Water meters?

debs64 · 18 February

Hi, like many of us I am trying to reduce my bills and I pay over £700 a year to my water company. Would it be a saving to go onto a meter I wonder? I do water my garden a lot during the summer but with only 2 adults in the house our usage otherwise isn’t too much. What has been the experience of other forum members?

philippasmith2 · 18 February

Many years since I've paid for water other than by a meter. However, when enquiring about changing a property from Water Rates to a meter, I was advised that a meter was usually cheaper. That was some 20 years ago in SW UK so it may not be a similar scenario now. At least with a meter, you only pay for the water you use so it may be worth investigating your actual usage as near as possible. Also worth finding out what your Water company charges per litre and standing charges.
Rain water bins for your garden watering if you are able to would greatly reduce your overall consumption - obvious I know but it could help if you decided to change over. Good luck

B3 · 18 February

Our bill went down quite a lot but I've no idea what the difference would be now. We didn't have a choice. After many attempts to get us to volunteer, Thames Water just came around and installed it.

ViewAhead · 18 February

The rule of thumb is if you have fewer people than bedrooms in your house, a water meter is probably going to work out cheaper. Obviously, individual cirs can override this, eg if you need a lot for medical reasons or outside use.

I water my garden in hot periods, but it doesn't seem to impact my half-yearly metered bill much.

Waterbut · 18 February

In some areas once you fit a water meter you cannot remove it. I would also go with the above suggestions and fit as many rain water butts as you can. I have several including two in series and a few watering cans as well.

Fairygirl · 18 February

Ours is a blanket approach - we all pay the same, and it's a fair old amount. I wish we were on a meter - I'd be paying hee haw and the folk who just take it for granted would soon realise how much they waste.
I'm thinking of the man up the road who waters his ruddy grass on a regular basis, and even when it's raining....

It really infuriates me that people take our water supply up here for granted.

£700 seems a huge amount though @debs64 - nearly 60 quid a month. I can't remember what ours is, but I think it's around 30 ish, but we don't need so much for the garden, because of our climate, although I've been collecting shower water etc in the last couple of summers to save resources.

barry island · 18 February

Get a water meter fitted and as many water butts as you can fit in surely you must save money.

Skandi · 18 February

It might help the OP if they work out how much water a similar household uses and then do some maths. We're two people one who is at home all the time the other is working. We also water 3000 strawberry plants for about a month each year and lightly water the vegetable garden (1/4 acre) for 2-3 months on and off. we use 90 cubic meters of water per year.

Also check if you are paying sewerage and shouldn't be. My grandmother in hampshire was paying for waste water despite being on a septic tank, when it was queried they said that surface run off into drains also counts. to which the easy counter was.. no mains drains within 4 miles of the address!.

Fire · 18 February

I live in an 800 squ ft house with two bedrooms, small garden. When I put in water metre my bill went down by a third. That's with summer watering and my fondness for baths. About 80 m3 a year. Take out the baths and it would probably be more like half of what I was paying.

With a metre good to be able to monitor in details what we are using and, importantly, if you have a slow leak. You have to look at your own water data to see if you have a leak showing in the data.

I personally, in the South East, don't find waterbutts reduce water usage that much unless you have room for a lot of them. On the whole they are full when we don't need the water and soon empty when we do.

BenCotto · 18 February

Our modest three bedroomed cottage is unmetered. We pay £23 pcm for water and £37 pcm for sewerage. Frankly, I think that’s very reasonable and, even with just two in the house, I doubt we’d save much, if anything, if we switched to a meter.

i have to say I am not parsimonious when it comes to water usage, an attitude partly fostered by the absence of a meter. I’m by no means profligate, but I do water plants when necessary - but not the lawn - and don’t try to scoop up and re-use waste water or have qualms about running the hot tap until heated water comes through.

My attitude is that the UK has an abundance of water. If the water companies spent more on building reservoirs and repairing leaks, rather than dishing out our money to shareholders, our supplies would go even further. There are three roads into our village each with a mains water leaks that have taken months, even two years in one case, to be repaired despite the faults being reported on numerous occasions.

What I certainly do not do is accept any lectures on the profligacy of watering my garden from people who think towels have to be washed after every use, showers are needed twice a day - it was a bath once a week when I was growing up - have jacuzzis, and multiple cars washed once a week. They probably play golf as well on watered greens.

philippasmith2 · 18 February

Apart from 1 property in Spain ( very rural ) where the only water supply available was the rain which collected in a tank or taking a bucket down to the nearby river, my other properties there and in France were metered.
Since moving back to the UK, the properties , altho old , already had meters installed - either because they were ex business premises or multi tenanted.-
I believe all new builds in England ( UK ? ) now have meters installed as a matter of course.

Water meters?

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