Over the past couple of days I was surprised at how much water the Aquacue Barnacle was reporting that we were using. The Barnacle was reporting over 80 gallons per minutes. Initially I though this was a false alert as we had just changed the software. But after some investigation that included help from San Jose Water Company we found the leak under the house. The Barnacle was right after all. Here is the proof of the leak:
The Barnacle reported water usage matched the water meter to 99.44% accuracy. The water pipe connecting the water meter to the house was old rusty galvanized pipe and it had just given up being a pipe. The cost of repair $3500 (included digging the sidewalk and front yard to get access to the water pipe and fixing the sidewalk, …). Damages to the house: none. Without the Barnacle I wouldn’t have found about the leak until after significant damage to the house was done. If I had acted immediately after the first Barnacle alert, the leak would have been detected in two hours.
