[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by billethkid

Over the past two or three years we have been having continuing spikes in our potable water. A couple of them did turn out to be leaks in outdoor faucets and a biggie was the leaking auto fill on the pool.

With those behind us we are still getting erratic usage bills. The water company says the average for two people runs about 3700 gallons per month.

Our Jan/Feb 2013 billing was over 9000 gallons!!!
What I also find as odd is when we are gone for extended periods of time is when our bulling comes in around 3000 gallons with nobody here.

I pull the cover off the meter in the yard from time to time to check to see if the meter is running when everything in the house is turned off. Meter verifies there is no flow at the time I am looking at it. So if there were an ongoing leak it would show some flow, hence I have ruled out possible non observable leaks.

I have been through the rigot in the past of calling the water company; that is how we found the leaking auto fill problem. However, since then they have been here as well confirming that when everything in the house is turned of there is no flow.

Before I enter into another round with them, I am checking with neighbors as well as here on TOTV.

What is your experience with water billing. Is the 3700 gallons your average? If higher do you know why?

Any commentary is appreciated.

btk

The 3700 gallons sounds pretty consistent with our usage and we do have a 11,700 gallon pool with auto fill, which of course spiked our usage for the month the pool was filled.

Anyway, when I was reading pool literature (possibly online) a while back, I read that the way to check for leaks is to place some kind of container in the pool step filled to the same level as the pool. Check back a day or two to see if the pool level has dropped and measure the difference of the drop. The auto fill might affect the measurement, but I really don't know that much about the process. If you haven't had this kind of test, you may want to contact your pool people for more information on that.

One final note... when you mentioned the 9000 gallons of water usage, I couldn't help wonder what the cost of the scotch usage that was mixed with it was!