Replumbing the mains water

 I check our electricity usage most days. I've done so ever since we discovered that the old meter for our guest flat was faulty. But I rarely check the water. The cost of water in Cyprus seems remarkably low, given how scarce water is, and we just paid the bills, with a quick glance at the usage each time. It was typically between about 20 and 35 metric tonnes each quarter, and never more than about 70 euros, often rather less. 

But then early in February, we received a bill where the cost was a lot higher than usual. And a quick glance at the consumption bar graph showed this:

What, we wondered, could have triggered such a high water usage in the previous three months? We hadn't been watering the garden much, because it was the winter. We had previously had problems with water tanks that led to somewhat higher bills, but never this high. And we hadn't had any problems with our tanks for some time. Occasionally one of the toilets would keep flushing water through, but we usually noticed and it never lasted for long. 

We wondered if the meter was faulty. But thought we had better check first to see if we could work out what was going on. Neither the washing machine nor dishwasher was running, and none of the taps were dripping. The toilets had filled up - there should not have been any water usage. But the little dial on the meter was, albeit slowly, going around. So Richard turned the water off, and it stopped. Apparently not a faulty meter, then. 

What seemed likely was that there was a leak in the pipes running between the meter and the boiler room. Unfortunately, those pipes were underneath the driveway, impossible to access without digging it up. Not something we could do, and we didn't like to think what it might cost, let alone the potential disruption, if we could even find a plumber who might be willing to try. 

But Richard had a better idea. He had been planning to re-plumb the house either later this year, or next year anyway. For the mains water, he wanted to replace the old black plastic piping with a new type that's less flexible as it has an aluminium centre. Apparently the old style pipes are easier to join, but no longer meet European standards, as older pipes can contaminate the water with chemicals. 

So he checked Mr Bricolage, our local DIY shop, and found that it was easy to find lengths of the correct kind of pipe:

However, he had a busy few weeks ahead of him, so knew that it wasn't something he could tackle immediately. Since we didn't want to continue wasting such a volume of water, we got into a routine of switching the mains off for most of the day. It turns out to be a great blessing in this kind of situation that we still have cold water tanks as well as hot water tanks, which supply the water for the shower, sinks, toilets and appliances. The kitchen sink has a special knob to turn to get mains water for drinking.

So, every morning for about three months, after my walk or shopping, I would turn the mains water on for half an hour or so. I would then fill up water jugs with mains water for drinking, while the water tank on the roof filled up again. I also kept careful note of how much water we used each day.  

The water bill states (in Greek) that each person in a household, on average, typically uses about 11 cubic metres of water per quarter. So that would be 22 cubic metres (or metric tonnes) per quarter for two of us, and dividing that by 90 days, works out at around 244 litres, total, per day. I was pleased to find that we used between 190 and 250 litres per day, with the higher ones being days when we ran the washing machine, the dishwasher (sometimes twice, if we were entertaining), and also watered the plants.

However, on one day when I somehow forgot to turn the mains water off again until late afternoon, we used over 500 extra litres. The leak underground, if that's what it was, was getting worse. 

When our next bill arrived, a couple of weeks ago, I was pleased to see that it was around 50 euros, with a quarterly consumption of 21 cubic metres. Just under the expected 'average', despite the wastage at the start of the period, and on the day when I forgot to turn it off. I had become quite accustomed to my daily filling of jugs, but Richard decided that the time had come to replace the pipes. So he measured carefully, bought the pipes and fittings, and one of our local teenage friends came to help.

It was more complex than they had expected - as tends to happen with this kind of project - but this is just after the meter was disconnected from the old underground pipes and connected to the new ones:

I'm no good with that kind of thing, and our young friend is strong, and flexible. She is also very interested in this kind of thing, and, being considerably younger than we are, has no problem getting up and down, attaching the new pipes neatly to the wall. 

They worked for about three hours on Tuesday afternoon, and another three or four hours on Wednesday morning. There were a few glitches when one of the fittings in the boiler room wasn't quite right, but eventually all was done. It seems very strange not turning the water off each morning, and I am still checking the daily usage... but it seems to be as it should be. Richard was evidently correct in his surmise that the underground pipes were leaking.  

In the next week or two, they are going to replace the guest flat piping in the same way.