Huge increase in coop water bill
I’m on the board of a 100-year old 12-unit building in the Slope. Apparently, our water bill has increased dramatically — in 2007, it ran $3000 for the year, and in 2008 had increased to $13,000. I’ve scheduled a leak audit from Honeywell (I guess the DEP contracts out to Honeywell to conduct them). But…
I’m on the board of a 100-year old 12-unit building in the Slope. Apparently, our water bill has increased dramatically — in 2007, it ran $3000 for the year, and in 2008 had increased to $13,000.
I’ve scheduled a leak audit from Honeywell (I guess the DEP contracts out to Honeywell to conduct them). But has anyone had a similar experience, or any ideas as to why it might be so high?
One possible explanation for us might be that some work was done on the local sewer system midway through last year; would this explain the increase at all?
it will make more sense to check the readings on your bill. Did you see spike in water consumption (based on the water meter reading) in the last period? Does the latest reading matched the current number on the meter? Do you see your meter moving at night (or when you do not expect much water consumption)?
You don’t by any chance have a ground floor Commercial tenant?
BTW, there have been at least one, if not two, substantial recent water/sewer rate hikes. See:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/water_and_sewer_bills/fy_09_water_rate_qa.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/water_and_sewer_bills/wsbillfaq.shtml
my bill has gone up considerably over the years with same amount of usage…from around $90 to $170. Much check water meter!
Depending on the cooperation of your building’s members, see if you arrange for all of them NOT to run any water during a certain short period. Go to your basement and check whether the water meter continues to turn during that time period. If so, you’ve probably got a leak, though you might have a defective meter. Another possibility that can cause your bill to skyrocket is one or more constantly running toilets or other leaky fixture(s). You can test toilets by putting food coloring in the tank and then checking after a few minutes whether any coloring appears in bowl. If so, the leak can usually be fixed easily by replacing the toilet flapper. Here’s a DEP chart for the cost of leaks: http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/ways_to_save_water/waterleak_wide.shtml
Does your building have any exterior spouts? Like in the front or back for hooking up a hose to wash down the pavement/airyway/whatever?
I’ve seen construction crews hook up to those as a water feed, regardless of whether they are working for the spouts owner or not.
Or it could be as simple as a misplaced number or decimal. I got a letter from National Grid requesting a $7,000 deposit based on the average of 2 months. I said “$7,000, you’ve got to be kidding me, over $3k a month?”. They said “oh, sorry, misplaced the decimal, it’s $700.”