Daily water usage?

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kiwifidget

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#322953 9-Oct-2025 17:23

I'm trying to work out if my mum has a water leak.

Water meter reading on 28/9 was 4788.24m3, and this morning 4789.73m3.

So thats roughly 1.5m3 or 1500 litres?

150 litres a day?

Does that sound reasonable for an elderly lady living on her own?

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#3423496 9-Oct-2025 17:31

Watercare give a chart with the bill... 150 l/day would be the upper end for a single person.

I have teenage kids... can you tell 🙄

richms

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#3423499 9-Oct-2025 17:33

I have no idea what those people in the watercare chart do to be so low. I am assuming they do that to try to guilt people into using less so they can not upgrade infrastructure.

Richard rich.ms

dustysmurf

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#3423500 9-Oct-2025 17:34

This is what a water leak looks like :-(

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#3423501 9-Oct-2025 17:40

richms:

I have no idea what those people in the watercare chart do to be so low. I am assuming they do that to try to guilt people into using less so they can not upgrade infrastructure.

A while ago they (fairly quietly) dropped the thresholds. Wife and I noticed it cause we were confused about a jump in where we landed and worried we had a leak. Checked past bills... nope just a shift in cut offs. So yes... I think they do it somewhat to encourage/guilt people into using less water. I'm not completely against it TBH.

kiwifidget

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#3423502 9-Oct-2025 17:52

This is a rural connection in Western Bay of Plenty.

Meter gets read twice a year.

Last 6 months was quite a bit higher than the 6 before.

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PolicyGuy

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#3423509 9-Oct-2025 18:36

Go and visit your Mum - it's a good thing anyway 😄

Make sure all the taps and water using devices are turned off.

Note the water meter reading.

Take Mum out shopping / sightseeing and for a nice lunch - you need to be gone four or five hours and giving your Mum a nice little treat outing and lunch is a great idea anyway.

When you get Mum home, before you turn on any taps or appliances, note the meter reading again.

If the two readings are different, either you have a leak or you missed a running tap

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kiwifidget

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#3423572 9-Oct-2025 21:00

I'm already at mums!

I was here 10 days ago hence I know those 2 readings.

I cant see any evidence of leak, but the ground is kind of soggy everywhere, coz rain.

I can do readings on Saturday as we'll be going out that day for a lunch.

So I'll do that, when we leave and when we get back.

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hsvhel

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#3423573 9-Oct-2025 21:14

dustysmurf:

This is what a water leak looks like :-(

You had an actual reading in August of 0 consumption.......odd, similar for me with no leak confirmed

Reason i highlight that is mine, which throws out Augusts Estimate....and then September is the catch up

And then with October being the estimate....which will be wrong...but correctable with Watercare on a phone in reading.

Wonder if anyone else has had a 0 reading.......

@OP

Can you isolate the house after meter at all?

Where the incoming to the house?

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kiwifidget

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#3423574 9-Oct-2025 21:32

@hsvhel actually yes,being rurally located but on town supply water, the meter is a reasonable distance from the house, so an extra tap was installed outside the kitchen to save trekking down to the meter to turn the water off.

That part has been checked already, no leak between meter and house.

There is a lot of underground water piping here that dad (RIP) put in, and no one knows exactly where it is anymore.

Taps galore around the place.

That is all isolated right now, so I'm dealing just with the house for now.

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dustysmurf

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#3423576 9-Oct-2025 21:43

kiwifidget:

I cant see any evidence of leak, but the ground is kind of soggy everywhere, coz rain.

I can do readings on Saturday as we'll be going out that day for a lunch.

So I'll do that, when we leave and when we get back.

The estimates aren't very useful, I think your usage of 150 per is pretty good. (I should grab a couple of years worth of data is work out what my "normal" usage is.)

Same issue with soggy ground, makes it hard to spot if anything is actually leaking.

July: Overestimation of water usage.

August: Recorded no usage due to the inaccurate July estimate.

September: Another inaccurate estimate.

Presumption: My average usage for September/October is actually around 500 liters?

So I'll do the same as you on Saturday, Take a reading, leave the house and check the meter again in a few hours when I get back.

cddt

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#3423587 10-Oct-2025 06:14

richms:

I have no idea what those people in the watercare chart do to be so low. I am assuming they do that to try to guilt people into using less so they can not upgrade infrastructure.

Opposite observation here! Our usage is consistently around 300 L / day in a household of five (+ occasional Airbnb guests), which Watercare thinks is on the upper end of a two person household.

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#3423596 10-Oct-2025 07:51

Um guys & gals - this is a personal calculation problem - not a 'what works for you' problem...

Do you shower once a week - or have teen girls (with long hair) showering twice a day...

Do you have an active vegie garden?

Or a weak bladder - so that you flush umpteen times a day - at either 7L a time, or double that with an older toilet.

Do you rinse off dogs or bikes or kayaks or cars every week - or do vast amounts of laundry ?

Model it and see what it should be - you can come pretty close.
There are only about half a dozen household activities that use water.

Our winter consumption for 2 adults (each showering at least once a day) more than doubles in the summer with irrigation for veggies & fruit trees.
We watch it pretty closely - as we use tank water.
But our simple daily average - averaged over the year - is a fairly meaningless number.
Any given day we'll be well under the average - or well over it.

kiwifidget

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#3424495 12-Oct-2025 18:34

2 hours later

We were out for 2 hours today, there has been water going through hasnt there?

That dial has moved round a bit.

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mentalinc

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#3424498 12-Oct-2025 19:02

Yep looks like a slow leak, the smaller dial on the bottom right looks like a 40L maybe... Which will add up quick 500L a day maybe?

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#3424499 12-Oct-2025 19:17

kiwifidget:

2 hours later

We were out for 2 hours today, there has been water going through hasnt there?

That dial has moved round a bit.

thats a tiny tiny leak. pinhole probably.

i would check bottom of the hot water cylinder.

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