Very high water consumption

[John.g]

Its probably been months or even a year or so since the last top up so that rules out any part of the heating system as the culprit.

Just to return to the meter, it may be no harm to take a meter reading, then run off some cold water into a 10 or 20 litre drum and note the metered consumption.

 

[JX350C]

Its probably been months or even a year or so since the last top up so that rules out any part of the heating system as the culprit.

Just to return to the meter, it may be no harm to take a meter reading, then run off some cold water into a 10 or 20 litre drum and note the metered consumption.

Thanks John. That is a great idea. I will try that test later today. I am keeping an extended log today and recording meter readings every hour or so and keeping a log of what water we know we used during those times.

 

[plumbingservices]

This is absolutely insane! the underfloor heating controllers should not use this much water.

 

[JX350C]

This is absolutely insane! the underfloor heating controllers should not use this much water.

I agree. The amount of water we are using is insane and something is using water somewhere even when we seem to have things switched off. I've been logging every time we use water and what we used and then taking meter readings roughly every hour to see if the estimated usage matches the meter readings. At the moment I haven't been able to work out exactly what is causing this water usage. Tomorrow I am going to start isolating the DHW, Underfloor heating, showers, toilets (although those are boxed in so I cannot access their isolation valves) to see if I see a drop in usage.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

It’s not the ufh / heating as it’s sealed and won’t refill

 

[JX350C]

I've now managed to get some further testing done. I've shut off all isolation valves to all the taps, toilets, dishwasher, washing machine etc and I can see that the meter is still increasing without any visible water usage. I then isolated the showers and checked that the fill loop was closed to the UHF. Water was still being used. I then switched the hot water controller to off instead of auto and water was still being used.

So I then isolated the water supply to the laundry room where the cylinder, heating controls and UFH manifolds are. The water usage then stopped immediately. Below is the valve I switched off.

This valve supplies cold water to the showers, UFH fill and the cylinder. I have shut off the showers as they have smaller isolation valves after that main valve. I've confirmed that the fill for the UFH is closed and it is not letting water past at all. However, there is no further isolation valve to the cylinder so I can't seem to isolate that on it's own.

 

[John.g]

Ensure all hot taps off then shut that lever valve again and after a few minutes open any hot water tap, you should get a few litres (from the expansion tank) flowing.

 

[John.g]

Can you have a look at the photo.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Can you have a look at the photo.

That’s a 3 bar safety valve

 

[JX350C]

Can you have a look at the photo.

That valve has the main cold water feed to it at the top and then two pipes from it. One of those out pipes goes down and connects to the cylinder and the other connects to the pipe with the tundish in it. I'll get a better picture of that for you.