My dear husband left the water on for 10 HOURS today. He watered the garden this morning and never turned it off. I didn't notice it, because it was 106 degrees outside today. Not the optimum playing in the backyard conditions. Our backyard is flooded with water, at the height of west nile infections. Awesome. We are getting granules for the water, but I'm more concerned with the BILL. It has been one thing after another with our house this year. Plumbing, AC, all kinds of fixes. Weve eaten through our house repair budget for 2012 and half of 2013 :( (It was very generous, too.) Has anyone gone through this? Any idea how ridiculous the bill will be? Our bill is typically only $45 a month. Sigh.
AV, we do have rain barrels. Unfortunately, they only go so far. It is SO hot here, we have to water often. :(
To clarify, it was not sprinklers. It was the hose connected to the outside source.
Our bill has last months reading, and the previous 6 months We use pretty much the same amount of water every month. I'm really not sure how to determine what was used today, in regards to what we've used in the past. I think we will call the company tomorrow. (Actually, it's the city. )
Thanks, 8kidsdad! I will do that. Yep, we have lots of clay. Unfortunately!!
I am in Plano and my last water bill was $391. We have a huge lot and on water days, we take full advantage of it.
Time to get rain barrels, maybe? At least the water for those is finite and free.
Bummer about the pond. Would poking holes in the ground help it to soak in?
I live in your area, too, B. (relatively speaking), and last month I was watering the foundation and left the water on for 6 hours. Our bill is usually only about $40 because we have well water for most of our outside watering. The water I left on was city water, though. It only caused my bill to go up about $20, so I bet it won't be too bad for you either. Now I set a timer when I water the foundation. :)
I live in Rockwall and my husband has done this too!!! Our bill was 137.00. Ugh!
I'll let you know what ours is this quarter. My husband left the hose on full blast for about a week before it was discovered. ugh!!!
You may as well summon your courage, call up the utility company, and ask. You certainly won't be the first person to have done this! But you might do well to buy yourself a little timer; with those outdoor temps, it's very easy to forget about sprinklers.
I've been reading the other answers. Around here, only recently have Colorado homeowners been allowed to collect rainwater. It's was illegal for a long time - just a part of living in a dry western state.
We filled our pool in O. day and it only added about $60 to our water bill.
My husband did something similar. Our bill was about 100 bucks that time. Ugh.
Don't worry about the mosquitos. Unless your yard is extremly clay dirt, your water will have disappeared into the soil long before the mosquito could hatch and fly away.
As for the bill, call you water company and ask them for an estimate. Depending on the cost of water and the amount of flow, your bill could vary tremendously. You can get a water time at Home Depot that will fit on your hose faucet and turn the water off and on at what ever interval you choose.
To figure your bill yourself, fill an empty gallon milk jug using your hose at the flow rate it was running at when you left the hose on. Time how long it takes to fill the jug. figure your cost of water and multiply by the amount of time you left the hose on. Example: it takes 10 seconds to fill the gallon jug. A gallon costs $.005. There are 360 10 second intervals in an hour. The water was on for 10 hours or about 3600 10 second intervals. 3600 times .005 = $18.
Good luck to you and yours.
call the water people. Let them know what happened. They may be able to adjust it, but it depends on if you want to and how often they allow it. Ours does it 1 time per year (in case of damage, etc.). Good luck.
10 hours, full open? Double or more. Can you call them and ask what your meter reading was last month then see how much you used?
I'd say about double.
If it makes you feel any better:
30 twenty gallon baths
60 5 minute showers (reduced flow shower head)
30 loads of laundry
Cooking water
=
$400-$800 per month for us in water bills
Yep.
Up here in the CONSTANTLY SOAKING WET northwest
(the variation is that we're charged double in the summer time)
((Filling a splash pool about 3 feet deep by 10 across costs $1000))
(((And, yes. We've had the water co. out here to check for any kind of leak. Nada. And fairly typical use for our area/similar households. ALTHOUGH, come to find, some people are skating, because some people's old water meters only read a fraction of their actual use. Grrrr. LOL. I wanna be THEM!!!)))
I bet you it will only double. Water per gallon is pretty cheap.
I forgot to turn my sprinkler off last month and it watered my back yard from about 8 pm until I caught it at 7:30 am the next morning. My typical water bill was around $60. The bill that included the extended watering period was $90...much lower than I had anticipated.
We filled our pool which took approximately 10-12 hours. Our bill is also normally about $45-$55. With filling it up, it cost about $200. We live in Nevada, so I don't know how different out billing is. Keep safe and hope the mosquitoes aren't too bad!
Lordy-probably not as bad as you think-a sprinkler system may produce 240-265 gallons/hour-how many sprinklers were on? Call the water company/sanitary commission-whatever you call it in your area or do the math by looking at a past bill-establish your rate-include sewage, if necessary-and you will know about what to expect. Sorry for your loss-and I do mean that, because of the expense and because I was raised not to ever waste water. Water's finite-check it out-it is absolutely ancient-part of a cycle-and precious-like you!
