Unexplained water usage overnight ...

[IND_Nick]

You said these reading come from a smart meter? I've never seen a smart water meter, are you able to read a physical display yourself? If so you could isolate the water at night and check the reading in the morning. A lot of these meters use a radio type signals that can be prone to interference possibly supplying false readings, not sure why it would only do this at night though, unless you user interface is picking up another meters signal?

 

[SandraKJ]

If it’s being recorded when internal stopcock is closed, then surely it makes sense to be on the supply only?

I've no idea, @ChrisB1982 - here's the reading for New Year's Day and I was away from home the night before and didn't get back until 4pm so shouldn't have any water usage being recorded before then. :-(

 

[SandraKJ]

You said these reading come from a smart meter? I've never seen a smart water meter, are you able to read a physical display yourself? If so you could isolate the water at night and check the reading in the morning. A lot of these meters use a radio type signals that can be prone to interference possibly supplying false readings, not sure why it would only do this at night though, unless you user interface is picking up another meters signal?

Hello @IND_Nick ... thanks for your thoughts on this. Yes, I can see the physical display myself and I've isolated the water at the mains in the street over the period of a week. When I do that, I get no water consumption showing overnight. However, if I isolate from the stopcock in the kitchen, the overnight readings persist. The smart meter has been changed but the overnight usage has continued to be the same. The profile of the readings shows a distinct peak every night so makes me think it's something that's on a timer but nothing in my home uses water overnight. It's driving me nuts and costing me money for water that's literally going down the drain. Example below for when I wasn't even at home. :-(

 

[Ben-gee]

You say there is no usage when off in the street, but there is usage when off at the house stopcock.
Therefore there is either a tee off before your house stopcock, or a leak between house and street, or your house stopcock doesn’t function properly.

Turn off the house stopcock and then go to each and every source of water you have and verify that they have stopped.

Report back.

 

[Timmy D]

Irrigation system or pond? Yours or neighbours?

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Have you checked the meter number against your meter number on your bill? The reason I ask is I once came across a situation where x2 flats were crossed over so one was being billed and the other rates, but the meter was recording the wrong property.

 

[SandraKJ]

You say there is no usage when off in the street, but there is usage when off at the house stopcock.
Therefore there is either a tee off before your house stopcock, or a leak between house and street, or your house stopcock doesn’t function properly.

Turn off the house stopcock and then go to each and every source of water you have and verify that they have stopped.

Report back.

Hi @Ben-gee. Thank you so much for your thoughts. I'm wondering if you might be onto something as I seem to recall when we bought the house 15 years ago that there was more than one stopcock in the house and we were told it was because one of them didn't work. The one that I can reach is under the sink and that still records water consumption overnight when the stopcock is turned off. I think from memory that the other stopcock was housed inside the chimney breast and although we could see it, we couldn't access it due to it being inside the chimney breast. I've drawn a rough outline for the downstairs of my home so you can see what I'm talking about (it's a basic diagram but you'll get the idea). There is nothing upstairs using any water as we only have a downstairs bathroom. I'm still baffled because as I've explained to other contributors, when I am away from home for any length of time, the meter accurately shows that there is no water used at any other times except overnight between 1am - 8am. So even if it's tee'd off to another property, surely I would expect to see water usage at other times of the day? If it's a leak I would have expected to see it being registered at differing times not just during a rigid 8 hour window and even if the stopcock under the sink isn't functioning properly, it doesn't change the fact that water is being "consumed" somehow, someway. Hoping this helps and I really do welcome any ideas you have about how I would go about checking if there is a tee before the stopcock in the kitchen, short of having to rip up my oak flooring? :-(

 

[SandraKJ]

Irrigation system or pond? Yours or neighbours?

Nope - nothing at all of that nature. Thanks for the suggestion though @Timmy D .

 

[SandraKJ]

Have you checked the meter number against your meter number on your bill? The reason I ask is I once came across a situation where x2 flats were crossed over so one was being billed and the other rates, but the meter was recording the wrong property.

Hi @ChrisB1982 ... yes, I've checked and the numbers match. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[PETE 123]

at night water pressure increases have you got a central heating sytem that needs refilling or a unvented cylinder as that may be letting bye at night when pressure higher and discharging out the safety valve.