What could go wrong with my water bill?

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#3274563 22-Aug-2024 19:31

tweake:

i had a split in the main water pipe a few months back. the interesting thing was that it must have been on going for quite a long time as the water flow carved out a tunnel in the dirt. i think the split opened up depending on ground movement, which is why it was never noticed for a long time as water usage didn't change a lot.

We had a leak that was going through about 6L a second. We didn't know until after an actual reading and a high four figure water bill.

Took about three weeks to identify where it was and we needed to divert the main line as the leak was under the neigbours concrete patio. We still ended up having to cut a big slice through our concrete driveway. If it wasn't for the water bill we would have no idea of the leak as we have volcanic rock with ample drainage beneath us.

Watercare refunded most and credited our account for what we did pay so we haven't had water bills since.

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eracode

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#3274568 22-Aug-2024 19:56

Watercare refunded most and credited our account for what we did pay so we haven't had water bills since.

Somewhat surprisingly, Watercare are excellent at refunding people for water leaks - even if it’s on the customer’s side of the meter. Our neighbour had a leak a few months ago that resulted in bills that were several hundreds of dollars higher than expected - and after the leak was fixed, WC refunded most of the excesses. It was a credit to her account - all done within a few days of her application.

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tweake

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#3274574 22-Aug-2024 20:27

blackjack17:

We had a leak that was going through about 6L a second. We didn't know until after an actual reading and a high four figure water bill.

Took about three weeks to identify where it was and we needed to divert the main line as the leak was under the neigbours concrete patio. We still ended up having to cut a big slice through our concrete driveway. If it wasn't for the water bill we would have no idea of the leak as we have volcanic rock with ample drainage beneath us.

Watercare refunded most and credited our account for what we did pay so we haven't had water bills since.

lucky you for the refund. here you can get a refund but only once. i know i have a big bill coming, but rather save the refund for a really big failure should the rest fail.

thats a major repair. being under some else place makes things a big head ache. not to mention the $$$. i'm looking at replacing the whole line (its pvc pipe) but i hope to combine that with doing the power cable as well.

cddt

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#3274651 23-Aug-2024 07:32

eracode:

Somewhat surprisingly, Watercare are excellent at refunding people for water leaks - even if it’s on the customer’s side of the meter. Our neighbour had a leak a few months ago that resulted in bills that were several hundreds of dollars higher than expected - and after the leak was fixed, WC refunded most of the excesses.

Yet another reason not to sell the utility to private investors... as if the recent shenanigans with the power companies wasn't a strong enough argument.

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Bung

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#3274657 23-Aug-2024 08:14

tweake: lucky you for the refund. here you can get a refund but only once. i know i have a big bill coming, but rather save the refund for a really big failure should the rest fail.

thats a major repair. being under some else place makes things a big head ache. not to mention the $$$. i'm looking at replacing the whole line (its pvc pipe) but i hope to combine that with doing the power cable as well.

Can you just bypass the failed section until you do the lot? Even though blue MDPE water pipe is supposed to be buried Wellington has any number of galvanised pipe replacements just run down hill sides as if Chorus was in charge.

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#3274658 23-Aug-2024 08:19

I learned a few years ago not to put water pipes under a concrete driveway. If there's a leak you then either have to dig up the driveway or run a whole new water pipe. Fortunately we could run a new water pipe under the grass which cost about $3K from memory, if we had to open up the concrete then repair it properly it would have cost much, much more.

tweake

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#3274693 23-Aug-2024 10:36

Bung:

Can you just bypass the failed section until you do the lot? Even though blue MDPE water pipe is supposed to be buried Wellington has any number of galvanised pipe replacements just run down hill sides as if Chorus was in charge.

its been repaired. so i have time, just hope the the rest doesn't fail in the mean time. if it does i will just run it on the surface until we can trench it. unfortunately the pipe runs in the same trench as storm water etc and is under the entire concrete path to the house. put i have room to run a trench elsewhere and that will allow me to put the power underground and put in fiber at the same time. the cost of the water pipe is pretty small, its the cost of the power cables etc, which goes under the water pipes, thats the hold up.

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neb

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#3274875 23-Aug-2024 20:54

Tinkerisk:

Insane consumption. As an industrialised nation, we consume an average of 120 litres per inhabitant per day (which is still too much in the future) and pay for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. Now someone might get the idea that we don't wash ourselves in Germany ... but we do. So it must be something else. 🤣

Average kiwi: 800 cups of tea a day.

Average German: 3 liters of Weissbier a day (which doesn't count against water consumption).

Tinkerisk

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#3274889 24-Aug-2024 03:13

neb:

Tinkerisk:

Insane consumption. As an industrialised nation, we consume an average of 120 litres per inhabitant per day (which is still too much in the future) and pay for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. Now someone might get the idea that we don't wash ourselves in Germany ... but we do. So it must be something else. 🤣

Average kiwi: 800 cups of tea a day.

Average German: 3 liters of Weissbier a day (which doesn't count against water consumption).

So in real it‘s about 72L (without the tea) for Kiwis and 117L (without the Weissbier) for Germans a day? 😎

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cddt

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#3274900 24-Aug-2024 09:02

Tinkerisk:

Insane consumption. As an industrialised nation, we consume an average of 120 litres per inhabitant per day (which is still too much in the future) and pay for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. Now someone might get the idea that we don't wash ourselves in Germany ... but we do. So it must be something else. 🤣

We also pay for both drinking water and the treatment of wastewater, they are itemised on the invoice.

But according to the invoice received, our family of five uses about 70 litres per day, so I suspect an issue with the meter...

What's crazy in Germany is the number of people who buy bottled water, zweifellos full of microplastics.

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Jase2985

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#3274907 24-Aug-2024 10:08

@alexchennz any updates?

Tinkerisk

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#3274948 24-Aug-2024 15:35

cddt:

What's crazy in Germany is the number of people who buy bottled water, zweifellos full of microplastics.

Yes, that's something that makes me scratch my ear too, especially as tap water meets very high drinking water standards and can be drunk directly without hesitation or gas can be added with simple water bubblers. I don't know what's going on in some people's heads.

gzt

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#3274964 24-Aug-2024 15:48

Tinkerisk: As an industrialised nation, we consume an average of 120 litres per inhabitant per day (which is still too much in the future) and pay for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. Now someone might get the idea that we don't wash ourselves in Germany ... but we do. So it must be something else. 🤣

Decades of water efficient frontloading European whiteware could be a factor. Adding to that, in colder climates I've noticed people generally do live with a lot less washing of clothing.

gzt

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#3274966 24-Aug-2024 15:53

Watercare has a pretty good step by step guide you're probably already aware of. Here's the overview screenshot:

neb

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#3275035 24-Aug-2024 22:21

Tinkerisk: Yes, that's something that makes me scratch my ear too, especially as tap water meets very high drinking water standards and can be drunk directly without hesitation or gas can be added with simple water bubblers. I don't know what's going on in some people's heads.

I think it's pretty easy to explain, Germany (and many other central European countries) have an obsession with Siefenwasser, in English mineral water, to the extent that when you go to a restaurant you have to explicitly ask for non-mineral water because "water" implies mineral water. So what's being consumed is Seifenwasser, not ordinary water.

Unless you're in Russia, where the "mineral water" is a way of getting rid of Soviet-era industrial waste:

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