Water usage jumped dramatically
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Anonymous
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A few months ago, I noticed our quarterly water bill (Loudoun Water) jumped from its usual $200 to over $400. It was due to excess usage, so I checked all the sources for any noticeable leak, put some new stoppers in the toilets and was extra vigilant in making sure nothing was left running. We haven’t watered the lawn all that much in the meantime.
We got our most recent bill yesterday and it, too, was over $400. Now I’m worried there’s a leak somewhere I can’t get to. Has anyone had a “water audit” done on their home? Would a plumber do this, of the water company? Thanks in advance. |
Anonymous
| You have a leak. We’re in a different city but the city did an inspection themselves. Really quickly. Got the problem resolved in less than a month (for the fix we had to hire private obviously) and the city gave us money back from our previous bills. |
Anonymous
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Are you able to see your daily usage on the utility website? Turn off the exterior water and see if it drops and that will tell you if there’s a leak in a sprinkler line.
Or, if your husband is like mine he is running the sprinklers way too much. Does your water company have different price tiers? Did the rate increase? |
Anonymous
| Is it possible you're watering a garden in the hot summer and this is causing the increase (it is for us). Or lots of watering for new sod that you haven't thought about? |
Anonymous
| Have the base fees on your water bill gone up? "State and local taxes," etc.? That's where they getcha. |
Anonymous
| Have you checked to make sure the meter was read properly? We had ridiculously high bills with WSSC and it was an error on their part - incorrect reading, failing meter and new software. |
Anonymous
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Your toilet is probably leaking or running a lot. You can get some leak detection dye tablets cheap from Amazon that will let you see if that is the case.
https://www.amazon.com/PF-WaterWorks-PF0553-LeakDETECT-Detection/dp/B005A3MSX4/ref=asc_df_B005A3MSX4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198097979185&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8298822111658373827&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052838&hvtargid=pla-349318945642&psc=1 |
Anonymous
| There’s a leak. This happened to us and it was the pipe into the house from under our front yard. We saw no signs of a leak, just bills that went up and up and up. The pipe was polybutylene; luckily our realtor had convinced us to have it insured. We paid a minimal amount for the repairs. |
Anonymous
| You shouldn’t need to water at all unless you have new sod or baby trees. We’ve had plenty of rain. |
Anonymous
Just use food coloring. 
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Anonymous
| when you are not using water, go down and check your meter and see if any movement with needle or numbers. take a pic, go back an hour later and see if anything has changed. do not use water during that time. if meter looks different (location of needle or usage number), then you def have a leak |
Anonymous
Water bills are for past usage. We have almost no rain for 5 weeks until July hit. |
Anonymous
| Do you have a sump pump backup that uses water pressure? We had a big increase in our water bill last year. We didn't realize that our primary sump pump was broken, so the backup was running for several months using public water. Our quarterly bill jumped from less than $200 to $1000. |
Anonymous
| We had a toilet running in the basement where we rarely go, and it costs us a ton before we finally figured it out. Apparently you can sign up for alerts from the water company to alert you to this type of unusual activity for future problems. |
Anonymous
| Just check your water meter and see if it's moving. |