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Originally Posted by mvbird
In case anyone is experiencing the same problem, we're continuing our story about our impossibly high water/sewer spike on our July water bill. And if you have the same problem, please 'pipe up'.
Some very helpful posters directed me to read the POA newsletters (Village Property Owners) and also many many pages of CDD tips on water savings.
Our spike in water usage is all indoor potable water, not irrigation. It would take a lot of toilet leaking and faucet dripping to get to nearly 78,000 gallons, but we have checked and nothing indoors or out seems to be leaking. There remains the worry that there could be a broken pipe somewhere.
This morning we called the Villages Utility Customer Service line 352-750-0000. They will send someone out to do a 'pressure & flow' test. We must sit tight for 3-5 days until a report comes in.
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You can read your own meter to see if water is flowing.
Out in your yard should be two boxes in the ground. For us, we have a box on each side of our property. One box is for irrigation and the other is for potable water. Inside each box are two meters, one for us and one for the neighbor on that particular side. I believe the boxes will be marked as irrigation or potable water though I can't remember what the marking is.
Be careful removing the cover as there are wires attached to it. The wires should be long enough to allow you to set the cover to the side, just be careful not to pull the wires. Also, watch for critters that might be hiding from the heat.
My meter has a cover over an LCD display. The display is normally off but when light hits it then it turns on. You don't know which meter is yours yet though you can guess that it's the one closest to your house. If neither meter is moving (incrementing) then no water is flowing which is a good indication that there no broken pipe.
Have someone turn a faucet on in your house and look at the meters again. This time you should see one moving - that one is yours. To be sure, turn the faucet off and see that it stops running.
The numbers on the meter should be close to the numbers on your bill. Of course, a few days have passed so they will be a little higher, but they should be close. With two people in our house we use about 50gals/day of potable water. Your 78,000gal month would be 2,600gals/day. It should be pretty easy to see the difference between those two numbers in the usage indicate by your meter.
The internet tells me a constantly running toilet can use up to 4,000gals/day. We had a small leak in a gasket that led to a bill for 25,000 gals (800gals/day) at our house. We were away at the time but it was small enough I'm not sure we would have noticed it. Your usage is three times what ours was so I imagine you would notice if a toilet was running that much.