Water usage spikes - Way to diagnose the problem
 

I have a separate water irrigation meter. Did some research into the high water usage issues many people seem to be having. I looked at my irrigation meter and saw it's a SENSUS SRII meter. This is an intelligent meter that saves a lot of usage logs. From the product description located at Positive Displacement Meters | SR II Water Meters | Sensus

The Sensus® Electronic Register+™ is an advanced electronic register with 120 days of hourly data logging with 30-day data pull intervals available. The Electronic Register+ has several available smart alarms so you can get alerts and address issues before they become more costly. These alarms include tampering, low battery, customer leak, reverse flow and high flow.

I highlighted about HOURLY readings being stored by the device. This is the key to figuring out what's happening.
If there is a sudden unexplained huge jump in monthly use, the meter can be queried to show exactly how much water was used every hour of every day for the month. From that information, it would be possible to analyze:
1. Continual consistent water use only at normal irrigation times (likely meaning the meter is reading properly, and no leaks)
2. A one time spike that triggered a single reading of thousands of gallons (a glitch that shows the meter is defective and that usage is not valid).
3. Continuous water flow (leak).
4. Water flow recorded randomly, when irrigation system is off (bad meter).
5. List of saved (or lack of any) internal alarms (clues to the cause of the problem).
6. Does the sum of hourly use history add up to the monthly total (bad meter if different).
7. Consistent usage that jumps to a different continual use (bad irrigation head, system piping leak).

If I can find this information, why has the villages not taken action to positively resolve this metering problem?
They could retrieve this data to diagnose problems with factual information. Show me this hourly data for any customer that thinks their bill is bogus, and I could probably narrow the reason in almost every case.

My meter is a Sensus but I don't recall which model. I wonder if all that logging was available 10 years ago when mine was purchased?

You're right, if the logs are available then they could be used to identify a continuous usage over a period of time or a one-time spike showing an hourly usage that might not even be physically possible.

If you irrigate twice a week, and the meter shows 1000, 1000, 25000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000 gallons used...
That is a bad reading.
Nobody should have to pay for that. Especially if you irrigate at 4am, and that huge number happened at 1pm.

We had a spike 50,000 gal over a 3day period. Water Co gave all kinds of reasons why it could have happened. All water was shut off at the wall valves. Would have been shut off but pool Co needs to be able to manually add a few gals if needed. We were gone and got the bill on our return. Pool Co records show them not at the house during the days the spike occurred. HAd plumber and leak specialist check. Result, no leaks found, no evidence of water leakage. Water Co flatly stated that if the meter said it ran, the problem cannot possibly be on their side. Even suggested that neighbors had stolen water. Our pool only holds @10,000 gal and running the hose for its initial fill took five days. 50k in 3 days is mission impossible. They (water co) stonewalling) say their meter checks out OK an their equip never fails, so it's our problem.
Sure hate having to deal with monopolies. The battle goes on.

If the water company pulled the hourly readings, and it showed 50000 gallons used in one hour of that 3 day period, I think your case would be open and shut.
Typical flow rates for fire trucks are 1000 to 2000 gallons per minute, but only when supplied by a hydrant with a 4" or larger connection.

Look at your meter. Find the model number. Mine says SENSUS top left, in green letters. Then says SRII/aS+ on the left of the LCD screen, with that text rotated 90deg CCW.

Flume works great for monitoring irrigation water:

Flume Water | Smart Home Water Monitor | Water Leak Detector

Options for home Water leak detection system:

Best Water Leak Detector Systems of 2020 - Consumer Reports

Meter bandits
 

If the florida psc is anything like the ones up northeast, you can demand a testing of the meter. Up north it was free and you could witness the test
good luck
post back how it works for you

You are right on the money! I did research on the Sensus SRII meter and found the same results. It is a very uphill battle dealing with the water department. I feel sorry for the customer service people taking the calls and having to give out scripted responses to cover up this major problem.

I installed one of these when we had a 30000+ gallon bill. We weren't full time at that point.

I narrowed down the excess usage in about 2 minutes. Zone 4 of my irrigation had a broken pipe.

The flume gives you minute by minute granularity on water usage.

Since then it has detected a leaking toilet and a hose bib that was left on by a landscaper who filled a buck and didn't close the valve tight.

I highly recommend them, most definitely if you aren't full time.

Is there not any oversight to CCDs utilities?

find a class action lawyer ?

Maker,
What is the age of your home? My home is 19 years old and I doubt all the homes south of 466 have the same brand and model number water meter.

It's newer, but smart meters have been around for a while. Find yours and look up its capabilities. Post the results.

So how does one pull the data?

Bluetooth?

Manual plug?

App needed?

need more information from any actual users. . I can check the web page,
but an actual user gives a better answer than sales and marketing

The Villages water department would have to pull the data. Requires special readers. One advantage is that they are in control of that data, and disputing the values would be admitting their meter is not correct.

77,890 gallons of water !
 

I read this post and had to write. We are feeling absolutely sick tonight. Our utility bill is $720.94 for the month of July.... Villages water called a few days ago to say we used 77,890 gallons of water. We live in Massachusetts, the 2 br house in Duval is occupied by 1 woman, no pool, and our property manager has been there and says there is no evidence of leaks. Now we are thinking about what to do... call a plumber or a lawyer or both. It's impossible. A leak of that size would fill the house from floor to ceiling. I was relieved to read your post but then at the end you write 'the battle goes on'... I don't know if I've got the strength for a fight. mvbird

We had a spike 50,000 gal over a 3day period. Water Co gave all kinds of reasons why it could have happened. All water was shut off at the wall valves. Would have been shut off but pool Co needs to be able to manually add a few gals if needed. We were gone and got the bill on our return. Pool Co records show them not at the house during the days the spike occurred. HAd plumber and leak specialist check. Result, no leaks found, no evidence of water leakage. Water Co flatly stated that if the meter said it ran, the problem cannot possibly be on their side. Even suggested that neighbors had stolen water. Our pool only holds @10,000 gal and running the hose for its initial fill took five days. 50k in 3 days is mission impossible. They (water co) stonewalling) say their meter checks out OK an their equip never fails, so it's our problem.
Sure hate having to deal with monopolies. The battle goes on.