A couple of weeks ago I heard an interview on the radio (can't
remember which station) about Sydney Water customers being charged for
double the amount of water usually consumed.

Have just got my bill, which purports that I used three times as much
water for the current quarter as I used in the previous quarter and
twice as much as for the equivalent quarter last year.

I don't believe the figure and wish that I had paid more attention to
the radio programme.

Has anybody on this group seen any debate about this problem with
Sydney Water - or had a similar problem?

On Mon, 09 Aug 2004 08:38:19 +1000, Richard Wright
wrote:

A couple of weeks ago I heard an interview on the radio (can't
remember which station) about Sydney Water customers being charged for
double the amount of water usually consumed.

Have just got my bill, which purports that I used three times as much
water for the current quarter as I used in the previous quarter and
twice as much as for the equivalent quarter last year.

I don't believe the figure and wish that I had paid more attention to
the radio programme.

Has anybody on this group seen any debate about this problem with
Sydney Water - or had a similar problem?

Check you haven't got a leaking pipe.

It is also worth do your own meter readings to ensure they agree with the figure
on your bill.

g'day richard,

i ahve seen post re-paying for water but not along the lines of being
over-charged, although if that happened you may have a very hard time
proving it.

do a water audit even down to how much you use when bathing and
washing clothes etc.,. you may have to re-use some washing machine
water so may need to hold it and pump it back into the machine when
appropriate, baths can be shared 1 at a time so maybe cut the showers,
also maybe don't flush urine everytime even the 1/2 flush sytems don't
save that much.

yes look for leaks, thry this test read the meter last thing before
retiring for the night turn off any automatic water users like
toilets, save drinking water so that the taps don't get used between
the firtst read and when you read first thing the next morning this
can indicate if you have a leaky pipe or whatever. check that all taps
shut off properly a small leaks wastes lots of water over time.

yes do your own reads try and do it so that it coincides with the
water board read days, but read it each month anyway so you can get a
trend.

if you have gardens use your bath and washing machine water on the
gardens depends how far you want to go to save but urine can collected
over periods of day od night and used in the gardens also.

not sure if you are in a house but maybe you could include a rain
water tank for the garden and clothes washing??? look to nothing
smaller than 4,500 litre size that isn't a lot of water to store go up
to around 12,000 litre size if you can, electric on demand pumps
aren't super expensive and you can do all installation your self if
you are slightly handy

also is there anyway someone else could be using your water when you
aren't there? might sound silly but hey? if you suspect this then you
can get taps that need a key handle to use them makes it lots harder
for others to use the tap.

hope some of the ideas help

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

Not quite Sydney but with regard to leaky pipes. We live in Karratha WA so
have to water year round. Recently we were changed from the Millstream
(high calcium deposit) water supply to the Harding Dam which has a brand
new, state of the art filtration system. Yippee no more white calcium
marks everywhere.

Get to the point :-)

All of our reticulation (solenoids - I believe they are called) started
leaking badly, not to mention the main (poly) pipe joins running into the
house!!! Something to do with the deposits washing out I think. Anyway,
fortunately we noticed one leak and then a second and decided to get digging
and do a full inspection. Our water bill will be astronomical now but
imagine if we hadn't noticed!!! So do check for leaks - we thought there
couldn't be anything wrong with our 18 month old system.

Rambled a bit sorry -
Sue - Karratha WA.

Interesting story, Sue. Others also suggested I look for leaks
(actually we couldn't duplicate your actual event because there are
virtually no dissolved salts in Sydney water). Found no leaks. Checked
that the readings on the meter were correctly read and they were.
Australian Consumers' Association said they had nothing on file. On my
calculations it is as if we went away for two days and left a tap full
on - which we didn't. Hope it remains a once-off mystery.

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 00:19:14 GMT, "Sue"
wrote:

Not quite Sydney but with regard to leaky pipes. We live in Karratha WA so
have to water year round. Recently we were changed from the Millstream
(high calcium deposit) water supply to the Harding Dam which has a brand
new, state of the art filtration system. Yippee no more white calcium
marks everywhere.

Get to the point :-)

All of our reticulation (solenoids - I believe they are called) started
leaking badly, not to mention the main (poly) pipe joins running into the
house!!! Something to do with the deposits washing out I think. Anyway,
fortunately we noticed one leak and then a second and decided to get digging
and do a full inspection. Our water bill will be astronomical now but
imagine if we hadn't noticed!!! So do check for leaks - we thought there
couldn't be anything wrong with our 18 month old system.

Rambled a bit sorry -
Sue - Karratha WA.

"Richard Wright" wrote in message
...
Interesting story, Sue. Others also suggested I look for leaks
(actually we couldn't duplicate your actual event because there are
virtually no dissolved salts in Sydney water). Found no leaks. Checked
that the readings on the meter were correctly read and they were.
Australian Consumers' Association said they had nothing on file. On my
calculations it is as if we went away for two days and left a tap full
on - which we didn't. Hope it remains a once-off mystery.

Being so dry in sydney the wet area from a leaky pipe would have been easy
to find i think. Just check ALL areas visible.
Don't overlook other areas. Toilet leaking, release valve on hot water
system stuck open. The latter can especially get people by suprise, esp if
outlet goes into drain in some obslete part of garden, so check that.
Simple thing to do is if you have a tap at your hot water heater for the
inlet water, turn it off. Turn off the toilet tap, and go to water meter,
With everything off, bar the meter, it should not be ticking over. If it is,
there is a leak.
If not ticking go inside and turn on toilet tap. Go back out and check.
Providing toilet wasn't flushed during the time the tap was off, the water
meter should be quiet. If not, then toilet may be leaking.
Now try hot water sys, same as toilet. Now some water may top up system when
you turn tap on, but shouldn't last more than couple of minutes. If it does
keep going, then the outlet in system could be leaking.
Warning. Don't forget to turn hot water sys tap back on, OR leave it off for
a while. If the level drops and doesn't get topped back up due to a tap not
turned back on, the element will blow. Like switching a jug on with no water
in it.
Good luck.
Oh, and if all is good, then suspect neighbours taking water when/if you go
away even to work.
On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 00:19:14 GMT, "Sue"
wrote:

Not quite Sydney but with regard to leaky pipes. We live in Karratha WA
so
have to water year round. Recently we were changed from the Millstream
(high calcium deposit) water supply to the Harding Dam which has a brand
new, state of the art filtration system. Yippee no more white calcium
marks everywhere.

Get to the point :-)

All of our reticulation (solenoids - I believe they are called) started
leaking badly, not to mention the main (poly) pipe joins running into the
house!!! Something to do with the deposits washing out I think. Anyway,
fortunately we noticed one leak and then a second and decided to get
digging
and do a full inspection. Our water bill will be astronomical now but
imagine if we hadn't noticed!!! So do check for leaks - we thought
there
couldn't be anything wrong with our 18 month old system.

Rambled a bit sorry -
Sue - Karratha WA.

The question I have is, what are you doing about the plumber that did
that? Plumbing should last at least 10 years until it starts developing
any sort of problem......

Regards, Andrew.

Sue wrote:

Our water bill will be astronomical now but
imagine if we hadn't noticed!!! So do check for leaks - we thought there
couldn't be anything wrong with our 18 month old system.

Rambled a bit sorry -
Sue - Karratha WA.