Is there an alarm that would tell or alert when water flow iscontinuous, thus indicating plumbing problems such as a stuck flapper in a commode which can allow a tremendous water bill. I would be interested in such an alarm for my rental properties where water is shared .
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I've thought about that concept before, and did some searching, but did not find anything. It would probably generate a lot of false alarms when you water the lawn, wash the car, or leave the faucet on for the kitty. The best bet, if you are able, is to turn off the main, then look at the meter on the street and see if it moves over a period of 10 minutes or more.
I think the only way you could do it would be to have a remote sensor feeding computer so you could track flow over time. That way you could see if there was flow at 4AM, an unlikely time for water usage.
They make flow switches
There are flow switches out there, but they cost about $100 per switch.
They are typically added to fire sprinkler systems, to trigger the alarm, or landscape sprinklers to indicate valve failures where the valve isn't opening on call, or shutting down correctly.
We had some high dollar ($2500 range) doppler shift ones when I was working at the water district, that could tell you the flow velocity, and would record it for download to a computer. They were highly accurate, and we used them for measuring pump performance. That was a decade ago, so I would expect that the price has dropped considerably.
try googling "data logging water flow meter".