Average water bill for single family house San Diego?

[jimmyle]

Averaging $100/month for three people with 6 fruit trees, flowers, and 300 sq ft of lawn. $60 of that come from fixed fees like basic water fees and sewer fees.

[joec]

Yeah, reverse osmosis uses a lot of water. I would recommend just getting the fridge ones. We used to use a Brita drip thing, but the filters need to be changed often and having to refill it practically daily or a few times a day totally sucked. With the built in fridge one, I change it like once every 5 months or so and filters can be bought cheap at Amazon. Save a lot of time and is cheaper I think. Generally, your tap water is probably also safe to drink too.

Just paid a ~$46 water bill for 3k sqft house with small lawns and mostly drip irrigation for plants. In Olivenhain Municipal Water District if that makes a difference.
Maybe it’s low cause I don’t shower much?

Water bill was never that bad for us, it’s the power (gas mostly to heat) which is killer.

[sdrealtor]

Im in the OMWD also and that sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

I have a water softener system from Sears… I think its using up too much water. My water bill has been steadily increasing and this month I paid $258… gosh theres something going wrong… I am sure I not using 37hfcs of water in 2 months. I have a toddler and no pets, no pool…well a kiddie pool that we fill 2 times a month…

[earlyretirement]

Something was definitely out of whack this month’s bill. The bill was from the period 6-19-12 to 8-17-12 (60 days).

The bill was $350.61. Normally I wouldn’t be alarmed because our 2 month cycle before that was just over $300.

For frame of reference we have 2 young kids, and we have a 5 bedroom house. We all take two showers/baths a day typically. 4,200 sq. ft house and 9,000 sq. foot lawn. We do have sprinklers both in the front of the house where we have native plants and even some grass and it does stay green even in August. In the back yard we have plants as well as green grass that stays green as well. (We live in Santaluz).

Now the problem is that we were out of the country on vacation traveling and NOT home from the end of May until August 10!

There is no way it can be correct. I just called SD Water and Wastewater services today to ask about this or see if they misread the meter. I asked if someone can come out and see it and she told me no that if I wanted I could go out and read the meter myself.

She said it’s in front of the house. I just went out to see it but the number on the meter doesn’t seem to correspond at all with the number on the bill.

But no way it can be correct. Our gardener did say that he increased the time by 2 minutes for each station but no way that would make up for the difference.

We do a lot of laundry, dishwasher, showers/baths. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.

[no_such_reality]

75% of your water use is going to be your yard.

a 2 minute increase on the sprinklers is huge.

If you went from 10 to 12 minutes, that’s 20% more HCF on the lawn meaning 15% more on the bill.

If you went from 15 to 17 minutes, that’s 13% more water use and 10% on the bill.

[The-Shoveler]

Man..

4 minutes water of the lawns every other day seem like plenty even in this heat.

My lawn is nice and green with that.

I think they will eventually make lawn watering illegal in socal, must be food related to get water etc

[no_such_reality]

depends on how you water.

1 inch of water on 5000 sq ft of landscape per week over the month is 25 HCF.

The poster has a 4000 SF house (two-story) on a 9000 sf lot, halve the house and add 50% for garage and driveway, you ‘ve got 3000 SF of house footprint. 6000SF of land.

if they went from 4 or 6 minutes every other day to 6 or 8 minutes, that’s an even bigger jump. i.e. 50% or 33% respectively.

Minutes don’t matter, flow rate matters. Because flowrate controls water lay down and coverage.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=no_such_reality]depends on how you water.

1 inch of water on 5000 sq ft of landscape per week over the month is 25 HCF.

The poster has a 4000 SF house (two-story) on a 9000 sf lot, halve the house and add 50% for garage and driveway, you ‘ve got 3000 SF of house footprint. 6000SF of land.

if they went from 4 or 6 minutes every other day to 6 or 8 minutes, that’s an even bigger jump. i.e. 50% or 33% respectively.

Minutes don’t matter, flow rate matters. Because flowrate controls water lay down and coverage.[/quote]

Hmm….well I don’t even think he increased the minutes by 2 minutes. I went to check now and the station run times say 3 minutes total.

I have to confess to not know much at all about anything to do with the yard. We have a gardener that comes every week and they handle all of that. In fact, he told me once best not to mess with the controls.

I just looked at it says 100% strength. I guess you can adjust the strength. I’m not sure what it was at before.

But I’m going to reduce the settings now. I got the meter reading. Sad to say I’ve never read a water meter in my life before today. (You can bet that will change!).

There is a box in front of the house. I never even knew where the water box was. But you can always see what the meter is at. You just have to lift up the cover and see the reading.

I guess they ignore the last 2 numbers. Mine had 6 digits. They just take the first 4.

My meter reading wasn’t wrong. Still hard to believe our bill was higher not even being here almost the entire 2 months of the cycle and it was more.

Good lesson and good to know.

PS. Also, for those of you interested, they also just emailed me this from the water company just now. I’m going to set up a scheduled meeting.

“We can offer a free Residential Water Survey. A Surveyor will come to your home and teach you to read the meter, look for leaks, and assess the flow of your interior fixtures. He/she will then run your irrigation system and provide recommendations for improvements and a recommended watering schedule.

We schedule our appointments Monday thru Friday during different time slots. Our appointments generally take about 45 minutes to an hour. Would you be interested in participating in this program?”

