Excessive water readings?

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nopro

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Hi to all, Am a newbie here and have a problem that is baffling me. Am not in the business and I am just a retired homeowner with just average plumbing knowledge. My home is just shy of 2 1/2 years old. It is a 2,400 sq.ft. ranch built on slab. Am also on sewer. Is just my wife and I living here. Problem: Latest water bill shows excessive usage for this time of year. Normally around 4-5 CCF, Jumped to 11 CCF. Called water dept. They looked at usage and it showed strange things like high water usage at strange hours like from midnight to 4 or 5 a.m. and showing usage just about every hour of the day and night. They sent an employee out. We went around to toilets and checked for any running or leaks. Found none. After he left, I did dye test for 45 minutes on each toilet and found no leakage. No dripping faucets anywhere. All outside hose bibs were turned off early November as well as sprinkler system flushed and turned off at main control near water meter. Have walked yard and around exterior of house. No leaks anywhere outside. No leaks through slab. Have never heard any ghost flushings day or night or any water running when it shouldn't be. Checked PRV and it was set way too high at 95. Have no idea why the construction plumbers set it that high. Reduced it myself to just above 50 and noticed that the lock nut had never been secured and was just floating as well. Water tech had no explanation for problem. I asked about meter being defective. He said no and to his knowledge they had never had a defective one. They service at least 200 thousand residential customers and thousands of businesses. Have a hard time believing they've never had a defective meter. My question is this. Could the excessive usage be because of the high PRV pressure and how is that possible? The water has to be going somewhere and no leakage points have been found. I cannot get any hourly tracking info until tomorrow when water dept. reopens. This is driving me nuts and any help or feedback would be extremely welcomed. Thanks in advance to all.
 
Hello nopro.


lets first determine if you are using water

try this, turn off everything in the house..water.

go outside and look at your meter...on the face it has a little red triangle, if that triangle is moving, you are using water

it it is not moving, you are not

this badger has a wheel not a triangle
120491_1_.jpg
 
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Hi Frodo, Went outside and checked meter. My meter has no red triangle. Stayed and watched for a couple of minutes. no change in any digits.
 
Frodo my meter is a different brand and is digital instead of analog. Forgot to note make. Can get that if that would tell you anything.
 
My apologies Frodo. Did not see your last post. Appreciate the assistance but I will have to get the picture and post later. Thanks
 
Thanks Frodo, Will follow your instructions but will have to do later. Wife wants her shower. You know the old saying "happy wife = happy life" LOL Will do as you instructed later and if you're still around maybe you can help. Thanks for now.
 
Frodo, Don't even know if you're still around but my apologies for the delay. I did take a reading and did not turn use any water consuming devices in the house including not flushing any toilets. Took a reading and waited over an hour. Beginning: 028271640 End: 028271637 ???? Thought it odd that reading was lower at end reading. Looked online and if I am understanding the way these iPerl Sensus digital meters read it is telling me every numerical increase of the far right digit is equal to 1 ounce. But am unclear what the 2nd digit from far right represents. Any feedback? Thanks
 
Anyone else out there have any theories on my dilemma? Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks
 
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Just an update for Frodo and anyone else interested. First: Thanks for trying to assist me. Called water dept. and she checked the hourly readings for usage since I adjusted the PRV pressure down Friday afternoon. There are no high readings almost every hour of the day or night since then. Just a few gallons used throughout the late night to early morning hours. Flushing toilets and the icemaker could account for this minimal amount. For any of you master plumbers out there that understand this, I would be interested to get your take. How could a pressure reduction affect flow through meter? Seems to me if there are no leaks in the water circuit then where could this water be going? The law of physics says you can't put more water into a full line. And it couldn't possibly compress that much. As for the negative flow reading I took yesterday, I don't understand that either. But, if this continues to stay as is and fixes the problem of high water bills, then I'm good with that and will chalk it up to an unexplained mystery or ghosts? :) LOL
 
you have a ghost. in new orleans it is referred to as a haint.

you need an old rocking chair, a chickens foot, a compass, some old shoes and a pair of dirty underwear.

set the rocker up in the driveway, EXACTLY the same distance from meter to front door.. it must rock north and south

put the old shoes on different feet, r on the l and l on the r, place the chicken foot in the chair and the panties in your left rear pocket

walk around the chair backwards 4 times clockwise saying pooba 3 times per round.

stop. switch panties to the other pocket, walk counter clockwise 5 times saying bapoo 4 times per round
stop.
take the chicken foot off the chair wrap it in the panties. place them undr the porch

sit in the chair, for 1 hour saying pooba bapoo pooba bapoo over and over 54 times each

good luck, haints are serious business
the mouser.jpg
you have haints?
 
Toilet fill valves (ballcocks for the non politically correct) oftentimes will not seal reliably with that high of a pressure. Those might have been leaking sporadically, causing your high water usage.
 
How is your meter read? Is it a person door to door or with one of those fancy over the air things?

We have problems with the water department guessing at meter readings and basing off past or average for household statistics instead of actually reading the meter. I busted one at one of my rentals when I got a large bill then asked them what my meter read and it was way higher than actual than they told me they base it on past and only read it a couple times a year.
 
you have a ghost. in new orleans it is referred to as a haint.

you need an old rocking chair, a chickens foot, a compass, some old shoes and a pair of dirty underwear.

set the rocker up in the driveway, EXACTLY the same distance from meter to front door.. it must rock north and south

put the old shoes on different feet, r on the l and l on the r, place the chicken foot in the chair and the panties in your left rear pocket

walk around the chair backwards 4 times clockwise saying pooba 3 times per round.

stop. switch panties to the other pocket, walk counter clockwise 5 times saying bapoo 4 times per round
stop.
take the chicken foot off the chair wrap it in the panties. place them undr the porch

sit in the chair, for 1 hour saying pooba bapoo pooba bapoo over and over 54 times each

good luck, haints are serious business
View attachment 11212
you have haints?

Thanks Frodo. Hope the high pressure was the cause. Will have to monitor and keep my fingers crossed. Talked to a number of people about this including the water dept. employee that came out. He was at a loss also and told me in similar situations they sometimes never find the cause of the problem and sometimes leak detection specialists can never determine the cause of the problem. Not very encouraging is it?
 
Toilet fill valves (ballcocks for the non politically correct) oftentimes will not seal reliably with that high of a pressure. Those might have been leaking sporadically, causing your high water usage.

Greetings phishfood. Wouldn't a dye test reveal that? Did the dye test on all 3 toilets for 45 minutes and not a sign of the dye in any of the bowls.
 
How is your meter read? Is it a person door to door or with one of those fancy over the air things?

We have problems with the water department guessing at meter readings and basing off past or average for household statistics instead of actually reading the meter. I busted one at one of my rentals when I got a large bill then asked them what my meter read and it was way higher than actual than they told me they base it on past and only read it a couple times a year.

Hi Chris, Thanks for the feedback. This Sensus iPerl is a digital supposedly top of the line model. This one communicates through radio frequency. Meter readers are a thing of the past here. The water dept. employee insisted they have never had one of these units malfunction when I questioned him about this possibility. This is a large suburban supplier with many customers as opposed to a small town supplier with just a couple of thousand users. Don't know if this contributed to the problem or not. I find it hard to believe they have never had one malfunction. IMHO anything mechanical is subject to malfunction and will eventually die. All I can do at this point is wait and see.
 
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