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Water bill and usage question

1,785 Views | 13 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by mAgnoliAg
FincAg
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AG
I just noticed we are using a lot of water or maybe we are not. Is 17,900 gallons of water and 9,500 gallons waste water a lot? We have a normal 1,600 sqft SFR with sprinkler system on 1/3 acre in Dallas. Quite a bit of mowing. Normal usage I would assume for family with 1 toddler, but I guess that's what I'm asking.

How many gallons do you use, water and sewage?
aggielostinETX
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AG
Waste water is calculated on the Avg of Dec-Mar Oct-Feb(IIRC) from the previous year, or your actual water usage, whichever is lower.

That being said, my usage last month was 11,700. We are a family of 6, but I haven't been running the sprinklers b/c of all the rain.
Zombie Jon Snow
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AG

Well I just checked and I used 19k in June and 9100 sewer. 4500sf house, 4 adults, small yard but lots of plants.

That was high for me - I was running the sprinklers then though and my kids were just back from college.


My last year has varied between 6k and 19k averaging about 11-12k but certainly higher in all the summer months like usually 15-19k.
East Dallas Ag
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We have pretty similar demo stats, admittedly I don't use my sprinklers unless I have to...I think I've run them 2-3 times at most this whole year, so I average about 5000 in normal months, last July and August I was around 11,000. So yah that seems a high...how frequently and for how long are you running those sprinklers?
AW 1880
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Seems high but is highly dependent upon your sprinkler usage.
ghollow
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sounds like a lot to me. I would have the city come out and check for a leak.
riverrataggie
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That seems like a lot. I'm on an acre here in Lakewood and have two lines. Total is 11600 in water usage.

Sewer is 4100

Although last July and August I was up near 35000 to 40000
FincAg
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Redid the flowerbeds this spring and must be watering them quite a bit. Plus a new tree we have kept watered. I need to look at our historical usage. I've kept the sprinkler at what the company originally set. I should go over that as well.

Thanks guys
Polish1979
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AG
It's easy to check for a leak by yourself. You will have to go out front and check the watermain. If you don't have anything turned on and the dial is still moving...you have a leak. The water main key is only a couple bucks at homedepot and an important tool to have in case you get a bad leak in your house and need to completely shut off the water.
YouBet
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AG
Polish1979 said:

It's easy to check for a leak by yourself. You will have to go out front and check the watermain. If you don't have anything turned on and the dial is still moving...you have a leak. The water main key is only a couple bucks at homedepot and an important tool to have in case you get a bad leak in your house and need to completely shut off the water.


Also, just knowing where the hell it is in the first place. Had a self-induced massive plumbing incident at our old house many years ago. It was in the overgrown alley behind my backyard. By the time I found it, it was too late.
FincAg
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AG
Interesting, thank you
Yesterday
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Sometimes they estimate billing and then catch up when they actually read the meter. This happened to me last month.
Polish1979
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Quote:

Also, just knowing where the hell it is in the first place. Had a self-induced massive plumbing incident at our old house many years ago. It was in the overgrown alley behind my backyard. By the time I found it, it was too late.
Nothing like a crisis to teach you about what you should have done. Water busted at the valve in the kitchen underneath the sink. Ran outside to shut off water (for the first time ever) with my wrench to find that the main was covered in dirt with only the dial visible. Luckily it was the hot water so I was able to shut it off at the heater. But that was after a few hundred gallons in my kitchen.

Our new house sprung a leak in the sprinkler system but all of the valves were useless, had to shut off the main completely. At least this time I was prepared.

Buy a key, learn where the valves are and how it works, practice shutting it off and back on again. Do it once and you can handle any leak and save yourself some major repairs.
YouBet
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Just for one more data point I just got my bill:

3400 sq ft / 2 people / haven't run sprinklers that often in June at all with all of the rain

Water = 19,754
Sewer = 8,000
mAgnoliAg
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Get a smart controller for your sprinkler systems. It connects to weather stations and only waters when it needs to based on rainfall totals and predicted rainfall totals. PM me for info. Also, polish had good advice.
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