Thames Water says 900 - 1,000 Litres Water Usage per day

[puri]

I live in West London, and water is supplied by Thames Water.

I have an analogue water meter outside my property.

Number of occupants: 3 adults
Number bedrooms: 5
Property Type: End of terrace
Rain water drainage: surface soil runoff
Hot water system:
* Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 637 Boiler
* Vaillant uniSTOR 310 litre Cyclinder
* Vaillant VR66 Control Centre
* VRC 430 Digital Weather Compensator
Number of radiators: 10
Number of toilets: 2 (each ~7 litre flush cistern)
Washing Machine: 8kg
Dishwasher: Bosch / Exxcel

Total occupants Usage / Lifestyle per day:
* approx 12 toilet flushes
* approx 3 showers (includes shaving and brushing) @ 8mins long each

Total occupants Usage / Lifestyle per week:
* approx 2 dishwasher eco cycles
* approx 3 washing machine eco cycles

Other behaviours
* No hose pipe for car cleaning and garden watering
* No toilet leaks
* No bathroom / utility / kitchen tap leaks
* No garden hose tap leak
* No other water facilities outside of property
* No swimming pools ;0)

Thames Water conclusions following numerous visits

* No internal property water leaks detected
* No faulty water meter detected
* No water meter leaks detected
* No water pressure issues detected

And yet, I cannot account for the following usage, I am not sure how long this has been going on for, I noticed the issue in 2015 and been trying on and off since to investigate the issue and monitor our usage.

Not sure what to do next. Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Diver Fred]

Ask for an internal water meter.

Alternatively.
You could try turning the water off at the water meter for a period - as long as you can from early in the morning until your house can stand it no longer. See if any of the neighbours suddenly loose their water supply.

Edit :- added 'at the water meter'

 

[puri]

I think my Shower might be contributing to some of this high usage. Here is a photo of my shower.

I just measured the following:

1 min 12 seconds to fill 10 litres bucket using the hand shower head

50 seconds to fill 10 litres bucket using the rain shower head

Is this considered high flow?

If so, how to reduce the flow?

 

[HERTS P&D]

You could try turning the water off for a period - as long as you can from early in the morning until your house can stand it no longer. See if any of the neighbours suddenly loose their water supply.

I was called to a property with a leak, they were going away for the weekend. So I told them that I would turn off the water mains and come back on Monday morning to check everything, but when I returned I found 4 angry neighbours as I had turned off the water to 5 houses.



Andy

 

[flameport]

how to reduce the flow?

Flow restrictors, such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shower-Reducer-Restrictor-Regulator-Limiter/dp/B077N1MV5Y

However:

If the 3 showers per day are 8 minutes as stated previously, they are roughly 100 litres each, or 300 litres per day.
Toilet flushing another 100 litres/day

Dishwasher typically 10 litres or less per wash, but that's only 20l per week if used 2x per week.
WM will be more, say 50 litres per wash, 150 per week.
For both about 25 litres per day average.

However that's still only about 425 litres per day, which is about what the average use for 3 people is.

As you are using 2x that, it seems likely your meter supplies another property as well as your own.
Or the showers are actually used for 20 minutes rather than 8 minutes.

 

[Friday round]

Seems the first thing to do is to let the neighbour know that you’re turning off the water and ask them to test their their taps. Being London, they’re likely split multi units so check them all.

 

[HERTS P&D]

When I turned it off, all the neighbours were at work, no one was home.

Andy

 

[Agile]

I once went to a flat where turning off the gas supply did not stop the flow of gas.

I discovered that two flats had their gas supplies connected together in parallel.

Had been like that for 2-3 years since the flats were converted and a "temporary" connection to the second flat had never been removed when their meter was fitted.

Although the proper tests when the meter was fitted were obviously never done!