Water Storage tank using large amounts of water

knightstyle

Another cause of increased water consumption is toilet ball valves not shuttin off and water constantly going into the toilet pan. Wiorth checking before paying for a plumber to come out.

Albermarle

OP - Some people leave the hot water setting for the boiler on all the time deliberately, so they always have a full tank of hot water at any time of day, as this suits them. So in itself this is not a big issue.

However you would only expect the boiler to actually run, after some hot water had actually been used, or occasionally to top the temperature up. Definitely not all the time.

Two possible reasons for this ( could be more).

1. The hot water is leaking out somewhere, cold water is replacing it in the tank and it needs heating.
2. As a previous poster said this could be the reason -

If 'constantly' really means constantly, I think this can happen if the water thermostat in the boiler is set to lower temperature than the HW cylinder thermostat. In this case the pump keeps pumping water through the cylinder indefinitely if HW heating is ON.

Section62

As a previous poster said this could be the reason -

If 'constantly' really means constantly, I think this can happen if the water thermostat in the boiler is set to lower temperature than the HW cylinder thermostat. In this case the pump keeps pumping water through the cylinder indefinitely if HW heating is ON.

Although the pump would run, the boiler should start to cycle on and off once the contents of the hot water cylinder have reached the same temperature as the primary flow (the boiler thermostat). When the hot water cylinder reaches the boiler thermostat setting then the heat transfer from the primary circuit to the cylinder contents will be minimal and therefore the return to the boiler will be virtually the same temperature as the boiler is set to heat to. The boiler should then be off until the return temperature drops below the threshold required to fire up again.

We won't be able to figure this out before knowing what exactly is running all the time.

Annabee

I just had the plumber and his supervisor visit and they have talked me round that it is not likely to be anything they did wrong, so I'll probably just have to pay the bill. He did set the hot water to be on timed though, not on constantly, which might result in a bit lower usage, hopefully?

He said its possible that there may be an external leak and they could come and check that but it is chargeable. Every house is different and that's true I suppose. And as its not a combi boiler the system is capable of supplying more water and has a greater flow rate?

Another thing that I asked them about was the toilets, they checked them. There is a very weak flush and you have to flush twice every time. They said that could account for a lot of the usage.

So looks like they've done nothing wrong. I am still not happy about the water bills, but what can I do? Maybe later on we could get someone to do the check for leaks.

Bigphil1474

When we moved into our current house the toilet had a very weak flush, and it also took ages to refill. We just got the plumber to change some of the gubbings, easy fix from what i can remember. Can't have cost more than £80. Saves a lot of flushes on the number 2's.

I think our flush use about 7 or 8 litres of water give or take, but a unit for your water meter is about 1,000 litres, so that's a lot of flushes to make a big difference.

We also used to have a system boiler with a water tank in the old house - we didn't have a meter then so couldn't say what water usage was like. It was only on for an hour in the morning to give hot water all day. Definitely a better flow rate, but we would only use the same amount of water to fill a bowl.

WIAWSNB

A 12-year old house will/should have a water meter, and to take a couple of readings when there is no water use - say overnight - should highlight any loss.

Are there suitable times - at least a whole day, ideally more - when you could take before and after readings, Annabee? Get the meter cover clean and easy to open. Nip out when the very last use of water has occurred, and take a photo of the reading. And ditto on return.

Overnight might do this, but it depends on the level of possible water 'loss'.

Alfrescodave

Does your current water bill start from the day you moved in (it should do ) or does it include any use prior to your arrival.? Usually water bills are 6 monthly unless you have a "smart" water meter.

ComicGeek

If it's a modern water meter, then there should be a small dial in the centre of the meter face. It spins when water is passing through - the faster it spins, the higher the flow rate.

Make sure that no one runs the tap or flushes the toilet, and then check the dial. If it's not moving, then there is no water leak. If it's moving, then there is a leak somewhere.

Lots of videos online about how to check the meter. You can also shutoff the internal stopcock to see if it's an external leak between the meter and the house, or internal.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866765#Comment_81866765

Ours is a newish one and apparently can be read by a water company van driving past. Is that a smart meter?

In any case we get a bill every 6 months .

Alfrescodave

That sounds like a standard water meter.A smart one constantly feeds back info to the water company which could have identied any changes in consumption. Looks like you're going to have do your own visual checks as others have mentioned.

I'm still interested in knowing what actual time period is covered by your "high" water consumption. You say you've only been in the house for 3 months but have received a 6 monthly bill (?)