In article , MM
scribeth thus
Came back at least two hours later to find I'd forgotten to turn off
the garden hose after watering the plants, then going shopping. It was
only on at a moderate flow -- more than a trickle, but significant.
I've just read the meter under the pavement and worked out
(extrapolating from my previous bill) how much has gone. The estimated
reading for 20/Aug/12 based on past consumption should be 446. The
actual reading is 448.68, so I've wasted over 2.5m³, which is a heck
of a lot. So I'm planning on emergency measures like all-over washes
instead of baths for the next three months.

But as I get older and more forgetful, is there a gadget I can fit to
either turn off the tap automatically or warn if it's left on? Okay,
so I wouldn't have heard a warning while out shopping, but I was back
home for at least half an hour before going out into the garden and
then noticing the lake of water on the lawn.

MM

One of our neighbours went on a very interesting Winter holiday to the
Antarctic;!, and just before they went in Feb they left an outside tap
on which had froze along the hose pipe somewhere.

Well the weather got warmer and someone from the water board was seen
outside apparently someone had noticed a hiss in a pipe they didn't
like. Another WB person called round and said that there was a bad leak
somewhere.

He said do I know the people living over there and I said yes and if you
think thats were its coming from. Muttered that he couldn't get in I
said I can, over the fence, only to find their garden was some 9 inches
deep in water, quite a lake it was.

Dunno what the bill came to but I don't think they had to pay it all..
Must have been like that some three weeks or so!...

--
Tony Sayer