I received my second quarterly water bill and cannot believe it says I'm using 49,000 gallons of water each quarter. That's over 500 gals per day!
So I started thinking about average water usage per appliance, shower etc and it still does not add up. The only thing I can think of, is maybe the water passed through the radiators is the culprit? I've tried searching online for an answer, but no dice.
While I do know my home heating is based on hot water passing through radiators and baseboards, does this mean its an open system? Therefore, whenever the water passes by all the radiators then it leaves the house and into the sewer? Hope not, since this looks to be inefficient to me. I would assume home heating systems that use water are closed systems and not lose water.
Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree on what's consuming all that water, but at the moment, I need to understand how water circulation works in radiators.
Best Answer
To answer your question, the radiators in your home are a closed loop. If they are single-pipe steam radiators, then there is a small amount of vapor loss out of the little valve on the radiator. (The one that may hiss a bit while warming up.) If you have that type of system, the water level in your boiler must occasionally be topped up, but that would be a few gallons of water per month. But if your heating system was installed in the last few decades, it's more likely you have the much more common forced hot water, which is an entirely closed loop.
My guess is that your meter was misread, or the meter is faulty.