[email protected]

[ocrenter]

[quote=earlyretirement]

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.[/quote]

here’s my stat:

4700 sqft, 13000 sqft lot, 3 people, plus 35×15 pool, everything by drip, 1300 sqft of artificial turf.

Water Base Fee 56.92 (same as yours)
Water Used 06-13-12 08-13-12 127.40 (April to June was $66)
14.00 HCF @ $3.6121 = $50.57 (same)
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84 (same)
5.00 HCF @ $4.3980 = $21.99

Sewer Base Fee 30.66 (same as yours)
Sewer Service Charge 53.09 (slightly lower)
Storm Drain 1.90

the water use is progressive and you get significantly punished past 28 HCF. that extra 3 minutes your gardener added on were all at premium pricing, causing significant increase in your bill. compared to 2 months prior, we also saw an increase by about $60 during the summer months.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=ocrenter][quote=earlyretirement]

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.[/quote]

here’s my stat:

4700 sqft, 13000 sqft lot, 3 people, plus 35×15 pool, everything by drip, 1300 sqft of artificial turf.

Water Base Fee 56.92 (same as yours)
Water Used 06-13-12 08-13-12 127.40 (April to June was $66)
14.00 HCF @ $3.6121 = $50.57 (same)
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84 (same)
5.00 HCF @ $4.3980 = $21.99

Sewer Base Fee 30.66 (same as yours)
Sewer Service Charge 53.09 (slightly lower)
Storm Drain 1.90

the water use is progressive and you get significantly punished past 28 HCF. that extra 3 minutes your gardener added on were all at premium pricing, causing significant increase in your bill. compared to 2 months prior, we also saw an increase by about $60 during the summer months.[/quote]

I still have a tough time believing that the bill would be more just from that 2 minutes more at each station.

I mean both my wife and I take long showers. I installed a $2,800 Grohe double shower head in my shower a few months ago. It puts out a LOT of water and I usually shower with both of them on. I’ve never seen a shower before that put out so much water.

My wife also does the same thing and we give our kids a bath typically twice a day and we have one of those huge bathtubs in our master bath.

I just always assumed THAT took the majority of the water use. And not the watering in the yard.

I can see the water spraying out of the sprinkler head and it doesn’t look like anything too major. Certainly much less than the amount of water in our double head rainfall shower.

I just was surprised being gone all but 1 week of the 2 month cycle and having a higher bill.

Because I’d say I take at least 25 minutes worth of showers each day. My wife at least 20 minutes and then add in the kids. Still doesn’t seem to add up that the water use would be more with no use indoors during the time we were gone.

I guess the upside is not to worry about taking the LONG showers. LOL.

[ocrenter]

[quote=earlyretirement][quote=ocrenter][quote=earlyretirement]

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.[/quote]

here’s my stat:

4700 sqft, 13000 sqft lot, 3 people, plus 35×15 pool, everything by drip, 1300 sqft of artificial turf.

Water Base Fee 56.92 (same as yours)
Water Used 06-13-12 08-13-12 127.40 (April to June was $66)
14.00 HCF @ $3.6121 = $50.57 (same)
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84 (same)
5.00 HCF @ $4.3980 = $21.99

Sewer Base Fee 30.66 (same as yours)
Sewer Service Charge 53.09 (slightly lower)
Storm Drain 1.90

the water use is progressive and you get significantly punished past 28 HCF. that extra 3 minutes your gardener added on were all at premium pricing, causing significant increase in your bill. compared to 2 months prior, we also saw an increase by about $60 during the summer months.[/quote]

I still have a tough time believing that the bill would be more just from that 2 minutes more at each station.

I mean both my wife and I take long showers. I installed an almost $2,900 Grohe double shower head in my shower. It puts out a LOT of water and I usually shower with both of them on.

My wife also does the same thing and we give our kids a bath typically twice a day and we have one of those huge bathtubs in our master bath.

I just always assumed that took the majority of the water use. And not the watering in the yard.

I can see the water spraying out of the sprinkler head and it doesn’t look like anything too major. Certainly much less than the amount of water in our double head rainfall shower.

I just was surprised being gone all but 1 week of the 2 month cycle and having a higher bill.

I guess the upside is not to worry about taking the LONG showers. LOL.[/quote]

come to think of it, we were actually gone on two trips during the June-August cycle, total of about 3 weeks during the 8 week cycle, and the bill was $60 more than the April-June cycle when we were around, but needed reduced watering schedule because of cooler weather.

[no_such_reality]

That shower will punish you

Easy way.to check the sprinkler. Put a couple coffee cans or straight sided pailsnout. Turn the sprinkled on for twenty minutes. Go che k th size of the spray area and the depth in the cans. Do the math for inches by area and multiply bybthree tonget you per hour reading

[moneymaker]

I personally think it is a bunch of crap to tie one’s water usage to the sewer bill. The sewer bill should be a set amount that is equally shared by all. I remember in a college chemistry class the instructor would run the water at full blast after class for several minutes to “clean the pipes”. Well if that is how they are cleaned then I think I’m actually doing the city a favor by using more water. I think it is a tax on those that can afford it more and it is unfair.

[sdduuuude]

Our Total City Water and Sewer Costs:

2007: $1002
2008: $1111
2009: $1197
2010: $1170

2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs.
1700 sq. ft + garage.
Back lawn, 800 sq. ft.

I take longer showers than any teenager, took the water savers out of the shower heads long ago, and we don’t skimp on watering the garden. Lots of laundry, too.

[Author]

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