Can anyone with Plumbing/Water Meter knowledge tell me how this is possible?

These are my readings from my meter and from last month's bill. I started to read it during the month of May and this is what I got:
Water Meter Readings
April Bill reading straight from the office- 069500
May 2, 2011 reading was 069963, but that’s 468 gallons in one week, WTF ?
May 3, 2011 reading – 069968 (that’s 5 gallons in the ENTIRE day) At 6pm both the 2nd and 3rd I read.
May 15, 2011 reading – 070011 (that’s 43 gallons in 12 days:wow
May 26, 2011 reading was 070067, but that’s 56 more gallons in 11 days???)
That’s 572 gallons
WTF?????????

How is this possible, already have proved there are no leaks inside or outside this is a 1200 ft sq home. Besides leaks are consistent if nothing else!

reply to post by ldyserenity


I assume you are pretty consistant with your routine? No unexpected baths or long showers?

Seriously.. 572 gallons in about a month is pretty light water use, imo.

I do not have my bill handy at the moment but I do not think that it is measured in gallons, but in cubic feet.

is the reading from the office from an estimate?
if it is, it will say so somewhere on the bill but it might not be very obvious

Can you actually see the water meter yourself, the one that goes directly to your home, and record changes?

It might be different where you live, but we had a similar problem a while back.
Turns out they had a overall water meter for the whole street, and they just divided that by the number of houses.

That was weird, so we made them not do that any more. Everything has gone back to normal since then.

I know my story is probably pointless, but threads like these are more interesting to me than some of the other everyday stuff that appears on ATS

Originally posted by pityocamptes
Can you actually see the water meter yourself, the one that goes directly to your home, and record changes?

Yes I can see the actual meter. Also it is never an estimate.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

I assume you are pretty consistant with your routine? No unexpected baths or long showers?

Seriously.. 572 gallons in about a month is pretty light water use, imo.

edit on 5-26-2011 by rogerstigers because: (no reason given)

Average usage around heer tops 47 gallons (this is how the office explains it in gallons not cu ft or whatever). And the guy who fixes hot tubs and is always running his hose to fill them uses 47 gallons...572 is a lot for a mobile home...I never used that is a three story house lol.

Check and replace all your flappers in your toilets!

We just had a extraordinary high water bill and found out one of the flappers was cracked and water was constantly leaking.

The water in the bowl was always the same level and the tank was always full because it was slowly leaking out and slowly filling the tank back up.

Don't use that stuff you put in a toilet tank to keep it clean.

It deteriorates the rubber flapper.

There are flappers that the stuff does not deteriorate it but we decided to just not use it.

I know this may sound stupid but the flapper is the rubber seal at the bottom of the tank that when you flush the toilet a chain pulls it up and releases water in to the bowl.

You could check to see if it is leaking by putting the blue cleaner in the tank and without flushing watch to see if the water turns blue.

Originally posted by ldyserenity
These are my readings from my meter and from last month's bill. I started to read it during the month of May and this is what I got:
Water Meter Readings
April Bill reading straight from the office- 069500
May 2, 2011 reading was 069963, but that’s 468 gallons in one week, WTF

?
May 3, 2011 reading – 069968 (that’s 5 gallons in the ENTIRE day) At 6pm both the 2nd and 3rd I read.
May 15, 2011 reading – 070011 (that’s 43 gallons in 12 days:wow

May 26, 2011 reading was 070067, but that’s 56 more gallons in 11 days???)

That’s 572 gallons

WTF?????????

How is this possible, already have proved there are no leaks inside or outside this is a 1200 ft sq home. Besides leaks are consistent if nothing else!

Without knowing where you live, this happened in our town last year. There was a water main break down the street from us that spurted water for three days before the water company got it fixed. The next moth our water bill tripled, as did all of our neighbors. Then we discovered the water company office had "estimated" our water usage to compensate for the lost revenue. The ones who complained, I complained in writing to the water company, the mayor's office, and to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, got their fees adjusted. Everyone has a boss, and crap always runs downhill.

OK consider it this way, take a one gallon jug, fill it with water and dump it in your washer, fill up your washer with the jug counting how many gallons it takes to fill the washer ( we will use round numbers for an example) say it takes 10 gallons to fill the washer, times that by 2 because the washer fills up twice, once for the wash cycle once for the rinse cycle, then we will estimate about 2 gallons extra for the water that sprays during the spin cycle. There is 22 gallons right there, now times that by the amount of laundry you do, lets say 4 loads a week that's 88 gallons of water just for laundry alone. Now take in to consideration showers/ baths, take the jug fill the tub with water count your gallons, say it's 10 gallons for a bath, times that by the amount of baths you take lets say 7 ( one a day) that's another 70 gallons a week times that by 4 weeks 280 gallons to bath for a month, 368 gallons for bathing and laundry alone. Factor in washing dishes/ dish washer, water used for cleaning etc. Sometimes it looks like alot but if you break it down it's really not.

ETA: a gallon really isn't alot, if you think about the size of a one gallon milk container .......