Water Bill

[brtfreud]

Two days ago I recieved a message from the water company saying they wanted to talk to me about my high water bill. They said my water bill had a significant spike over the past month and wanted to see if it was a misreading because I have a meter on the inside of my house. The meter on the inside of the house says the same thing when I read it. They are coming by later this week to look at it, but I have a feeling I will be getting the shaft on this one like any good tax paying American does from these energy companies.

I have a 75 gallon tank and do 10-20gal water changes a week. I top off about 1-2 gallons a day. I have been following this schedule roughly for the past year and never had any really high water bills.

Here is the water quantity used over the past year:

Date Amount used total reading
9/5/2007 2810 52300
8/1/2007 570 49490
7/4/2007 440 48920
6/6/2007 810 48480
5/2/2007 740 47670
3/28/2007 460 46930
2/28/2007 535 46470
1/31/2007 480 45935
12/27/2006 605 45455
11/22/2006 650 44850
10/25/2006 560 44200
9/27/2006 460 43640


Does anyone have any ideas why I would get the spike during August. I didn't water my lawn or use any more water than usual.

Please help!!! The wife is ****ing mad and is threatening to end this expensive hobby.

 

[compjtc]

there's no way your tank took that much. I'm guessing you have a pipe under your house or something that broke.

Why not turn off everything and watch the meter and see if it's still going...?

 

[got2lb]

Might sound stupid but check your toilets and make sure they're not running constantly. Especially if there's one in the house you don't use very much. The float may be stuck. It will rack up a bill just like that pretty quick.

Only other thing may be a broken water line under your basement floor after the meter. I would think you'd have water in your basement though if that was the case.

Check every faucet for leaks, inside and outside the house.

You never know maybe your neighbors been watering there lawn off your faucet while you're at work!

Just a few ideas I had anyway

 

[bgreenlee]

I assume you are running a RO unit, if so make sure your valve is shutting off like it should.

You should be getting a 5:1 ratio of wasterroduct water on the RO. At 4 water changes at an average of 15 gallons and 45 gallons of top off water you should be looking at 105 gallons of RO, and roughly 500 gallons of waste water.

I think the normal family uses a lot more water flushing the toilet then they do making RO water.

 

[waverz]

So you used almost 3000 gallons of water in a month? I would be checking for leaks or maybe a toilet that is running constantly. Do you have and RODI unit that isn't working properly? Its' gotta be something.

Did your neighbors steal your water to fill their pool????

 

[AHDOnline]

Its nearly impossible for us to tell you where you are using your water, but some things that can help are

1> When did you start your tank
2> Did you recently install an R/O Unit
3> Look for wet spots around your house for a possible leak?

 

[waverz]

Wow, looks like we all posted the same thing at once....

 

[AHDOnline]

Lol.. nice. thats what happens when you have an overly popular forum..

 

[brtfreud]

Thanks guys for all the input. I wasn’t looking for the answer just some reassurance and feedback on possible reasons. It sucks arguing it isn’t your fish tank when 1) women are irrational 2) It is the largest visible consumer of water 3) women are irrational about money.

After talking with the wife she mentioned that the toilet was running when we came back from a week and a half vacation. I don’t know when it started because a buddy was watching the house and can’t remember if he used the restroom, but I think that is the problem. I have never experienced this type of water bill, but am assuming this is the culprit.

How do I determine if my RO/DI unit is functioning correctly. I want to be sure my RO/DI is not contributing to the problem.

What a Monday!

 

[Atticus]

I forget my Ro on all the time and never have a bill that high. I have also raised fish requiring constant use of my RO without a bill that high... The toilet stuck open is your most likely suspect. As for a broken line, you would know... It would have to be after the meter and it would be IN the house. You would tend to notice 3000 gallons of water just lying around... Another culprit is a lazy meter reader that guesses instead of driving to your house to check the meter. Energy companies actually allow you to read your own meter if your want and they will even average your usage through the year to keep you from noticing a huge spike in any single month. Maybe your water company just switched readers and you had someone actually get the real number which was estimated low for the past few months....

