Help me understand this water bill..

[therockingbird]

Currently paying £86.00 pcm which has now increased to £159.90 pcm. My water usage has increased from just under 400 litres in July 2025 to 850 litres July 2026. There’s 3 of us using the water (me and two teen boys) we have a gym membership and shower most of the time at the gym. I haven’t watered the garden in months! The hot tub - previously used a lot last summer has sat empty all summer this year as we use the spa at David Lloyd. I just cannot fathom how we could have used so much water!! 🤷🏼‍♀️

A leak somewhere? Toilets? Faucet?

Leak?

Does it actually correspond to your meter?

I’ve checked the serial number and it’s definitely mine. I’ve turned off the stock cock and taken a reading.. I have no reason to use water today so will check it again in 12 hours..

Is the bill estimated? I’m metered but most bills are estimated

Mine doubled in spring this year too. No increase in use. Just piss takers.

You've turned off your main stopcock where the water enters the house? Or turned it off at the meter?

Step 1 - turn off stopcock where meter enters house. Leave for as long as you can, check meter readings at start and end. (I think this is what you are in the process of doing). If the meter has moved you have a leak between the meter and the stopcock.

If no movement on the meter then :

1. Turn on the stop cock so you have water to the house again, and do not use any water at all for however long you can. Do start and end meter reads again. If the meter moves you have a leak somewhere in the house.

1. Turn off the water supply to individual things one by one like immersion heater (turn off the electric first, just to be safe so it doesn't empty and heat while underfilled) and toilets using isolation valves on the pipes - they can look like a lever or need a flat head screw driver. Again use no water anywhere and see if the meter moves.

For toilets, you can also put dye in the cistern and see if it appears in the bowl which would indicate water running constantly down the loo.

A quick way to check is to turn everything off and look at the meter straight away, there is a little spinny thing that turns if any water is being drawn - not the numbers, it's like a little cog/dial thing.

Leak!’

Do the readings match?

We have had a massive increase in our bill and found 3 of our toilets were dripping all the time, it cost less than £5 per toilet to fix. You can put a drop of dye in the top of the toilet to see if it drips in to the bowl. I called our provider and they have adjusted our payments as they have an allowance to do so.

Thanks, this is useful and what I’m currently doing.

you probably have a leak, contact your water company and say you suspect a leak, there is some refund mechanism that i found pretty easy to get a refund (and we didn't even definitely isolate my bill as a leak)

Leak or check your toilet to see if it appears to be constantly filling, that's a common cause of increased water use.

What was the result?

I had two boys in the house, they both left last year. One left in July and the other in December

my water usage has dropped dramatically, 57% drop

Loo flushing can be a big one. Do they have any showers at home? My water meter is on WiFi reading so my weekly amount is readable instantly- washing machine increases my daily usage by a lot . Have your teens started doing a few bits of laundry? A couple of items in a wash?

is yours a WiFi meter the company can read directly in real time? Even mine they don’t use the real information for the direct debit and I had to telephone to tell them to put my direct debit down

check for a silent toilet leak. This is one of the few things that can dramatically affect a 99 L/day figure. Waterwise says a leaking loo can waste up to 400 litres/day.
A simple test: put a little food colouring in the cistern, don’t flush for 20–30 minutes, and see whether colour appears in the bowl.

Apparently toilets are the biggest users of waters. Do you flush the toilet a lot? Are people now wfh whilst previously were in the office?

the company have put up their charges regardless i imagine

Just looked at my readings, and for the last year, it’s been 425-450 litres per day, for dh, young adult son and me (and dog), two of which wfh most of the week. Next reading will be September so haven’t got latest figures.

i think that definitely needs investigating.

That wouldn’t alter the quantity of water being used.

too much use of a washing machine
too much use of a dishwasher, or hand washing
if its mellow keep it yellow, dont flush

buy a hippo for the loo

have a timer in the shower
teenagers ime spend far too young in the shower

If it turns out you don’t have a leak, try reading your meter and then run off a set amount of water (50 litres was the minimum for accurate reading when I did this) and then read your meter again.

I found my meter was over reading my usage because it was faulty.

It took quite a battle with my shitty (literally) water company to get them to understand this and I had to fight my way past staff who were poorly trained and ignorant (later admitted by the manager I had eventually reached) and unable to apply critical thinking.

I was constantly fended off with “meters are hardly ever faulty so you must be using more water than you think” for almost a year despite proving (I had taken photos of the meter readings) that something was wrong.

I knew I was in the right because within the space of one month my supposed water usage had quadrupled whilst nothing had changed in my life or home.

I live alone but according to Southern Water I was apparently using the average amount for a family of five.

Staff gave me ridiculous reasons such as I must have had longterm visitors who I had forgotten about or had I got a pool and forgotten that.

When a new meter was at last installed I had to read the meter weekly for two weeks which then showed my actual usage was much lower than the old meter had been reading and I got a refund and my new monthly payment was reduced.

I live on my own. My water is metered and my bill was very high, significantly higher than the bills of my children who have families. I queried this with my water company who said I must have a leak. I couldn't find a leak so the water company sent two plumbers out who went all over the house and couldn't find a leak. My meter was still registering significant usage even when everything was off.

They then realised that I was being metered for water use in the house next door which is lived in by 5 people including 3 teenagers.

This was a couple of weeks again. I am waiting to hear if I am due compensation and, if so, how much.