Can Water Heater Cause 61,000 Gallons on Bill? HELP!?

I think you may have a leak outside, in your water line. If there is no visible wet spot on the surface, it is unusual. I guess it is possible that the water is soaking downward, but it usually hits such tough soil that it permeates upwards rather than forcing its way through the tough ground deeper...

The power can definitely be caused by the faulty water heater. If the water is never warming to the set temperature, it will constantly use electricity to attempt to heat the water. Best fix while you are waiting on repair or replacement.... Turn the breaker off to the water heater...

I'd spend most of my time looking for the leak right now, though....

** also, if your home is built on a concrete slab rather than a crawlspace, the water could be leaking under your home.... Then you are talking about busting up the concrete to fix the water leak... That could get expensive. Hopefully, it's just leaking outside somewhere you haven't noticed yet. If 61,000 gallons of water leaked in your walls or onto floors, I'm pretty sure you'd be aware of it...

*** What another answerer failed to take into consideration is that, along with the constantly running water heater, you also have ceiling fans, televisions, an oven, microwave, washer, drier, dishwaser, lights, lamps, and an air conditioner. 4560KW hours is not unreasonable if your water heater is running constantly consuming all except 1392 KW hours/ per month and thats assuming that your malfunctioning water heater isn't using a touch more electricity than advertised *****

Other answerer is mostly right: you can have a hidden leak either between the street and your house or even within the house itself someplace where you don't see it, like in walls. This much water though, is unlikely to go unnoticed. Check the easy things first: running toilets (easier to put in new kit or new toilets and cheaper than those bills), if you have irrigation system make sure it is not leaking or turn it off completely.

As far as meters being infallible: Horse dung! One thing to do is to turn off all the water in your house and look at the meter. If it is still ringing up, odds are there is a leak outside the house, and that can be expensive to repair because trenching is required to find it before you can fix the leak. Then, turn on the water and see how fast the meter speeds up. It should speed up a little with two sinks turned on and then gradually more as you turn on more. If it speeds up a lot or does not speed up proportionately then odds are something could be wrong with the meter.

Save yourself some money by calling City Building Department and ask if they have plots where the pipes are. Better yet, call the utility company and ask them to come out and spray the lines between the street and the house. They may balk at this, so the Building Department should have the lines of where the pipes are between the street and the pipe.

Before someone wants to trench the entire area, make sure they take a stick and tool; they can take readings of how wet the soil is along the line to narrow things down quite a bit. Let them know you are aware of this so you don't get ripped off.

Depending on where the leak is, they may have to share the cost of repairs. For example, if the leak is at the junction of where your pipes meet the street pipe. Also, check with you neighbors to see if there water bills have been high -- this would indicate a problem with the street and all of you may be getting nailed.

Good luck.

Make sure all the water is turned off in the house, including making sure the toilets aren't running, and then go out to the meter and see if it's still turning, Most newer meters will have a small red dial that is used to catch the smallest leaks, I'd go read the meter too and make sure they didn't misread it. That's been known to happen.

I will add that most bigger cities will give you a credit on your bill on the high usage once they have a invoice from a plumber and that the water consumption has went back to normal.

Few tips to investigate: Make sure you did not forgot to turn OFF the water on the garden hose and that garden hose was not busted under pressure over night. Make sure that your next door neighbor is not connecting his garden hose on your wall faucet to wet his garden while you are not home. Make also sure that the kids (like most kids do) were not taking showers every day until the hot water ran out while the tank was in good order. Good luck...!

Your water heater should have a pressure relief valve; see where that drains to. Sometimes they're set up to drain into a floor drain, which is good in that it won't flood your house but can be bad in that you may not realize the relief valve has failed (and they do occasionally fail).

A failed pressure relief could cause most of the symptoms you've noted: excessive water use, excessive use of electricity, water heater making noises, and no hot water. Basically, your water heater could dumping water down the drain.

you should be able to hear that much water running if everything is off, but if there is a shutoff in the meter hole i would be turning it off when im not using water until i figured it out ...

.. on the electric, it follows if there was a massive leak in the hot water line somewhere it would keep the water heater on all the time .. there should be a shutoff valve on the heater to, again, shut it off until its sorted .. and you should be able to hear water running if there is a large leak ..

you have a massive leak. its either under the house, or underground where service comes from the meter. there is no way you wouldnt notice that much water if it was in the house.

Well........."Shozbot" .....has it figured ..... with the increase in electric as well

as water usage .....it stands to reason that the lost water has been heated ....

soooooo .....begin looking for your leak from the water heater ...on .....