General / Off-Topic Critique my thinking

[Cotic]

I'm on a water meter for my property (a terraced house). My last 2 bills are a lot higher than normal, like 5 times more water usage than normal and yet my consumption/usage has not changed.

The water meter is outside in the pavement so I decided to do a leak test to try and isolate whether it was an external or internal leak. To test the external pipework I turned off the stopcock in the kitchen, this would mean water is only available in the external pipework.
The meter was not showing any signs of usage when I took the intial reading after turning the stopcock off (it has a little spinney indicator like the old electric meters).
3 hours later I decided to take another reading. It had increased from 105.00 to 105.27 indicating that 270 litres of water had been used at some point in those 3 hours. The meter was not showing any usage when I took the second reading.

If 270 litres of water is disappearing in that time it would indicate that there is rather substantial damage to the external pipe? If there is that much damage why is it not leaking 24/7? What the hell is going on?

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

If 270 litres of water is disappearing in that time it would indicate that there is rather substantial damage to the external pipe? If there is that much damage why is it not leaking 24/7? What the hell is going on?

If there is no visible leak, where could the water be going?
Could the meter be defective?

 

[Cotic]

If there is no visible leak, where could the water be going?
Could the meter be defective?

Wondered the same, there's no water popping up elsewhere.
I'm starting to wonder if the meter is defective, my 1st point of call is the water agency tomorrow morning.

The other thing I have noticed and this could be pure coincidence is that my bill increases coincide with my neighbour moving back in. She has a couple of children so does a ton of washing, bathing etc but the likelihood to 2 houses sharing the same supply seems very slim?

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

Wondered the same, there's no water popping up elsewhere.
I'm starting to wonder if the meter is defective, my 1st point of call is the water agency tomorrow morning.

The other thing I have noticed and this could be pure coincidence is that my bill increases coincide with my neighbour moving back in. She has a couple of children so does a ton of washing, bathing etc but the likelihood to 2 houses sharing the same supply seems very slim?

If there's a T connection to her supply after the main feed goes through your meter...

Ask to see her meter? Tell her your bill is sky high, and thst these water company gougers are probably going to do her next. If she has no meter, you are maybe on the right track..

Edit: electrical meter counters can be fouled by a strong magnet in close proximity. Like a neodymium one in an earbud reciever.

 

[sewerratuk]

It's not unknown for people to tap into a neighbours electricity supply so...

 

[Cotic]

If there's a T connection to her supply after the main feed goes through your meter...

Ask to see her meter? Tell her your bill is sky high, and thst these water company gougers are probably going to do her next. If she has no meter, you are maybe on the right track..

Edit: electrical meter counters can be fouled by a strong magnet in close proximity. Like a neodymium one in an earbud reciever.

They're quite old properties so it wouldn't surprise me if something like that had been done. The old boy who lived there wasn't very hygenic so his water usage would have been minimal which is why it would have flown under the radar, if that is the case.

Checked my meter again this morning and it hasn't increased at all overnight, so it does seem very coincidental that the "leak" only occurs in that late afternoon/early evening period 4.30PM-7.30PM.

If she is home today I'll ask her to run a tap and see if it affects my meter. The other thing I thought about doing in the meantime, was turning off my supply at the meter and only turning it on when I need it for a shower etc and seeing what the fallout from that is.

Whatever is happening obviously needs to stop. My average daily consumption prior to this was 35litres. Having 280 litres go through the meter in one evening is just insane for me and it goes without saying the costs have increased proportionally as well.

It's not unknown for people to tap into a neighbours electricity supply so...

The house was renovated prior to her moving in and some builders are renown for taking shortcuts.

 

[FrogsFriend]

It's not unusual for older houses to have 'looped' services, where one tee off the main then feeds multiple properties, as it didn't matter when supplies were un-metered. Utility company's records of service pipes are sketchy to say the least and they may have been unaware of the tee when they installed your meter. If you can test to show they're connected, the water company should be able to separate them and install a meter for next door. Of course, your neighbours may be in for a shock when they go from a fixed monthly tarriff to paying for their actual usage of 280 litres a day... but they probably won't realise that until they get their first bill.

 

[Cotic]

Final update. Turned off the water supply by the meter this morning. Got hold of water agency and explained it all. Meanwhile and unknown to me my neighbour had phoned the water agency to get an engineer out as she had no water. Oops!
Engineer confirms we are on a shared supply, something will happen to separate our supply or our bills and previous bills will get amended. What a laugh.

 

[starman]

Thames water has been knocking on doors because sewage has been flowing into the rain water drains so they do care in those cases.

This reminds me of a story when someone called in to compalin about loss of internet when the neighbour started pass wording there connection that had been piggybacking off!