My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order to
save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating the
months usage. This turned out to be over twice what her old water rates
were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages, float
had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. You can see the central cog moving
around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots & they
appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; I thought the point of external overflows was that they
alerted people to a fault? Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or 'visible'?

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
news
My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order
to save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating the
months usage. This turned out to be over twice what her old water rates
were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages,
float had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. You can see the central cog moving
around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots & they
appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; I thought the point of external overflows was that
they alerted people to a fault? Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or
'visible'?

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk


I have never seen them turn when they are not using water. What happpens
when you turn the house stoptap off?

Adam

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
news
My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order
to save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating
the months usage. This turned out to be over twice what her old water
rates were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages,
float had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. You can see the central cog
moving around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots &
they appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; I thought the point of external overflows was that
they alerted people to a fault? Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or
'visible'?

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk


I have never seen them turn when they are not using water. What happpens
when you turn the house stoptap off?


In fact of these sort of mechanical meters tend to need a small flow rate to
overcome the small sticktion(sp?) they have.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order to
save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating the
months usage. This turned out to be over twice what her old water rates
were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages, float
had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. You can see the central cog moving
around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots & they
appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; I thought the point of external overflows was that they
alerted people to a fault? Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or 'visible'?

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?


All domestic meters should be read weekly and the results logged. In
that way you can easily tell when a problem starts to occur.
If I ever see our water meter creeping I go round and find the culprit
water flow. I've never seen ours creep without reason.
If your sister keeps a weekly log for a few months the water board ought
to accept this as justification for reducing the DD.
Check also to see where her rainwater goes. If it is all into soakaways
then a rebate of some of the standing charge might be due. I got one a
few years back.

Bob

On 22 Feb, 12:00, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?

At the risk of boring people because I've said this here several times
before... They fitted mine with the wrong size coupling giving a small
leak which became a significantly larger leak late at night,
presumably due to pressure/local usage changes. Check it at midnight,
not just during the day. And, of course, turn off the house stopcock
to narrow it down.

Chris

"The Medway Handyman" wrote


And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?

Certainly if you have water storage tank(s), the float valves can take
forever to finally stop dripping which will give you meter creap.
As other have said though, this will be diagnosed/eliminated by either
checking all float filled reservoirs are satisfied and not dripping, or
turning off the internal stop tap (provided this is known to give 100%
shut-off)

Phil

On Feb 22, 5:00*am, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order to
save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating the
months usage. *This turned out to be over twice what her old water rates
were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. *Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. *Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages, float
had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. *You can see the central cog moving
around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots & they
appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; *I thought the point of external overflows was that they
alerted people to a fault? *Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or 'visible'?

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?

--
Dave - The Medway Handymanwww.medwayhandyman.co.uk

It should only turn when you use water

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:00:51 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

My sister in law had a water meter fitted just over a month ago in order to
save money - just her & MIL in granny annex.

Apparently they wait a month & ask you to set up a DD after evaluating the
months usage. This turned out to be over twice what her old water rates
were.

Her son had a look & saw the meter turning when nothing was using water &
tracked it down to the cistern in the granny annex on permanent internal
overflow. Gran being a bit mutton never heard it.

Sorted that out & the meter was still moving, but slower. Took a look at
the upstairs WC cistern, that had obviously been overflowing for ages, float
had a hole in it, half full of water.

Nobody had noticed that because the external overflow seems to have been
plumbed into the soil stack when the Granny annex was built 7 years ago.
Sorted that & the meter has almost stopped moving - but it still moves
albeit by a barely perceptible amount. You can see the central cog moving
around - so slowly that its like one of those 'stare at the dots & they
appear to move' optical illusions.

So, two questions; I thought the point of external overflows was that they
alerted people to a fault? Don't they have to be 'noticeable' or 'visible'?

ISTR that the correct term is 'warning pipe' and that it should be obvious
if there's overflow.

Mate's DHW cistern went in to the guttering and the downpipes in to the
ground!
What about modern WC pans? - a very small flow down the back might be
noticeable only when a stain develops.

And do water meter all exhibit this very, very slow turning?


--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.