 

[bgreenlee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10739532#post10739532 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Atticus
I forget my Ro on all the time and never have a bill that high. I have also raised fish requiring constant use of my RO without a bill that high... The toilet stuck open is your most likely suspect. As for a broken line, you would know... It would have to be after the meter and it would be IN the house. You would tend to notice 3000 gallons of water just lying around... Another culprit is a lazy meter reader that guesses instead of driving to your house to check the meter. Energy companies actually allow you to read your own meter if your want and they will even average your usage through the year to keep you from noticing a huge spike in any single month. Maybe your water company just switched readers and you had someone actually get the real number which was estimated low for the past few months....

Good point Travis. Iowa American did not read mine for close to a year, and they were not guesstimating very well when they did finally do a reading. My bill was like $450, but I had been watering the hell out of the yard for quite some time.

 

[waverz]

I'll put $20 on the running toilet, you probably did the ole "everybody pee before we leave" thing and the toilet ran for a week and a half straight.

 

[leeweber85]

.

 

[Bebo77]

2810 gallons.. brother, you have a leak...

 

[jbrunken]

Even at 3000 Gallons, I doubt if your bill would be that high.

When I first installed my RO/DI, I got all worried when I realized how much waste water there was. I called the water company to try and find out how much it was going to cost me and I was actually shocked by how cheap it was. If I remember right, most of the cost were in service charges and the actual water wasn't that much. Only a few bucks for about 700 gallons.

3000 gallons doesn't really seem like that much to me. I would think people rack up that much all of the time watering thier lawn and don't think much of it.

Did they tell you how much your bill actually went up?

-JB

 

[Modemagic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10739958#post10739958 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bgreenlee
Good point Travis. Iowa American did not read mine for close to a year, and they were not guesstimating very well when they did finally do a reading. My bill was like $450, but I had been watering the hell out of the yard for quite some time.

Iowa American is about the most retarded excuse for a utility I've ever seen. My water meter has not worked for almost two and a half years now. It didn't work for a year and a half before they even bothered to tell me, and wanted me to dig up my yard and pay a plumber in January to fix the valve out there since the valve in my basement does not shut off completely. They wanted it done asap like it was a huge deal. Course it was, they were loosing money. I told them to get bent on that deal, no possible way I'm paying a guy in that weather to fix it. Still haven't fixed it and they haven't bothered to call me to reschedule the meter swap or even to see if I have the valve fixed yet. All that shows up on my bill is the standard 20 bucks for the fees and whatnot, but never any water usage!

 

[Atticus]

Now that is a sweet deal!!! You should be making water for the whole Davenport area club.... We could have car wash fund raisers with no water bill.... Huge swimming pool... Hot tub filling... How about an all summer slip and slide??? I would build a pond... No need for water changes or pumps, just throw the hose at the top of the waterfall and let her flow... Ah what fun ways to screw the water company...

 

[maro1]

brtfreud,

You may have a worse problem then the water bill if your wife reads the part you wrote about women being irrational

Maro1

 

[musty baby]

Mostly, but not completely off topic, we have a natural gas line run out to our farm to run grain dryers, and the gas company had put in a new meter but kept billing us using the wrong numbers (for a few years). They corrected their error and the next month we received a $17000 gas bill. I believe that was the year we started eating lots of ramen.

Back on topic: could just a toilet really run through that much water? I'm not skeptical, that's just hard to believe.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10741106#post10741106 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Atticus
How about an all summer slip and slide???

Slip'n'slide?

 

[brtfreud]

Maro1,

Thankfully she never looks or cares about the forum. At least I can act like I run things around my house.

I would argue she was being irrational at the time with talk of stopping my reef!! NEVER!!!


Everyone else:

Thanks for the interest and replies.

It has been established it was the running toilet. The water company will take about 60 bucks off the bill if I show I fixed it, which I already did.

I Will need to post a thread to sell some of my zoos, blue rics, branching hammer, and blue xenia later in the month to pay for my running toilet.