Water usage

blunt

blunt

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I'm having many problems with my water meter and leaks in my new house (well, the leaks have been deep under ground - the ones we've found) - which is a different story - basically I've been monitoring my daily usage at the meter while I wait for the leak to be fixed.

My question is, how much do you guys use?
I'm interested in people who have proper houses with a decent sized garden and perhaps a pool.

At this point we are using a minimum of 2KL a day and only flushing some toilets and taking a shower or two (there's just 2 of us); clearly a problem with the meter or leak (am waiting on COCT to come investigate) -- meter is so old the numbers are faded and the glass is faded so u can only see movement a KL at a time.

PS: I'm high up on.. well I guess it's a mountain but seems more like a hill, borehole would require drilling over 100m down and I dont have that kind of cash to spend on a borehole. Well point not an option. I'm planning on using grey water and rain water catchment etc in future but dont have budget for that right now.
 
I did 23kl from Nov to Dec according to my reading. Big garden, smallish pool, 2 adults and 2 kids. Run dishwasher daily and washing machine twice a week.

I avoided watering the garden ( in a valley with river at the bottom so quite moist ) although did sometimes and the odd pool top up to keep it to the level the pump can run ( pool aprox - 10kl to 15kl , probably around 12kl ).
 
An old or broken meter will always underread. If the consumption is too high, it is definitely not the meter that is a problem.

It might be cheapest to lay new pipes than too try and find all the leaks if they are very deep.

2kl is a lot.
 
@Kosmik yes that seems more reasonable.

I had to apply for a rebate cos of a 10k water bill, plumber found an under ground leak in Dec that he fixed but it's still 2KL a day.

To get a rebate you are required to get a new WDM water meter that "caps" your daily usage, so I applied for 2KL a day "cap" (once it reaches that cap you are shut off til the next morning @ 4AM) - daily cap rolls over for the month.

Would COCT re-lay the pipes inside the property that come from the meter? We've checked all the drains and the house has just been completely renovated (re-plumbed, all new fixtures etc) - no leaks that can be found so it must be off the main pipe from the meter.
 
The pipes inside your property is your property, your problem...
 
Everything from the meter towards your property is unfortunately your problem, they city wont touch that.

There are some pretty sophisticated leak detection systems at the moment. We had them come on a while ago and they pumped the pipes full of gas and were able to in minutes pinpoint all the leaks. Might be worth getting a specialized leak detection service in rather than just a plumber.

We use around 0.7kl a day. That's for a family of 3 with a medium sized pool, maybe 45Kl
 
Soutie_za said:
Everything from the meter towards your property is unfortunately your problem, they city wont touch that.

There are some pretty sophisticated leak detection systems at the moment. We had them come on a while ago and they pumped the pipes full of gas and were able to in minutes pinpoint all the leaks. Might be worth getting a specialized leak detection service in rather than just a plumber.

We use around 0.7kl a day. That's for a family of 3 with a medium sized pool, maybe 45Kl
Click to expand...

You in CPT? If you are, who did you use?
 
The plumbers are busy closing up the holes they had to dig on my property to repair two underground lead as I type this...
 
blunt said:
You in CPT? If you are, who did you use?
Click to expand...

I'm in Jo'burg unfortunately.

I think the crowd was called Smart Leak Detection or something along those lines but I'm sure there will be similar companies in CT.
 
Soutie_za said:
I'm in Jo'burg unfortunately.

I think the crowd was called Smart Leak Detection or something along those lines but I'm sure there will be similar companies in CT.
Click to expand...

ye just called around, <removed> charge R1818/hr excluding VAT to detect the leak.. so no to them; going to get <removed> to come and do the detection, 1100 incl to detect the leak flat fee.
 
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It might be cheaper to just lay a new pipe from the meter to your house, depending on the distance and if there are several branch pipes or just the main pipe going to the house. 2kL per day is definitely too much, I think we use less than 20kL a month normally.
 
P924 said:
An old or broken meter will always underread. If the consumption is too high, it is definitely not the meter that is a problem.
Click to expand...
^This

I think PE water dept have changed my meter twice as part of their maintenance procedures because they under-read over time, probably due for another change shortly - assuming they have the budget for it!
 
furpile said:
It might be cheaper to just lay a new pipe from the meter to your house, depending on the distance and if there are several branch pipes or just the main pipe going to the house. 2kL per day is definitely too much, I think we use less than 20kL a month normally.
Click to expand...

am considering this, the main pipe going into our property is very old, back when they used 20mm black piping similar to irrigation piping, just thicker.
 
blunt said:
ye just called around, <removed> charge R1818/hr excluding VAT to detect the leak.. so no to them; going to get <removed> to come and do the detection, 1100 incl to detect the leak flat fee.
Click to expand...

R1800 an hour sounds like highway robbery. R1100 is more in line with what I paid. Hourly rates tell me the guys are going to bugger around as to make as much profit as possible

Unfortunately replacing the entire pipe is not always an option, mine for example runs under paving most of the way. You need to factor the cost of ripping up and relaying the paving as well as digging the trench, then the plumbers hourly rate.....
 
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Soutie_za said:
R1800 an hour sounds like highway robbery. R1100 is more in line with what I paid. Hourly rates tell me the guys are going to bugger around as to make as much profit as possible

Unfortunately replacing the entire pipe is not always an option, mine for example runs under paving most of the way. You need to factor the cost of ripping up and relaying the paving as well as digging the trench, then the plumbers hourly rate.....
Click to expand...

From what I can see our main pipe goes down the side of our property and then into the house - all just under the garden/sand; but I will wait and see how bad things are when the leak guys finish. The last leak that was spewing water into the garden was due to a tree root pushing the pipe to breaking point. Unfortunately as we are up the mountain the ground here is packed full of rocks so not the easiest to just dig and check, also theres a big chance any leaking water will simply run down hill under the ground as it's dry up here.
 
Pressure Valve in our geyser gave in causing continuous running water for a few days before we returned from holiday (fortunately the water ran into the drain and not into the house. Water usage for the 24 day billing period was 44kL.

We usually use about 15kL for a 30 day period.
 
Yes, 2kL per day is a bit rough!!!

Regarding the pricing, I suspect the City of Capetown is ripping us off.
According to the set rates, the first 6kL should be free.
Thereafter the steps is at 10.5 , 20 , 35 and above 50kL.

So, ColinR is getting ripped off. Anybody else have something similar on their mun accounts???
 
wetkit said:
Yes, 2kL per day is a bit rough!!!

Regarding the pricing, I suspect the City of Capetown is ripping us off.
According to the set rates, the first 6kL should be free.
Thereafter the steps is at 10.5 , 20 , 35 and above 50kL.

So, ColinR is getting ripped off. Anybody else have something similar on their mun accounts???
Click to expand...

Friend of mine pays at most R10 a month for his water usage because he usually always falls within the free allocation. Family of 4, pool, smallish garden but runs irrigation daily. I assume he's on the lucky side of having a water fault, his meter under-reads.
 
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