Your Gold Coast water bill issued by the City of Gold Coast as a Water and Sewerage Rate Notice arrives every three months. Currently, every water meter is manually read every three months with your Gold Coast water bill coming soon after. The cost of water is set every year as part of the budget process with the detailed current water pricing for 2020-21 available from Gold Coast Water.
What are the costs on your Gold Coast water bill?
For most homeowners who use around the average daily water usage of 451 litres, the highest costs in the quarterly Gold Coast water bill are their sewerage and water access service charges. If you look closely at your water bill you can see that you have the following access charges:
| Residential Charges | Cost |
| Sewerage access charge per quarter |
$181.03 |
| Water access charge per quarter |
$53.02 |
| Total Access Charges per Quarter |
$234.05 |
The usage charges per kilolitre as measured by your water meter are made up of council charges and Queensland Government charges as below:
| Residential Charges | Cost |
|
City of Gold Coast water per kilolitre |
$1.090 |
| Queensland Government water per kilolitre |
$3.122 |
| Total Cost of Water per Kilolitre |
$4.212 |
In reality, even if you did not use one drop of water, you would still pay for water and sewerage access service charges of $234.05 every quarter or $936.20 every year.
In our experience, the average water use of 451 litres or 0.451kL per property is not an accurate guide to your water use. Most homes with more than one occupant will use 1-2 kL every day. Remember your water usage will vary every day based on the number of occupants at home each day, and their water use behaviours. That is why we recommend you read your water meter weekly as that will give you a better guide about your average consumption but will also alert you to a potential water leak.
The real cost of water dripping from a tap
What will cause your usage charges to blow out is having leaking water. Leaking taps and toilets are frequently overlooked and put off to another day. A dripping tap that drips one drop every second will use 40 litres of water a day. The reality is that it becomes 280 litres a week and then 1214 litres a month and then 14560 litres a year. This is all water charged for on your Gold Coast water bill that you never utilised for any useful purpose.
If we translate the litres wasted to the cost of water, then the numbers become real.
| Cost of a Dripping Tap at 1 drip per second | Residential Cost at $4.212 per kL or 1000 litres | Business Cost at $8.662 per kL or 1000 litres |
|
1.66 litres per hour |
$0.007 |
$0.014 |
| 40 litres per day |
$0.169 |
$0.347 |
| 280 litres per week |
$1.180 |
$2.425 |
| 1214 litres per month |
$5.114 |
$10.516 |
| 14560 litres per year |
$61.327 |
$126.119 |
The real cost of a leaking underground water main
A dripping tap or running toilet you can visually sight but the real killer to your Gold Coast water bill is your underground water main pipe leaking. For residential users, these are usually leaking polypipe water mains that were never installed correctly when the house was built. Only occasionally is a water leak apparent and bubbling to the ground. Most of the time they are a silent Gold Coast water bill killer leaking 24/7 undetected.
There is no real average for any leaking water main because it depends on the type of break in the pipe and what the incoming water pressure is. Currently, we have a small leak where we have water monitoring installed that is leaking on average of 44 litres per hour, so we use that as a basis for what a leaking water main will cost on a Gold Coast water bill.
| Cost of a leaking underground water main at 44 litres per hour | Residential Cost at $4.212 per kL or 1000 litres | Business Cost at $8.662 per kL or 1000 litres |
| 44 litres per hour |
$0.185 |
$0.381 |
| 528 litres per day |
$2.223 |
$4.574 |
| 3696 litres per week |
$15.568 |
$32.015 |
| 16016 litres per month |
$67.459 |
$138.731 |
| 192192 litres per year |
$809.513 |
$1664.767 |
A leak at 44 litres per minute is only a small leak. It is highly unlikely to show up bubbling to the ground unless it is directly under the grass in a shallow trench. Even looking at your water meter, it will not be evident unless you are testing your water use at the meter by checking for a water leak.
How much does a leak cost per litre
We have always recommended that you test your water usage through your water meter every month. By having comparable figures, you will soon ascertain whether you have a leaking pipe.
We have always recommended that you install an AquaTrip water leak detection system after your water meter. An AquaTrip Water Leak detection system with an integrated automatic shutoff valve supplied and installed by Whywait Plumbing is a permanently installed leak detection protection system that quietly protects against leaks 24/7. It is a one time only insurance payment.
With our modern leak detection methods, it’s a much easier job to find a leak but unless you have an AquaTrip installed or use our water monitoring service you will still pay for a lot of lost water before you become aware of the leak.
If you think you have a leak contact us because every litre that you lose is costing you $0.004212 for residential properties or $0.008662 for businesses on your Gold Coast water bill. If you believe that is inconsequential, we have just rectified a leak for a business client that was in a 40mm underground pipe that was leaking 96 kL every day, which is 96000 litres every 24 hours. This leak was costing $831.55 every day.
