interest you
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=193429

deanos

If the middle wheel is turning then something is using water in your property, its should not move if nothing is in use.

Cardew

jaydani wrote:

Thanks for replying - sorry for taking so long to get back but had internet probs.

looking back as far as I can we were using 0.50 units per day on average Nov 04 to may 05 & our monthly DDM was £36. Now on ave using 0.66 units & they want £48 to pay off some of the debt.

had a look at the meter today dial stops when water is cut off completely but when it is back on but nothing in use (no taps dishwasher etc) it moves slowly - checked my neighbours & his was doing the same so seems normal.

Had a chat with neighbours & friends & they think nearly £50 a month is mad. Another 4 person family I know with similar use says £25 to £30 would be more like it.

Just wonder if I have a faulty appliance?

The average consumption per person is 0.15 units(Cubic Metres) per person per day; for 4 in the house 0.6 units. So 0.66 is 10% above average.

Was your monthly DD of £36 for 12 payments in the year?(£432pa) - some companies only take 9 or 10 payments in a year. £432 for 0.5 units per day(in 2005) seems very high, although water charges to vary accross the country. Likewise is the £48 DD for 12 months?

The main thing, as stated above, is that your water meter dial should not move at all if you are not using anything. Toilets would be the main suspect for a leak.

jaydani

I checked my toilet & there is water constantly dripping into the cistern & into the pan!

Will check the rest of the house now! Thanks for the advice!

rev229

We had a similar problem with anglian water, we had a water leak faulty meter pre leak monthly DD 33.00 Post leak 66.00 we kept ringing them to ask why we had doubled our usage despite using trying to use less water and taking metre reading 7 days apart. We to are a family of four but neighbours who have 3&4 kids were paying less. When we got our last bill we rang and they said we were being overchanged! Something to do with having the total amount of the leakage refunded and this included DD payments while leak was being fixed, took long time for leak to be fixed!! So therefor we hadn't paid those months and then had to pay catch-up. The DD was reduced to 48.00 and will need to be reduced again as it is still to much according to AW. A bit confusing but try ringing them again it has taken us nearly a year to have our bill reduced. Good luck!