$500.00 Month Water Bills
 

I’ve been reading on a neighborhood site about Villagers receiving excessive water bills recently and wonder if any TOTV residents are among those who have received such a bill. I personally have not. According to some the problem is faulty water meters that are affected by lightning that strikes in The Villages. Most, if not all, problems seem to be in the summer during lightning season. A number of residents appear to be frustrated with the utility company and have issues with trying to get a large bill resolved. Of course, occasionally a break in an irrigation line, plumbing issue or error in billing are major factors. My neighbor had an irrigation line come loose at a joint two years ago and water was bubbling up in his front yard. There are some previous Threads on excessive water bills but no recent ones.

Along the same lines of meter accuracy, has anyone actually verified their water meter accuracy? Any suggestions as to how check the accuracy?

I have. I use a Flume Wi-Fi water monitor that measures water use at the meter using non invasive means, tells me exactly how much water I am using,, real time. It gives alerts for leaks as well. If you want 10% off I have a coupon code for it (PM me). Full price is 199.00 at Amazon'.

I use one for irrigation, one for potable water. It was ten minute job to install. No pipe cutting, no plumber. If you can tie your shoes you have got this.

It happened to neighbor six houses down. If it happens to me I have some facts to recognize it immediately, as noted above.

I also have a Streamlabs water monitor. Available on line at Home Depot or Amazon for 199.00 it uses ultrasonic technology. It requires more technical ability than flume. It cannot be used for irrigation water. I would not buy this again now that Flume is available but it might be right for you.

One problem can be that the irrigation controller is set to run more than once on a given day or additional days. Espically for new lawns that get watered a lot for the first few weeks - resetting to a normal cycle may not be done correctly.

Are we talking about irrigation water or potable? I have a water softener that measures consumption.

Interesting, does it fell you if you have a leak? If your water has been running for an extensive time? Does it send you texts? All of these technological feats are simple to do it if is counting the gallons.

Some people don’t have clue how long to run irrigation system. Couple in my neighborhood run irrigation so long the most water runs down the street drain for nearly hour 3 or 4 days week. It’s waste of water and money. That would be the first place I would look HOW long each system runs and how much runoff.

Topspinmo I hear you as I have seen the same in my neighborhood. However, if you have your irrigation system programmed correctly and you have the water to the house turned off while on vacation up north and you use 60,000 gallons of water then what is the problem? You have the system checked inside and out for leaks by experts, and can’t find any leaks it almost has to be a water meter problem. In some cases the water utility checked the meters, and found a “faulty” meter. An adjustment in the bill was made. In other cases the meter was said to be okay by the water utility and the owner had to reluctantly pay the high water bill. Can a lightning strike close by cause a temporary surge in a meter and when checked the meter be deemed okay? That question is above my pay grade and my expertise.

It is not above my pay grade. The meter works by my the motion of water spinning a needle. The tip of the needle, for lack of a better explaination, has a magnet. Separate from the mechanical aspect of the meter a counter counts how many times the magnet passes by it. This count is what the meter reader is checking with the probe. Count equals gallons.

If somehow an electromagnetic force interferes with the count your Bill Will be off. A lightning strike is a massive electromagnetic force.

Our irrigation was off inside water off, used 48,000 gallons of water. No leaks in system, verification by 2 companies, we are checking into bill.

So, how does a water monitor play into this. Let's take two customers, both are up north both have the water shut off. neither has a pool, the neighbors do not have a pool. One has a monitor one does not. Both get a Bill for 60,000 gallons. One has water consumption data for a year, every single day, that matches every bill for the past year except this bill, the other has nothing. The monitor has national accreditation for accuracy. What would you do if you were receiving the complaint at the water utility?

There are irrigation controllers that install their own "meter" that tell you how many gallons are used. It is plumbed and will give you data for any leak down line. But why do that when you can get a read directly from the meter by Wi-Fi?

