"Wasting" water with large tanks

[Kittiee Katt]

You should have a valve located near your incoming water pipe usually near your hot water heater. Look for it because yeah that would totally suck if you ever had an emergency like that

Hello; Clearly I do not know how things are done where you live but I will give you two things common around me.
One is a water shutoff somewhere in the building itself. Mine in in my basement. This shutoff is on the feed line and shuts off all the water to everything in the house.
About 100 feet out in my front yard is the water meter and it has a main shutoff. I have had to use this shutoff twice. Once I had a pinhole leak in the water line in the ground outside the house. Another time I had to replace the pressure reducing valve near the water meter.

You may (and should have) shutoff valves in several places in the home. Such as the lines that feed the toilets, the sinks, the laundry room, the water heater and so on. This way you can stop the water and work on a particular appliance while leaving the water on to everything else.

Question, do you pay the water bill or is it part of the rent? If you pay then find out where the shutoffs are.
Call the local water company. I bet they can tell you where to look for a shutoff valve. (Note- you may need a special tool to turn off a valve in the ground.)

I don't know where my incoming water line is either.. Apparently I don't know much about this house..
My water heater is in a cupboard in my dining room (don't ask) and the only switch/tap/thing on it just shuts off the hot water.

I get a water bill, I'm not lucky enough for my rent to cover it lol.

I'll call the water company on Monday (its Saturday here) and ask them. I never thought about doing that. Thanks.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Here's cutoff for my water...

Actually, that black piece of plastic and rust there is(Was) the handle on the valve coming off the water tank, and there's another somewhere in the dirt coming up to the house.

 

[MrsE88]

So interesting. Lol

I don’t have a water shut off outside. I dont even have a water spigot on the exterior of my house. How dumb is that?

My main shut off is in my basement where the waterline comes in from the well outside. There are multiple shut offs in other places as previously mentioned above. I find it interesting that there are so many ways the water is set up in homes.
When my husband and I bought our first house we learned real quick how plumbing works. It was a bank seized house that was bought by a contractor and resold to us. So you can imagine how little care was given to it before we bought it. Pipes were broken and then later the hot water tank started leaking and spraying water everywhere! It was a nightmare. I’m so grateful my father in law was just a couple miles away and was able to help walk us through our new journey. Lol

 

[dogofwar]

Once you get the siphon started for the Python, unless you're pumping uphill, you can turn the water off (and waste less water).

I've also thought about the wastefulness of our hobby (I joke that I'm a hypocritical environmentalist). I love the idea of watering plants (in my garden) but I have a brackish tank and I don't want salt to build up in the soil.

I love the idea of flushing toilets with old tank water. I've always wanted to build a house where gray water (shower, sink, washer machine water) is used for flushing. Now I'll have to add fish tank water to the "gray water" storage tank.

As Seedy J mentioned, I don't use a Python. I looked at one but I felt I'd be wasting too much perfectly good water just to create the syphon.

With all that said, I live in a very wet area so I am fortunate that my guilt from wasting water is moderated some. I considered moving to to a desert region once and I did have some inner turmoil about aquarium water use.

Complete tangent . . .
From an environmental standpoint, I'm also conflicted about how some fish are acquired (and transported, etc). And I'm conflicted about how some fish are treated in the industry.

 

[magpie]

I don't even know where my water meter is.. I asked the real estate agent and she didn't even know. Praying that our toilet or none of our taps burst because I can't turn the water off if they do.

Our current meter is in the ground in a box with a removable top... near the sidewalk. Look for something like that possibly.

 

[jaws7777]

So interesting. Lol

I don’t have a water shut off outside. I dont even have a water spigot on the exterior of my house. How dumb is that?

My main shut off is in my basement where the waterline comes in from the well outside. There are multiple shut offs in other places as previously mentioned above. I find it interesting that there are so many ways the water is set up in homes.
When my husband and I bought our first house we learned real quick how plumbing works. It was a bank seized house that was bought by a contractor and resold to us. So you can imagine how little care was given to it before we bought it. Pipes were broken and then later the hot water tank started leaking and spraying water everywhere! It was a nightmare. I’m so grateful my father in law was just a couple miles away and was able to help walk us through our new journey. Lol

I totally agree. The plumbing keeps improving though. This last house we purchased is all pex. Hardly any pipes or what we consider plumbing. Its all tubing that runs through the home. Every faucet or water line then terminates on a main panel just like the electrical circuit breaker box.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Our current meter is in the ground in a box with a removable top... near the sidewalk. Look for something like that possibly.

Thanks. I did have a bit of s squizz yesterday but couldn't find anything.. I'm really hoping its not under my house, there's so many bugs under there and I'm a sook when it comes to bugs.

I'll call taswater tomorrow and see if they can help me find it.