High Water Consumption--help me solve a mystery?

We get a lot of that here in S Florida. I did mine a while back, not because of a leak but because I was renovating and I knew it would likely happen.
Ran PEX in the attic.

As someone suggested, I shut off all water-consuming devices in the house and went out to check the meter. The triangle was not spinning. But sat there and watched it for a couple of minutes (3 - 5 mins probably). During that time the triangle was stationary...then it made a slow revolution. Then it was stationary again for another minute until it made another slow revolution. Is that normal?

Here are answers to a few other questions that cropped up since I posted last:

No water softener in my house.
Gender make up of the house hold = 3 male (2 children) and 1 adult female
Once the main water line enters the house, everything is exposed. I have an unfinished basement. No water lines under the slab.

That sounds like a toilet topping up, were the toilets turned off when you did that test? You want to have a close look at the pressure release valve on the hot water tank. If it releases some pressure the tank would top up. Perhaps the icemaker refilled itself in the fridge. ????????

If the pressure valve lets water out, where does that water go, could that be the heat souce in the floor?

Do you have a shut off valve between the meter and your house? If you do, close it so you can get a better idea if it's your meter or a water leak outside the house.

The neighbor saw me looking at the meter and came over. He also thought of the pressure release valve on the water heater. He opened a small drain on a 90 degree angle in the pipe. We drained 6 to 8 oz of water out of that. So then we went outside and checked the ground below where it vents. Dry as a bone.

Another detail. Our meters are read digitally, automatically. The water company drives a van down the street and the meters push their readouts to the van automatically. There is no meter reader going house to house like when I was a kid. The neighbor thought there may be a screwup and I'm getting billed for someone else's meter.

Next time I get a bill, I'm going to go out and see if the start / end usage figures match up with what the meter actually shows.

We have that same system, and knowing when they read is the trick. If you can not find out when that reading will be taken, you need to read and record your readings often so when you get the bill you can figure out the start date. Or just keep track of how much you are using for a month it should be very close to what you are being billed for.

mperrill said:

As someone suggested, I shut off all water-consuming devices in the house and went out to check the meter. The triangle was not spinning. But sat there and watched it for a couple of minutes (3 - 5 mins probably). During that time the triangle was stationary...then it made a slow revolution. Then it was stationary again for another minute until it made another slow revolution. Is that normal?

Here are answers to a few other questions that cropped up since I posted last:

No water softener in my house.
Gender make up of the house hold = 3 male (2 children) and 1 adult female
Once the main water line enters the house, everything is exposed. I have an unfinished basement. No water lines under the slab.

Click to expand...

no, that is not normal. if the triangle is moving. you are using water

you need to find out which fixture is using it. first place to look is toilets
go sit on the toilet for 10 minutes and look in the tank, see if it is leaking/running
if no.

step 2

the valves under the sinks and behind the washer, ice maker, toilets
turn ALL valves off.
go stare at meter triangle.

if no movement, turn on 1 valve ck meter, another valve ck meter, etc . it is a slow process
check all the cold first. then do the hot

bet you a cold drink its a toilet flapper

I got done repairing my slab leak. I opted for a work around , not wanting to dig up the tiling and slab for the repair. I used pex and sharkbites . Ran the pex in the attic , and down the walls. The first photo shows the hot water pipe to the system . The old pipe was cut out and has a green cap. the second and subsequent photos are the laundry room from where it taps to the kitchen and to other bathrooms. The tricky part for me was determining which was the piping from the other side of the house. I did not do well with that , and unfortunately my inability to determine the correct one resulted in cutting the wrong pipe. After that I figured which one was correct . This led to additional steps and fortunately pex and sharkbites are easy to work with. The pex in the attic is a continuous run with no couplings and needless to say I am keeping the work areas open for observation till I am I am a bit more satisfied with my work. Also to make access to the pipes easier , I cut off the clothes washing machine drain and stuffed it with hand towels to prevent sewer smell in the laundry room.. I would be so lost had I not taken videos when the house was being built. Now I wonder how much this job would have cost. Regards
Paul

mperrill, the picture above me, do you see the black poly sleeve the copper is in, as it comes out of the slab?

i have seen, a framing nail penitrate the copper threw the sleeve. the pipe will not leak until the nail rusts into.
then the leak will spray into the sleeve. you cant see it, but your meter will run when nothing is on
and your foundation is being washed out under the house. especially in florida,where you have sand instead of
dirt.
just telling you where water can go.


anyone see the code violation in that picture? its no big deal, but its there

More than once I've found leaks by a nail in a supply line that didn't leak for years until it rusted. Had a hard time convincing the homeowner till we cut a whole in the ceiling. The roofer is always guilty until proven innocent.

We had some fun here because they only recently switched everyone to separate meters. One guy complained because he was getting $300-400 bills and he checked for leaks. None. Turned out they had the meter in backwards!

backwards? then he should be getting a credit every mth.

It went from zero to 999,994 so that didn't work well.