I just do not understand why people only think of this after a problem comes out. Every. Single. House. that I have owned has had a water leak. Pipe fitting burst, washing machine hose, ice maker, irrigation lines. They all have failed. No more, if I have a problem I will fix immediately and not post about it to strangers on the internet.

Does the Flume confirm that the meter supplied by the water company is accurately measuring your usage?

Yes in a micro sense and in a ounce sense. Let me explain. You flush your toilet in your 2011 home and it reads 1.2 or 1.3 gallons, spec is 1.28 gallons for that year home. You run your water at the sink and it gives you the flow at 1 gallon per minute, sinks have 1 GPM restrictor. You take some container that you are certain contains one gallon and fill it, One gallon is read.

There are other devices that do this, some are plumbed in, some include a Wi-Fi shut off valve, some require a subscription. None are cheaper, no other measures at the meter, no subscription cost. It is cheap because it is simple. It just counts the magnet passes on the meter. The software is simple.

Have you found any billing discrepancies to justify the cost Or is this just an “insurance policy”?

We've seen 20,000 gallon use on a monthly basis since we bought the house in March. Thing is, we've only actually occupied the house for around 1 week out of each of those months. The sprinkler system is set to go off twice weekly for 15 minutes each time, and has some kind of detection system to not turn on if it's currently raining when it's supposed to turn on.

I called the water company the first month I saw it happen and they insisted this was normal useage and all was well. Since the bill wasn't insanely high, we just kind of let it slide for a couple of months.

But I was still suspicious something might be wrong and checked with a neighbor, who told me his useage is around 8,000 gallons on average, and that's with him and his wife living there year 'round, and their adult son coming to visit often.

Once we're down there "permanent" I'll get it straightened out, but there's little I can do til I'm actually there to check the meter, and also see if somehow, someone else is tapping their water usage onto our meter.

"The Flume Smart Home Water Monitor straps around your home’s existing water meter"

What does the water company say when they see this strapped around their equipment?

...

I have never had a water leak in any of the houses that I have owned.

I see this as very low risk, and therefore not worth investing the kind of money that you suggest.

:ho: I've never had a fire...... spend alot more on fire insurance! :icon_wink:

The bottom line is they don't see it.

Your meter is not read by a human opening the box and reading numbers. S/he takes a stick with a wireless reader and passes it over the meter box. If S/he did open the box it would triple the time at each home. But let's say today, your box gets opened, next to the meter is flumes reader, it is black with a white on red sticker "DO NOT REMOVE".

It could happen. If the chance that it could occur bothers you then get a device that reads your pipe in your house at your water main. Streamlabs is one such product.

I did not buy it for that purpose, it is for leaks. I already caught a blown irrigation pipe. It was plainly visible when it was operating, it shot out for twelve feet. Home watch did notice, the neighbors did not call. I spotted it 850 miles away.

The damage from a potable water leak is real. Just because it hasn't happened to you does not change the risk.

I don't care if anyone gets the product, I posted to show what can be done. You are not helpless for leaks or bad bills.

I had a $200 water bill 2 months ago but it was my fault. Had 2 new TOTO toilets installed when we moved in that are so quiet you can't hear them running after they fill the tank after the flush. Jacobs visited our house twice to tell us our water bill was too high and something was wrong. Couldn't find a leak anywhere but knew it was inside because meter stopped spinning when main shutoff was off. Had fears of underground break. Finally went around turning off water lines 1 at a time until we found the culprit. Turned out toilet in M/BR was forever running but with total silence. I replaced the $15 flapper unit which we killed with bleach tablets in the tank and the mysterious water running stopped as did our spinning meter. Bill down under $40. The crazy "flapper" (actually called a TOWER) they use runs 100% silent when it leaks and there is no sound of water filling the tank. The replacement one was the "normal" flapper and you can hear when the tank is filling if it leaks.

Had the same thing happen only a renter did the right thing and tell me about in. No problem I had a repairman out.

