Okay, so the pool guy comes by my house and decides to put some water in the pool. He puts the hose in, going full blast open valve, and then leaves around 9am. He forgets to turn it off…
I get home around 6 pm to find a lake in my back yard.
Question: how many gallons of water did I lose today?
Thanks!
A lot here has to do with the capacity and pressure of your water supply system. You could get a very rough estimate by figuring out how much time it takes for a gallon to come out of the hose, or better for more precision 10 or 100 gallons, or the other way around, how much comes out in the minute. Then calculate it out from there.
This won’t, though, take into account normal pressure variation that may have occurred during those long hours. For example, maybe every neighbor had a sprinkler system that came on at the same time, which would reduce your flow.
Let’s assume:
Standard garden hose (say what? an inch diameter? no idea what’s standard, but I bought it at Walmart)
at full blast, hold the hose level, water shoots out about 1.5 to 2 feet (in a solid stream the diameter of the hose) before arcing down and breaking up.
Is that enough to go on? I’m just looking for a rough estimate…
D.
Well, for a rough estimate, a typical garden hose is 1/2". Say it’s 50 ft long, and that your supply pressure is 40psi (a reasonable number). If you take these figures and run then through the Garden Hose Flow Calculator (I swear you can find anything on the internet), you get a flow of 12 gallons per minute. You’re talking 9 hours, which is 540 minutes, so that’s 6480 gallons total, if I multiplied in my head correctly. Note that this is a rough estimate, but, since hoses and water pressure don’t vary wildly, it’s likely that the actual number matches within about a factor of two.
Do you happen to know how much your backyard weighs? You could just weigh your backyard now and get the difference, then figure it’s about one gallon per eight pounds, assuming evaporation isn’t a big issue.
You’re gonna sue the pool guy, aren’t you? 
Also, how many gallons does the pool hold? And how much was in there to begin with?
At this point, you should be able to know what estimated time the pool was full of water. The rest is wasted. You should be able to find the difference in fill time and 18:00, then calculate that with what your hose puts out (gpm), somehow.
Good luck, and sue his ass!
Forget the pool capacity… I wanted to guess how much water he wasted. Whether it’s in a pool or a mud pit or a slip n slide shouldn’t matter…
I’m figuring a $500 water bill this month…
This may provide aother method to get what you seek: Compare this month’s bill with last month’s. Adjust for the amount of water it actually takes to fill the pool (based on past experience, neighbor’s experience, etc.). The difference is what the pool guy owes you (plus some amount for backyard cleanup?).
If you go to his boss and explain the situation and your request for reasonable compensation, you have a good chance of a quick & fair resolution. (I’m a little surprised at recommendations to sue before less painful and expensive measures are tried.)
Watch those plurals there, Xema. I didn’t reccommend, I asked. PA reccommended.
Methinks you’re overestimating the cost of water, or underestimating the amount you usually use. A quick Google search gives water rates of 69 cents per hundred cubic feet (~750 gallons) in Glendale CA, $1.00 in Springfield IL, or about 39 cents in Boca Raton FL (these just happened to be the top few Googled results). If my previous estimate of 6500 gallons is close, you’re looking at, say, $3.00 to $9.00 extra on your bill.
Somebody always has to jump in and spoil the fun. We was gonna sue that punk. [sub]Always going around, bopping other guys’ ol’ ladies.[/sub]
But yeah, my water bill is about $65 every two months, including sewer and other charges.
Well you can’t simply say that the water running from 9am to 6pm was wasted, because what went into the pool, wasn’t wasted, right? You want to know the difference between what was, and what wasn’t wasted. I think knowing what time the water was beginning to get wasted (after the pool was full), is a good way to know. You can then calculate gpm with what time the wasting started, up to 6pm. What about evaporation calculations? :eek:
And I was joking about the lawsuit. Only go to that extreme if they don’t compensate for their mistake.
Estimated water flow: 12 gpm
Estimated Pool size: 3000 gallons
(3000 gal / 12 gpm) = 250 min
(250 min / 60 min) = 4.1 hrs to fill the pool
It’s now around 1pm.
You now got the hose running for 5 hrs. from 1 pm to 6 pm.
You’ve wasted 3600 gallons in 5 hrs.
(3600 gal * price per gallon) = money owed to you.
Jack
Water Usage Charge 3,740 gals = 5 Units @ 1.53 7.65
Seismic Improvement Program Surcharge 3.20
Total Water Charges $26.93
Total Wastewater Charges $19.42
$46.35
City Of Berkeley Sewer Service $15.10
==================
TOTAL AMOUNT DUE $61.45
=========================================================
Doesn’t look too good for a large cash settlement, does it? Oh well.
You could claim stress, I guess.
Actually, the company might comp you a month’s charges. Worth a try?
BTW; samclem, the mod, is cleaning up. Hurry, and tell us your decision. 