Water consumption help

The story is I am 30, single and live alone in a 1300 Sq ft house.

I take two showers a day (about 15 min a piece if that) , brush my teeth twice daily and do laundry twice a week, dishes nightly.

Over the last few months my water bill has crept higher and higher. To the peak this month at 115.00. When I bought the house it was averaging around 35 a month. I have checked for leaks and none found. The water company is coming out next week to see if there is a ground leak although I don't sense they will find anything.

My reasoning for that is. They told me I could monitor my water consumption myself by keeping a log of when I leave and when I come home the gallons used on my meter.

Well today I left and my number was 215160 I came home after 5 hours with no known water running and the number was 215172 so 12 gallons used in 5 hours. Not a lot but still warrants the question where did my water go.

Also the red spinner was at a full stop still when I left and full stop still when I came home. I came in and flushed my toilet and ran outside to see the red spinner moving and a ticking in the meter but the number made no change.

I am under the assumption either my two dogs are taking very long showers while I'm not home. Or a neighbor is stealing water. What should I do to correct this.

Reason on neighbors is I caught them earlier this year running ext cords to my outside outlets when their power was cut off. And furthermore when I checked my meter this afternoon. I also checked theirs and they didn't have one. Their water appears to have been shut of as well.

 

Do you have a self flushing water softener ?

 

I would put some cameras up if you've already caught your neighbor stealing power. That's F'd up man.

Keep us posted - I gotta know how this turns out.

Good Luck!

 

No not needed in my area.

 

One way would be to shut off your outside faucets when you leave. May be easy enough or not as much, but if your meter doesn't change after doing that morning to night it would explain it.

 

This.

Also, shut your water off at the meter when you leave (pain in the ass, but you may only have to do it for a week or so).

Set up trailcams hidden around the property looking toward your hose bibs.

 

He should be able to just shut off the water at the main inside the house no ?

 

Depends on how his is set up.
Every home I've had has had a shutoff at the meter, and a gate valve on the exterior hose bib where the service entrance penetrates the wall.

No master valve inside the home... just the individual shutoffs on the risers.

So, if my neighbor is connecting to my hose bib to wash his car, and I shut the water off at the service entrance, when he turns the hose bib and nothing comes out, he just reaches a foot below it and opens the gate valve.

My parent's house, built in '52, that valve was actually in the planter next to the front door... not even in the back yard!

 

Huh , that's goofy

We usually have a shut off at the road ( municipal water shutoff ) and a shut off inside the house that controls all the water in the house including any hose bibs

 

I have a separate shutoff on each faucet for my outside. Both in the basement. One is easy to get, the other sucks to get in a crawlspace for. That said, well worth the time if you're being stolen from.

 

Probably a code thing so EMS workers can shut the water off to the home if a line breaks and they can't find the meter.
Most times, our meters are by the road, but they aren't always that obvious.
My meter is actually UNDER the dumpster for the building.
At one time, there was a set of Rockwell remote digital displays mounted above the dumpster, but they were disconnected long before I ever moved in.
The guy from the city hates reading our complex because he has to move dumpsters to read 4 of the 11 buildings.

A few years ago, we got a new reader and he complained, said we needed to relocate the dumpsters. We (HOA) told him to pound sand and cc'd the City Director of Public Works on the communication. We never heard another word from him.

 

Just got off the phone with my dad and he said there should be cut off valves under my house that cut off the supply going to those exterior spigots. So I went under the house. (thank God for a walk in crawlspace ) and walked around and checked each one of them and thankfully all three had cut off valves on them. So I shut them off and then locked my door leading to under my house. ( suspecting this might have been an issue before since there are two dead bolts, and a craftsman lock on this door) so I guess I will see. I still plan on contacting Local pd and the water company has already been made aware. They are scheduled to come out next monday morning to do a line test.

 

Oz you actually are set up like my house. While I was down under the house I noticed another cut off valve that was coming from the main water supply. I am assuming that will cut off all the water to my house. But I found the ones someone else had mentioned as well as my dad and shut off the water to my exterior spigots.

 

Seperate shut offs for exterior hose bibs makes sense if you don't have frost-free bibs

 

This is what I did. And honestly not that big of a pain in the ass since my crawl space is walk in for the complete length of the house. And honestly the only time I use my spigots on exterior is washing the truck and watering the yard in the spring and summer and fall. But that is literally 30 min on two times a week. With a low feed sprinkler system. I think it's rated the equivalent of 10 gallons in those 30 minutes.

 

So, if you think it's your neighbors, why shut off the water before trying to catch them in the act?

 

Do both.

Protect the asset, but set up trailcams to catch them trying.

 

That's how mine is

 

Mine isn't a walk-in so it does suck..haha