Renters sent him away as it was "too inconvenient" to repair it. No reschedule. I got a service call bill for his trouble(fair). Renters let it leak until they left. No one bothered to tell me about the situation.

That is what convinced me to get a leak monitor.

We had a hose on washer burst about 15years ago up in Illinois while we were gone for just the day. Around $100,000 total unbelievable claim damage. Insurance paid most of it. Adjuster said they had more claims from water than fire. Who turns off the water to washer every time they leave their house? The washer was only 2 years old but apparently the rubber hoses they use aren’t all that great. Replace them with the metal type. Lesson learned.

I think in case of snowbird I would have the water shut off and see if you got bill for that month showing the high usage. I also think lightning screws up settings on irrigation systems. I set mine and If I don’t monitor it closely it’s back to default mode watering 6 times week ( 3 during morning and three during evening). I would think lightning strike could mess with meter if it was close enough to metal lines. If the lines are PVC I would think lightning would have hit right by the meter to give erroneous reading.

So you assume people only think of this after. Since our family does irrigation systems, we are WiFi connected. Cameras trigger video when certain heads are triggered, storage in cloud. There was a meter problem,. Took awhile to get it corrected.

I believe one system is equal to none, two is one and sadly humans can't be counted on.

So whether you use a WiFi irrigation controller and a water monitor as I do, or a camera and another automated means to verify you have this covered. That said almost no one thinks about this until there is an issue.

Your utility bill shows how much potable water and how much irrigation water is used.
I recently received a call from the water dept. asking why my irrigation usage had doubled.
Turns out my irrigation panel had a problem and was running the system too long.

I heard some homes experienced some irrigation panel damage from the summer lightning storms.

Phyn Plus

Phyn Plus Smart Water Assistant + Shutoff | Smart home leak detector

Phyn offers two products both can only be used inside the home as they are not waterproof and require power. Neither will work for a separate irrigation system which was the original topic of this thread.

Phyn, the base model for 299.00 uses ultrasonic technology similar to Streamlabs 199.00 product.

Phyn Plus is 699.00 and is pretty high tech. The unit used a mechanical flow detector in the pipe to measure water and includes a water shut off function. It must be plumbed in.

It is similar to Flo, by Moen. Flo is cheaper but requires a subscription of about 60.00/yr.

So it comes down to what you want. Any monitor can have a wifi, remotely controlled, water shut off valve added for about 160.00 but must be plumbed in.

Does one have to have internet connection in the home while gone in order to have the system you are advocating?

Yes.

I am not advocating, just informing. I care just as much about water leaking in your house as you do about mine.

For me, with a rental, internet 365 is part of a very large home check. I use it for other things besides monitoring water for leakage such as servicing renters and protecting my asset.

Example does home watch really check the home monthly? (no). Is someone in my home, it should align with the the lease. I have got that data. A renter is coming and needs a lock code? Check.

Is my ac capacitor about to fail? It is at my fingers as well. It the ice maker stuck? The list goes on.

This one interests me. What device will inform you of that or are you just watching temp delta?

It is discussed on sense.com, community forum. You are far better of replacing this part annually or bi-annually. I would not buy a 299.00 monitor to spot a bad 12.00 cap.

Agreed ... but your message seemed to say you remotely monitored your A/C cap and was curious how you did it. I replace mine yearly and the contactor every 2 years. I always keep one of each "in stock".

Being a former utility worker that investigated consumption complaints I doubt lightning would effect a water meter in a pit unless it was a direct strike. These meters are ran on a lithium battery. They usually just stop registering or go backwards if installed the wrong way. High consumption is most likely a leak. Toilets are usually the culprit.

I had a running toilet and used 15,000 gals of water over my normal usage...I was not convinced till I had it repaired and my bill went down to normal...didn't even hear it running...it was the guest bathroom which I don't hear normally I got up and went in the kitchen in the middle of the night and heard something.