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Old 11-24-2008, 10:29 PM
 
Location: NW Austin
1,133 posts, read 4,170,297 times
Reputation: 174

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I just opened my first water bill and it was $500+. $200 was for some deposit but still that leaves $300+ for the actual water use.

Anyone else have such a high water bill?

I'm hoping it's just something left over from the last owner. There is no way we could have used that much water. The house was vacant part of the time, we didn't do laundry or run the dishwasher -- and only one shower a day.
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Old 11-24-2008, 10:38 PM
 
Location: Austin TX
1,590 posts, read 4,559,377 times
Reputation: 458
That is nuts! relax and call them tomorrow!
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Old 11-24-2008, 11:40 PM
 
10,130 posts, read 19,782,236 times
Reputation: 5815
Running toilet or broken sprinkler head, probably. You'd be surprised how much water a running toilet can use, especially when the house is vacant and no one notices. You can look at the water meter, if you know where it is, and see if the little dial is moving when all your faucets are off.

But yeah, that is way too high. Something is wrong. What water entity is it? City of Austin? One of the MUDs (sometimes the MUDs bill 3 months at a time)?
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Old 11-25-2008, 01:12 AM
 
1,961 posts, read 6,097,748 times
Reputation: 571
sprinklers running too much?
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Old 11-25-2008, 08:47 AM
 
Location: central Austin
7,228 posts, read 16,013,040 times
Reputation: 3914
How many gallons were used? anything over 4-7,000 gallons (for an empty house) would definitely indicate a leak.

If the power has been turned off, the sprinklers can reset to a default setting, on some systems that means daily watering, if it is happening at 3 am you would not notice! Is your grass green? Have someone out to check the irrigation, otherwise you could have a water leak somewhere else, call a plumber.

good luck
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Old 11-25-2008, 09:01 AM
 
Location: SW Austin & Wimberley
6,330 posts, read 17,974,930 times
Reputation: 5531
Turn off all the water in your home and go look at the water meter. If the meter is turning, you have a leak. There are usually several small dials, one of them very sensitive and will turn even with small amounts of water passing through.

Ruling out the sprinkler system is also a must, as outlined already.

If you do find a leak, most water utilities will adjust your bill after you provide proof of the leak and the invoice showing it was fixed.

Steve
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Old 11-25-2008, 10:29 AM
 
89 posts, read 417,318 times
Reputation: 40
If you do find a leak, most water utilities will adjust your bill after you provide proof of the leak and the invoice showing it was fixed.

If the leak is on your side of the meter, you WILL have to pay for it.
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Old 11-25-2008, 11:46 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
59 posts, read 239,516 times
Reputation: 38
We built a house on .75 acre, no pool, and before we moved in the builder watered the lawn and plants 7 days a week, which used over 200,000 gallons of water. They got a $3k water bill for that one month! Once we moved in, we scaled down to 6 days a week, but that used 90,000 gallons at the cost of $700. Now that winter is here, we are down to 2 days a week of watering....I am scared to open up my next water bill. In California, I was used to $50 bills.
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Old 11-25-2008, 11:56 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
15,232 posts, read 35,410,327 times
Reputation: 8566
You water 6 days a week?!? Are you in Austin? St. Augustine needs once every 4 or 5 days in the summer, and zero in the winter - we have already watered for the last time this year and probably won't watter again until March or so.

Most large lots (such as 0.75 acres) don't have St. A on the whole lot (although they might). Native grasses can get by on watering every 7 to 10 days (or less) in the summer and also usually don't need watering in the winter.
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Old 11-25-2008, 12:01 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
59 posts, read 239,516 times
Reputation: 38
Yeah, here in Austin with a ton of St. Augustine on the whole lot. We were going to use Zoysia turf, but that was $5k more and we were trying to cut our budget. Once winter hits (if it hasn't already), we will stop watering the grass.
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