Very high water bill mystery!

[firemant]

That's fine I welcome your questions to hopefully get to the bottom of this. I had the stoptap off for about 3 hours and there was no movement. When the water company guy came he said if there was a leak he could have seen even the tiniest drip showing on the meter.

To be honest I thought the same at one point as I have a neighbour from he'll who also has the know how to do such a thing due to his job!

Tests suggested so far haven't discovered anything so I think I will have to get someone in to investigate further. I appreciate all the help and suggestions received.

Ignoring fora moment the CWS issue - If the neighbour IS using your water,it would only show movement when he is using the water. Say for an outside tap or equipment in garage.

What does CWS supply? Have you a (maybe tank fed) dishwasher and/or washing machine? Could the inlet valves on one of these be passing?

 

[crowman]

CWS is for upstairs sink, bath, shower and toilet. The downstairs sink and washing machine comes off the mains.

 

[Gasmk1]

Then your toilet is more than likely the culprit check the bowl and water will be entering the bowl when not in use

 

[firemant]

Is there an isolation valve on the WC?
If so, buy a bucket. Use the bucket for a while filled from downstairs to flush and don't use other items filled from shower. Monitor the CWS.

Or do the bog paper trick, If you haven't yet

 

[Bogart]

Some meters have a little turbine wheel spinning that shows miniscule water use (that is still significant over time) and easily indicates flow long before a digit will move.

My leak seems more obvious. With my stopcock off the little wheel still turns so my leak is between meter and stopcock. As the distance is some 30m I do not fancy digging up 30m of ground to find it, maybe in summer if we get one!
The problem quoted should be fairly easy to solve with a bit of logic as has been suggested by other contributors.

 

[Chuck]

My leak seems more obvious. With my stopcock off the little wheel still turns so my leak is between meter and stopcock. As the distance is some 30m I do not fancy digging up 30m of ground to find it, maybe in summer if we get one!
The problem quoted should be fairly easy to solve with a bit of logic as has been suggested by other contributors.

There are techniques for pin-pointing buried leaks where digging is going to be expensive, for example:

How to Find Leaks - Understanding Acoustic Leak Detection

What one often finds is that the leak is either withn a foot or so of the meter or stopcock. If not the pipe probably failed because it was an suitable type and/or was not buried correctly and so the whole lot needs to be dug up and redone properly anyway.

 

[Bogart]

Yes I was going to have a poke around the meter and pipe entry into the property. Somewhere I also have a tee off that feeds a garage and outbuildings but will start with easier ones as I know where they are.

 

[Darren Jackson]

Next time you hear your neighbour running a bath/shower,toilet flushing etc... run out to see if your meter is turning! (make sure your water is not running first).

 

[Bogart]

Nearest neighbour is 200M away highly unlikely to hear them flush the loo.