What is the meter saying?

gem4

Interesting site Ken thanks. South staffs are water only, but they reckon on an average bill of £109 according to that site. The way mine is going I'm heading for nearly £300!!
I had a horrible thought reading some of the other threads.....what if my housing assn has shared water points out on the roadside and I'm paying for 3 or 4 other houses in the terrace too...OMG!!!!
Just because my water went off when Integra turned one of the taps off doesnt necessarily mean that the other houses stayed on........hmmm.

Mikeyorks

gem4 wrote:

She said turning the stop tap off is no good....I need to read the meter before I leave the house for at least 4 hours, then read it again when I come back. She said the numbers shouldnt have moved at all.

Doesn't excuse her condescending manner - but her advice is spot on. They fit the meter (presume it's internal) as soon after the stopcock as possible. So turning off the stopcock proves nothing. (Unless the stopcock's in the road - and the meter's in the house? Which your post does not sound like.)

If you read the meter before you go out - and don't leave any water devices on - the meter shouldn't move. If it does - you've a leak somewhere.

If it doesn't move - your meters faulty! As you are recording too much. They're not infallible and particularly, if like mine, it was initially fitted upside down. Used 85 years worth of water overnight - as the dial went back to '9999'. As both joints were also leaking - not too impressed.

PS

Apologies - just noticed on the bottom of one of your other posts that the meter is outside! But the South staffs advice still holds good. But it does add the extra possibility you're funding someone else's water.

Cardew

This is getting confusing!

As I understand there is a long stretch of path from the road where the meter is situated to the house.

As I understand it the "stop tap"(as the OP calls it) is in the house i.e. not a 'stop !!!!' situated by the meter.

If the 'stop tap' in the house is fully turned off, and the meter dial still turns, it indicates a leak; or possibly - but unlikely - supplying another house?

If the OP is right that the 'stop tap' is not shutting off the water fully, and the meter still turns when she is using no water, it still indicates a leak. However it opens up the possibility that a toilet cistern is leaking into the bowl.

PS it appears that stopcock's is OK but not my spelling above - the swear filter strikes

oldwiring

I was a little sceptical about the meter's being set up so that it read the supply for a number of properties until I read

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2006/07/19/nxwater19.xml

How the devil they're going to sort that one? I think I would resist any estimate they made as too high, how could they prove it wasn't.

Possibly the link will enable you to resist any suggestions of ' it couldn't happen', if you dare to suggest, that there may have been a water-!!!!-up

gem4

Thanks for that oldwiring. I have a sneaky suspicion this is the case with me.
Sorry for the confusion about stop taps guys.
Just to recap.

House is housing association rented.
Meter installed in the street about 30 metres from my house.
My own stop tap inside house
Ten houses in our 'square' all with external stop taps by the road but I can only see 3 inspection covers on the pavement.
No internal drips or running cisterns, overflows etc
Very low usage, only self and daughter, work part time..daughter's a student.

I'm getting paranoid with these readings. No leak can surely be that big. Yesterday I was at work all day. I read the meter before I left at 8.15am and asked my daughter to keep a tally record of when she flushed or used a tap.
Result.....3 toilet flushes, one shower (not powershower) 6 short tap use.
Read meter when I came home at 6pm. Meter reading shows 580 litres used. Assuming here that as 1 cumtr is 1000 litres 0.58 is 580 litres.
How can I use that volume when I'm not in???

I rang Integra yesterday and after them trying to tell me there should be 5 digits in the black area on my meter, not 4, they agreed that something is not right and are sending out an engineer tomorrow afternoon to have a look.

I've not heard back from the housing association who I emailed two days ago asking them to look at the plans to see if I was on a shared pipe from the pavement. :rolleyes:
I'll keep you updated incase anyone else is having similar problems. I appreciate your time and tips.

gem4

Hi guys, here's the update.
Integra have just been, turned off the water at the meter in the road. My water went off.........unfortunately so did the neighbours.
He uses twice as much as me, larger family, disabled wife, huge water consumption. My estimate over the 5 weeks would have been approx 10 cu mtrs and his would have been 20.
The meter has been fitted on a joint supply....thank god I asked them to come out. While we were out last night we managed to run up 600 litres according to the meter..:rotfl:
That just about convinced me and thankfully the engineer too. How glad I am I've read my meter at least twice a day and recorded every single use of taps etc in the last week, tiresome though it was.

They said its impractical to put a meter inside the house as they would have to get thru the back gate to read it......and its a new fitted kitchen.......they are going to assess me.
Next question......see new thread

Cardew

A result!

Let us know what happens.

gem4

Cardew wrote:

A result!

Let us know what happens.

Sorry to raise this from the grave again but here is the result.

They refunded me £92 that I had overpaid on my rateable DD up until the meter fitting date and set up a new DD for £25.
Integra came and took the wrongly placed meter out.
South Staffs phoned me to say that the new direct debit had been cancelled and water that was registered thru the meter was written off.
Had a 'metered' bill of £0.00 :j
Phoned them yesterday to see when I would get a new bill.
Integra haven't updated S.Staffs as to the assessment charge so they are chasing them up.
Total time from original meter fitting on 15th June - 3 mths, just waiting for a new assessed bill now.

Cardew

So far so good! At least they are taking responsibilty for their error.

Hope the assessed bill is reasonable.

It is pretty certain you aren't the only one that has had this happen to them. I wonder how many just pay their bill without knowing of the problem.