Unusual High Water Useage

saintscouple

Any advice before the water company phone me Wednesday?

I had a letter a couple of weeks a go to say there was an unusual high level of water useage.
We are a couple with no bath, no dishwasher, no outside tap, and no plants to water. We have a thermostatic shower, eco washing machine - apart from that toilet, and kitchen and bathroom taps are our only water usage. No appliances have been recently changed. We live in a small 2 bed mid terrace. There is no visible signs of any leaks, and toilet is not constantly filling, or over filling. No drips on any taps or shower.

As soon as i received the letter i phoned the water company and they sent someone round today to check for leaks - he didn't attend for much longer than 5 minutes, and never came in the house - simply asked me to turn on a cold water tap so he could correctly identify the water meter, asked me to turn it off... waited about 5 mins, and said meter reading hasn't moved so there is no fault or leak.

Water company is phoning me Wednesday to discuss engineers report.

I have now sat down and accessed my account online and noted precious meter readings, which are all actual -

05 Feb 2019 - 1485 - 169
30 July 2018 - 1316 - 42
02 Feb 2018 - 1274 - 53
28 July 2017 - 1221

The difference in readings, usage for that period is on the right. There haven't been any changes in appliances or the way we behave in this whole time. I simply cannot understand how the meter reading can be correct to have jumped so high in the last 6 months.

I have checked the current meter reading stated is what the meter states myself.

Has anyone got any advice please on how to proceed with the water company, as I fear they will phone Wednesday and simply say engineer report say no leak, so we owe the money.... over 3 times what is our normal usage!!

I'm not convinced the engineer did all he could to check for leaks or if the meter is faulty, could / should he have done more? As one of these must be the reason for such a high reading, unless it could be due to something else?

Thank you

Cardew

simply asked me to turn on a cold water tap so he could correctly identify the water meter, asked me to turn it off.

Have you checked the meter serial number is the same on all bills?


The discrepancy is around 120m3 - 120,000 litres! about 26 litres an hour for over 6 months.


In the 18 days since the last meter reading of 1485 on 05 Feb how much has it changed?

saintscouple

Hi Cardew,

Just checked and meter serial number is the same on all the bills.

Just done a meter reading 23 Feb and shows 1494, thus in 18 days a difference of 9

Coincidentally, when i done the reading, no appliances were on and meter needle wasn't moving.

Cardew

The UK average for a couple is around 100-110m3 pa.(approx 300litres a day) So each day for 18 days you have used 500litres (0.5m3). That is approx 50% higher than your July 2017 to July 2018 consumption



On the other hand it is way below your July 2018 to Feb 2019 consumption of approx 900 litres per day.


It sounds like you could have a faulty meter. If you have a 5 or 10 litre container, you can accurately run off say 100 litres and check that the red(fractional) numbers on the meter increase by 0.1m3. See below - some have 3 red digits.

saintscouple

Thank you Cardew, wish the engineer had thought to test this!

I don't have a container that size, though we have a 4L one that will be empty in a few days, probably after they call Wednesday, so will propose to them that one of us does this test.

saintscouple

An update - Rang Thames Water to discuss the result of the engineer visit to which they have recorded as no fault.

I advised as you noted Cardew, to which the reply was they can have the meter swapped out and tested. However, should the result of the test come back as the meter is recording correctly, I will be charged £70 + vat..... something we cannot afford, as we are living on a shoe-string as it is.

Thus they said they will request another meter in 2 weeks time and will call me to discuss the reads when they have them.

I will refrain from drawing the 100 litres out now as don't want to jeopardise the future meter read. However curiosity got the better of me and i done another meter read myself, only 2 days from the last, and in that time there has been 3 showers, and the washing machine on twice - along with normal toilet flushes, bathroom/kitchen tap usage -

26 Feb 2019 - 1496 - diff 2
23 Feb 2019 - 1494 - diff 9
05 Feb 2019 - 1485 - diff 169
30 July 2018 - 1316 - diff 43
02 Feb 2018 - 1274 - diff 53
28 July 2017 - 1221 - diff 81
02 Feb 2017 - 1140 - diff 59
25 July 2016 - 1081

Again, I stress we haven't had any new or additional appliances, and our habits have remained the same - so with no leak, it surely has to be a faulty meter?

saintscouple

Think i may have proof there is infact a leak.

Googled detecting water leak and the Anglian water website suggest turning water off at stopcock - take a read, wait 3 hours, take another read and see if there is a difference.

I did this, but only waiting an hour and 45 mins and the smallest red dial has moved a notch - thus i presume there is a small leak - which when water is flowing on demand i.e washing machine or toilet flush, may leak at a greater flow.

Anyhow, phoned Thames Water how really didn't seem interested - said they will continue with another water read, and once the result comes back and it again shows a high usage, they will arrange another engineer visit to investigate! I asked if they would look the photos of the meter reads i done, to which they they said i can send them over if i wish and gave me an email address... they really don't seem bothered.

Here's the photos -

11:00am


12.45pm

Takmon

saintscouple wrote: »

Think i may have proof there is infact a leak.

Googled detecting water leak and the Anglian water website suggest turning water off at stopcock - take a read, wait 3 hours, take another read and see if there is a difference.

I did this, but only waiting an hour and 45 mins and the smallest red dial has moved a notch - thus i presume there is a small leak - which when water is flowing on demand i.e washing machine or toilet flush, may leak at a greater flow.

Anyhow, phoned Thames Water how really didn't seem interested - said they will continue with another water read, and once the result comes back and it again shows a high usage, they will arrange another engineer visit to investigate! I asked if they would look the photos of the meter reads i done, to which they they said i can send them over if i wish and gave me an email address... they really don't seem bothered.

Here's the photos -

11:00am


12.45pm

At that rate it would be leaking at 100 litres a year which would mean it would take 10 years for the meter to move 1 units.

When your using taps etc the leak won't increase, if anything it will decrease due to reduced pressure in the pipe. Like when you run two taps at once it doesn't increase the flow of the other tap.

saintscouple

Thames Water since phoned back after receiving the photo's and said that dial represents pressure, not flow, so doesn't indicate a leak. They are continuing with arranging for a 2nd meter read.
Meanwhile i have phoned our housing association, and they are coming out Tuesday next week to check everything from the external stopcock to internal stopcock, and look for signs of internal leaks.

Takmon

saintscouple wrote: »

Thames Water since phoned back after receiving the photo's and said that dial represents pressure, not flow, so doesn't indicate a leak. They are continuing with arranging for a 2nd meter read.
Meanwhile i have phoned our housing association, and they are coming out Tuesday next week to check everything from the external stopcock to internal stopcock, and look for signs of internal leaks.

That's not true the dial is clearly marked up that it is showing x0.0001 per unit of flow and that is certainly not a pressure reading. Although, they probably meant a variation in pressure may change the reading on that dial without any water being used.
But as it is such a small change it's still nothing to worry about.

saintscouple

The worry is why are our meter reading suddenly nearly 4 times what they were, when our habits haven't changed. Hopefully the housing association visit will identify the issue(s) and they can be quickly resolved. As it stands Thames Water are saying we are responsible for the high water usage, thus have to pay for it.