Hi @debs64 - £700+ pa seems pretty high to me too. For comparison, here is an idea of what we pay and for what:
We have a reasonable sized 4 bedroom property with 2 of us living here. We have power showers once a day - occasionally twice. The washing machine is probably on 4 or 5 times a week and the dishwasher is run every other day. We also do 2 lots of hand washing up each day for pots and pans and glasses. We pressure wash the house render and garden paths every alternate year which uses a lot of water.
Other than that, water usage is mainly for washing the cars (2 cars - probably 6 or 8 times a year) and garden watering. We have a large-ish garden and live in the driest part of the country so, through the season, I do water borders fairly regularly (although nowhere near as much as they really need). I tend to use the easy option of a sprinkler because it's a job I hate - and they are notoriously water hungry.
We're on a meter and our total bill for water and sewage last year (based on previous year's usage) was £516. Just been told that it's gone down to £450 for this coming year - probably because I did hardly any watering in the joyously wet summer we had last year.
The only thing we don't get charged for (but you probably do) is surface water collection. All the run off from the roofs, drive etc goes into our own soakaways and our bill is reduced for that. It's a very small reduction though.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
You don't want to hear about the utter failure with Thames Water not listening to us or their installation crew and fitted one even though it's a shared main...our bill reached something like £4k when they realised something wasn't right 🤣 still trying to resolve the issue four years on. You'd think a company that deals with lots of dodgy Victorian installations around town would be better at paying attention. Utterly woeful.
I totally agree @BenCotto, re the water companies. It's a desperate state of affairs in teh south east of England in particular. Appalling. We're very lucky here. We might complain about the amount of rain, but at least we don't have that nonsense. I don't think any 'organisation' really gives a flying toss [polite term] about ordinary folk @amancalledgeorge. As long as they have a nice fat pension, and plenty of dosh rolling in, they just brush it all under the carpet. Or allow it to be wasted in the case of water companies...
I wonder if it's because your garden is largely containers @debs64? It's easy to use a helluva lot for keeping those happy in summer.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fairygirl that’s my concern, I am not metered now and I have been told it’s a way to save but with all my pots I am not sure. I also water the garden of my elderly neighbour ( we only have a very low wall between our houses) to save her the trouble.
I can't be of much help @debs64 - sorry. I don't know what the best approach would be for you. If you have a meter installed, can you choose to go back and not have it at a later date?
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We're with Wessex Water and our water bill went down when we had a meter installed. We were told we could try it for a period of time ( a month, maybe) and could then switch back again if it wasn't cheaper. This was some time ago though and the rules might have changed. @debs64 . I would check out what your local water company's rules are first.
We have a water metre and we pay £20 per month less than we did in our old house which didn’t have a metre. Here, once a metre has been installed it can’t be taken out again and there is no option for the owners to change the way water is monitored. We’ve been quite happy with it to be honest although it was new to us when we moved here.
We had a water meter fitted about 15 years ago. ( I think) Before that, our water bills were based on our rateable value, which was huge,( big house in posh village) so when we started being metered, the bills dropped dramatically. Just two of us, showers not baths, car washed maybe every two months. We do get a small discount for having soakaways. I’ll check the latest bill later today.
Debs, I had a water meter fitted tens of years ago and I am still not even paying - per month - half of what I paid before the meter was installed. It has definitely been much, much cheaper for me.
Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
We've just had our bill for next year and it's well over £500, for a 3 bed semi. I did use the Severn Trent calculator last year and that estimated a saving of about £30 per year.
Posts
We have a reasonable sized 4 bedroom property with 2 of us living here. We have power showers once a day - occasionally twice. The washing machine is probably on 4 or 5 times a week and the dishwasher is run every other day. We also do 2 lots of hand washing up each day for pots and pans and glasses. We pressure wash the house render and garden paths every alternate year which uses a lot of water.
Other than that, water usage is mainly for washing the cars (2 cars - probably 6 or 8 times a year) and garden watering. We have a large-ish garden and live in the driest part of the country so, through the season, I do water borders fairly regularly (although nowhere near as much as they really need). I tend to use the easy option of a sprinkler because it's a job I hate - and they are notoriously water hungry.
We're on a meter and our total bill for water and sewage last year (based on previous year's usage) was £516. Just been told that it's gone down to £450 for this coming year - probably because I did hardly any watering in the joyously wet summer we had last year.
The only thing we don't get charged for (but you probably do) is surface water collection. All the run off from the roofs, drive etc goes into our own soakaways and our bill is reduced for that. It's a very small reduction though.
We're very lucky here. We might complain about the amount of rain, but at least we don't have that nonsense.
I don't think any 'organisation' really gives a flying toss [polite term] about ordinary folk @amancalledgeorge. As long as they have a nice fat pension, and plenty of dosh rolling in, they just brush it all under the carpet.
Or allow it to be wasted in the case of water companies...
I wonder if it's because your garden is largely containers @debs64? It's easy to use a helluva lot for keeping those happy in summer.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you have a meter installed, can you choose to go back and not have it at a later date?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@debs64 . I would check out what your local water company's rules are first.