energy

NBC 5 Responds When Couple Gets $624 Water Bill

Before you buy a house, you know you need to have it inspected, but did you know you need to check utility history? An inefficient home can really drive up your monthly expenses.

A Haltom City couple knows that all too well. Bill and Linda Dunn are retired and live alone, but their January water bill indicated they used more than 82,000 gallons — the equivalent of four backyard swimming pools. That big bill nearly broke the bank, so they called Deanna Dewberry of NBC 5 Responds.

Bill Dunn gave us a tour of his one-story home where he and his wife have taken a number of steps to increase energy efficiency. They've installed flapperless systems in each toilet which use less water. His dishwasher and washing machine are also energy efficient and use less water than less efficient appliances.

His wife, Linda takes extraordinary steps to conserve water. She fills a bowl with water to wash dishes because it holds less water than the sink. It's all because they got a whopper of a water bill in the middle of winter.

It was $624.

"We were horrified," Linda recalled. "We thought, 'How in the world can this have happened?'"

She compared her bill to the bill of her neighbor, who has two kids. Their bill was $80.

Responsible Master Plumber Rick Swain checked the placed a water pressure gauge on one of the faucets outside. He said the water pressure gauge holds the key to whether a leaky pipe is the problem. But repeated tests revealed no leak.

When the plumbers turned on the neighbor's water, though, the pressure gauge fluctuated wildly. It seemed to be a revelation. Turning on the neighbors water caused the Dunn's meter to fluctuate too. Swain said it indicated water was being pulled out, then going back through the meter.

"It's double registering the water," he said, essentially double charging the Dunns.

"We don't understand still how that could make a bill be $624 dollars for one month," said Linda.

That's the question, which Haltom City Water Department officials are still trying to answer. The Haltom City Public works director told NBC 5 Responds the city has changed the Dunns' meter and sent the old one to Louisiana for further testing. They've also put a device on the Dunns' new meter, which continually monitors water usage.

The city is not making the Dunns pay the $624 bill while they investigate the problem.

If you're getting big water bills, the first thing you need to check is your toilet, which plumbers say is the culprit more than 90 percent of the time. To check, put food coloring in the tank and let it sit for 15 minutes. If the water in the bowl changes color, you have a leak and the flapper likely needs to be changed.

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