How much water do you use on average?

[ggnl]

I just got the first water bill at my new house and they are saying we used 25,000 gallons in 42 days which cost us $130. That's nearly 600 gallons per day. I'm pretty sure it's bullshit but I want to check with ATOT first before complaining.

It's a smallish 3br 2ba house with 3 residents. We've watered the lawn exactly once since moving in.

 

[olds]

L o n g showers?
How long did you water the yard for?
Lots of dish/clothes washing?

The avg is about 70 gallons per person, per day.

 

[grohl]

yeah, no way that's right. I have three kids and in the winter (no watering) we use 3-4 thousand gallons per month.

Do you have an area of your yard that is "always" wet? - maybe a leak near the main valve or in your watering system.

 

[Tim]

Maybe there is a leak you don't know about.

 

[MrDudeMan]

We use about 3,000 per month for 2 of us, which is 50 gallons per day per person. Water bill is always $34.82. $20 for city stormwater fees and $14.82 for our water usage. The one month we used > 4,000 gallons the bill went up 1 dollar exactly.

 

[Svnla]

I don't have a clue. I live in an apt. <1 bed room by myself> right now and they charge me about $10 a month for water/sewer/trash pickup.

Not bad at all because I was paying about $50 when I lived in a house. About the same water usage but ambulance fees/junk fees/etc. on top of water and sewer fees.

OP, I would check your meter and leakage(s) in your house.

 

[ggnl]

I've got to talk to the roommates about it but there's nothing I can pinpoint that would be out of the ordinary. I've did maybe 4 loads of laundry in the first 6 weeks. Most dishes are washed by hand, I hardly ever use the dishwasher. I personally take 5-10 minute showers, 1 per day.

There are no wet patches in the yard that I can tell. Guess I'm going to have to call the landlord...

 

[Train]

Typically the water bill is an estimate, they meter the whole neighborhood, then estimate each house's share... then once they get thier fat asses around to actually reading everyones meter, they will adjust everyones bill accordingly.

Sometimes the estimates vs the actual can get pretty far out of whack. If you got stiffed on the first bill after moving into a house... the previous owner fucked you bad. You were supposed to get a letter saying the meter was read and water balance rectified prior to closing.

 

[ggnl]

So the problem is pretty simple actually. The dumbasses read the meter wrong and charged us for 25000 when we really used 2500 gallons.

 

[olds]

If you do have a leak, hope it's not after the water heater. You won't like that bill either.

 

[TheNinja]

We use about 180 gallons a day with 2 adults and 1 toddler. That includes showers, dishwasher, old style laundry unit, etc.

 

[rasczak]

i don't remember off hand but I received a credit for our two month billing cycle.

 

[drdops]

Originally posted by: ggnl
I've got to talk to the roommates about it but there's nothing I can pinpoint that would be out of the ordinary. I've did maybe 4 loads of laundry in the first 6 weeks. Most dishes are washed by hand, I hardly ever use the dishwasher. I personally take 5-10 minute showers, 1 per day.

There are no wet patches in the yard that I can tell. Guess I'm going to have to call the landlord...

don't most modern dishwashers use substantially less water than washing dishes by hand?

 

[spaceman]

25000 GALLONS!!!!!



25000!
?
WOW!

 

[Modelworks]

I really don't know , my water is free. Included with the rent.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: ggnl
So the problem is pretty simple actually. The dumbasses read the meter wrong and charged us for 25000 when we really used 2500 gallons.

Oh boy...

 

[SunSamurai]

Do people even bother reading the thread before responding with stupid shit right after the guy clearly said what the problem turned out to be?

 

[coldmeat]

On average I use about as much as I need.

 

[iGas]

It could be that you have a water leak.

USA average water usage per person is 80-100 gallon per day.

Do not use water in the house while checking the meter out on the curb to see if the meter is moving.

 

[TridenT]

A lot. That's all I know. We have five people taking at least one shower everyday. We have to wash a lot of clothes and lots of dishes... Washing the cars, sprinkler system... Yeah.. it adds up. I am sure we use a ton.

 

[iGas]

Originally posted by: ggnl
I've got to talk to the roommates about it but there's nothing I can pinpoint that would be out of the ordinary. I've did maybe 4 loads of laundry in the first 6 weeks. Most dishes are washed by hand, I hardly ever use the dishwasher. I personally take 5-10 minute showers, 1 per day.

There are no wet patches in the yard that I can tell. Guess I'm going to have to call the landlord...

Depends on what type of meter that your local use, but around here they use electronic meter that are digitally read as the meter guy go by, unless the people at the office screw up with the calculation which could happen. However, I stand by leaking pipe some where.