Why am I using so much water?

[ToxicOstrich]

I'm using up to 1000 litres of water a day. I'll have a 5-10 minute shower every morning. Sometimes a bath in the evening and a shallow bath for my son. Dishes once or twice a day, laundry if it needs doing. Then toilet flushes and drinking water. 1000 litres feels so high. Anyone agree something is off?

Use this to calculate what you use

https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/help-and-advice/save-water/water-usage-calculator#

but 1000 litres a day is extremely high and you may have a leak somewhere

Toilet flush alone is something like 6-8 litres. A bath uses upto 80 and a 5 min power shower used about 75. Laundry as well, that's 50. So it still seems quite high, The only explanation for excess use is either a leak (it would be outside else you'd notice probably) or that the smart meter is taking reading from the wrong supply/ more than one home's supply? Contact your water company.

If you have a power shower it uses pretty much the same as a bath.

You could have a leak. Ring the water company and they will come out to test your supply.

If you are on a meter, you can check it yourself by lifting the meter cover. If you aren't using any water and the meter is still moving, you definitely have a leak! We had one last year, the man who came to read the meter saw it going round rather fast, and came and knocked on the door to let us know.

I think the average use per person in a household should be around 140 to 150 litres a day.

Do all your taps/shower turn off fully each time? You'd be surprised how much a steady drip adds up over weeks/months.

Can you take a reading just before you go out for the day with no water in use, then take it again as soon as you are home to see if anything has been recorded as that could suggest a leak somewhere.

Do you hand wash your dishes? That can use a hell of a lot as I found out when our dishwasher broke.

My next door neighbour was paying both for her and my water consumption. I didn't know because I didn't have a water meter (she did) so saw nothing odd in my bills.

It was only because she contacted the water company after her husband's death to change the bill to her name that the water company realised her usage was way too high for two people.

So, could you be in a similar position?

Actually yes, we ended up paying for our neighbours hey installed the meter on the wrong pipe! So that's worth double checking (we were in a maisonette at the time).