Water bill.. is ours too high?

[DoubleK]

we got our water bill the other day, i had my mum here, and she had a look at it just out of interest and commented that its quite high. its $90. im pretty sure we get them quarterly. mum said her bill is usually only around $40-50. (thats for her, dad and my 17y.o brother)

our water usage works out to be 550litres a day (roughly.. cant recall exactly) and i have no idea why? all the add campaigns for saving water say 155per person, per day.

we have three people, we all shower once a day (well, dd showers with me, but it takes a bit longer than if i showered on my own) she only has a bath once maybe twice a week, and i dont fill it too much. i do washing everyday, one load everyday at least, probably a second load every second day. i wash dishes once a day, sometimes twice, but that just means two smaller lots, rather than one big lot. we don't water our garden at all.. if we did i'd use buckets of water.

what could we be doing wrong? dp's morning showers are probably 5mins, my shower with dd is probably 10 mins max.. shorter if we're not washing hair. when washing clothes, i check the water level is right(ie, i usually underfill, then change the water level.. so its never overfull) i rarely use th laundry sink, if we do its to wash out the kitty litter tray.

i never really paid much attention to our usage, but i didnt think we were that bad... just interested to see how much water others use!

[AliBaby]

Our water usage is $68 for 2 adults and a baby. It is our highest one for awhile. Not sure why, I think I am doing more washing.

[mrsmac]

Our last usage was $110 so i'll swap LOL I do have a teenage daughter though Not good for water usage.

[Astrid]

What are your toilets? Are they newer dual flush ones, or older ones? I think the old ones can use about 20l a flush, so if you flush a lot you will use a lot of water. Also if there is someone at home then you will naturally use a lot more water due to toilet flushing etc.

At our last property with a water meter we were using about 720l per day. The toilets were old and would often run. The shower heads were not efficient and DD1 was toilet training, so lots of toilet trips.

[tattoo_mama]

it does sound abit high to me, maybe grab one of your old water bills and see if they are still charging the same amount per unit? maybe the price per unit has gone up, not ur actual water usage. also maybe ring a few friends with similar size families and see what thier bill is. i cant really comment cause we rent and over here u only pay water excess which is like $20 a quarter. GL

[Olive]

we currently use around 330lt a day.2 adults and 2 kids = 2 showers and 1 bath a day, hubby has long showers too! we also use cloth nappies.
as for the toilet, 'if its yellow let it mellow if its brown flush it down'

[Muffy]

My last bill was $111.... the highest i have had in a long time!! that is 2 adults a toddler and a newborn

[briggsy's girl]

keep in mind, if your local water board are anything like ours, your water charges may be going through the roof at the moment (each is climbing differently) - we got a letter in Jan that, for 3 years from April 1, our water fees would climb by a whopping 73% over three years! so you may have used a little more, but the increase in actual costs may be what's taking it out of you!

[Pandora]

Whoa, who are you with, and can I swap?

Ours was $119, and our usage is only 264 litres per day - so yours is $20 less, for twice as much water?

Ours actual usage of water was $23.57 - the rest of the bill is for sewage disposal, water service, drainage and sewerage service

[AnyDream]

Things to check:
Do you have an oldish hot water system. Sometimes they start leaking (invisibly) when they are about to cark it. Get it checked.

Turn off all the taps, go outside read your water meter twice over a couple of hours (when no taps have been turned on/toilet flushed). This might indicate if you have leak somewhere in the pipes (eg under the lawn or under the house)

If you have an old single flush dunny, you can buy a water-saver weight. You pop it into the tube that goes up when you flush - and basically it pushes the tube back down so the toilet only flushes as long as you are holding the button down. That means you can control the amount of water you flush each time.

Check that the outlet/drain hose on your washing machine goes up to the level of the top of the washing machine before it goes down to the drain hole. If just goes straight down, what can happen is it starts siphoning the water out during the rinse&spin cycles and you can use 100s of L of extra water this way.

Hope that helps!

[HotI]

Things to check:
Do you have an oldish hot water system. Sometimes they start leaking (invisibly) when they are about to cark it. Get it checked.

Turn off all the taps, go outside read your water meter twice over a couple of hours (when no taps have been turned on/toilet flushed). This might indicate if you have leak somewhere in the pipes (eg under the lawn or under the house)

This is a good idea. We did this a few years back and worked out the toilet was slowly leaking water all the time. Waste of water and waste of money

[Elyse84]

If your renting check that you are only paying for water useage - not parks and service charges. These charges can bump your bill up a fair amount. i was in real estate for a long time, and it is not uncommon for greedy landlords to try and get out of these charges esspecially if you have a slack property manager - or have just moved into a new property.

[DoubleK]

well my mind is at ease that our bill isnt excessive! i dont mind paying that much for water usage... i just wondered how our usage compared to others.

maybe it is the toilets that are doing it. dd is toilet training, and 'has' to flush, even when she doesnt actually do anything maybe thats it!