High Water Bills (Tampa, Winter Park: how much, house, utilities)

[NWilbur]

Hi,

Our water bill runs between $160 and $180 per month for a 1600 sf. home with a pool and irrigation system. We are just two people. We are on the City of Winter Park water and I know it is more than the norm with them, because everything is more expensive in W.P. Speaking with two of my friends the other night that are also just two people to each household and they have pools and irrigation as well. They live in much larger homes than we do and the one couple pays about $70 per month and the other around $6 per month. The Treasurer of our subdivision was upset that the water bill for the entire community was over $400 last month and that got me thinking also, that just our little house is almost $200. Has anyone else had this experience with Winter Park Utilities?

[bmw335xi]

Talk to your neighbors, if they are much lower than yours then it should be easy to figure out the problem.

[Arcenal813]

Get your house inspected for leaks. We recently had something similar happen. I would have never guessed we had a leak since we saw no water damage whatsoever. Our bill kept creeping up until suddenly it skyrocketed to near $1000. Turns out we had what started off as a small leak under the slab develop into a massive leak, all going downward (so we could not see it.) We got the whole house repiped and our bill is back to normal. Get it inspected before it turns into something major.

[Bellamouse]

Yes, it sounds like a leak. Turn off any source of running water in the house and then go outside and see if the meter is still running. We do this periodically. If it is still running, you have a leak somewhere.

We have had two leaks and they were both with the sprinkler system. One head was missing (we didn't realize it for awhile - one night I was sitting outside and noticed one of the sprinkler heads was shooting water like a geyser!). The other time a sprinkler main busted. That was a BIG leak which was easy to notice.

My neighbor just figured out she had a leak - she turned off the water main to her house and the meter was still running (her main shut off is actually on the house, not at the meter). But that helped her pinpoint the leak as being somewhere in the line that runs to the house between the main and the shut off on the house. Leak was underground like previous poster.

We have learned to periodically check the meter outside and to watch the sprinklers when they come on so we catch any leaks early and avoid a big bill.

[djinfl]

We have Winter Park water too and when we aren't irrigating like crazy (drought curse you!) the water bill is around $50 per month. Las month was $150 due to all the lawn watering and pressure washing
so it really depends how much you run your irrigation. The water dept can actually break it down for you and tell you the high usage times - if it coincides with sprinkling, check all your zones for broken heads or cracks - that really adds up! We had a gusher and didn't realize it until the $200 water bill arrived last summer.

[cjairo191]

Check if they have a tier system. City of Tampa will hurt you with the Tier system. Once you hit a certain amount they higher the charge of water. Had a 600 dollar bill once. I am not in the city of winter park. But that amount sounds like what I had last month with a pool and watering the lawn. Was very dry recently.

[lamigra001]

Fear this drought. Water bill for 03/23@ 136
04/22@ $180+ just because of programing the springlers three times @ week

[lovemyfl]

Our water bill went up and we found we had a small leak in the toilet.