Water meters

[Seagull73]

I pay £35 a month for my metered water and sewerage, 2 adults, 1 child. My mother-in-law who lives just round the corner and isn't on a meter currently, pays the rateable value of.... £69 per month, and lives on her own.

She's having a meter fitted later this week...!

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

put an end too wasting water, get a meter fitted ,you know it makes sense NO MORE LETTING THE TAP RUN, NO MORE WASHING THE CAR WITH A HOSE PIPE FOR AGES, NO MORE FILLING UP THE OUTSIDE PADDLING POOL ........... going to be a shock for some

 

[Paul Reids Sock]

The first thing that I would suggest would be to contact your water company as they may have more helpful literature. I know that Thames Water did a scheme where you could have a meter fitted and try it for 3-6 months. If you found that it didn’t save you money you could revert back to your old bills. The meter would stay there as a ‘sleeping meter’ and when/if your house was sold it would be activated for the new owner. Your water company may be able to sort out the same sort of thing for you.

One of the major things that OFWAT is looking at over the next few years is domestic usage coming down. Water companies are gong to be massively judged on how much their customers use. This is why a lot of companies are installing meters as, although they may loose some money on bills, the money they save by not being fined by OFWAT will more than make up for it.

 

[kevo]

Thanks for all the info and advice!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

My water bill is currently £74 a month to cover the shortfall of underpaying. It was £61 a month and with Anglian Water's annual rise would have gone to £65 anyway.

 

[Cantona's Flying Dropkick]

One way of calculating if you would be better/worse off, is the ratio of bedrooms in property to people living there :-

Less people -> better off
Same amount -> about same [probably better off]
More people -> worse off

HTH

 

[APACHE]

Let's not get carried away too quickly about the saving of going on the meter. The water companies at the moment are using it as an exerise to save water but in the long term the price must go back up, why,, they're a private company and so operate to make a profit. If they sell a 100 and get 150 back that's 50 profit but the meter means they sell 60 their profit drops, so the price won't stay low for long and we'll be using less but paying more per unit for it. I believe this is what happened in one of the states in the US they put in meters everywhere,usage went down, so did profit, so the suppliers increased cost per unit to get back their profit target.

 

[Triggaaar]

Do hose pipe bans apply if you have a water meter?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Do hose pipe bans apply if you have a water meter?

Yep, but probably not if you use the water from your own well

Could be debatable who owns the water though.

 

[clippedgull]

I live in a block of 120 flats. They said we can't have water meters. We then demanded they rate us as having a water meter based on occupancy levels. Results, big savings, still able to use as much water as you like!

 

[Lethargic]

I live in Horsham and changed from monthly bill to meter last year, we kept our DD at the same rate as previous to see what the difference was got the first 6 month bill and we owed an additional £58, which is pretty good for a 2+2 family. They estimated it would be an additional £250 over the 6 months so happy with what we got.
Mind you meters should be cheaper this summer seeing as there is a drought and we have run out of water so none to use.

 

[perseus]

Single in a one bedroom flat. The bills were horrendous before I had a water meter installed and then they halved. Southern Water refused to install it at first, saying not enough room. They take up hardly any space.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

The first thing that I would suggest would be to contact your water company as they may have more helpful literature. I know that Thames Water did a scheme where you could have a meter fitted and try it for 3-6 months. If you found that it didn’t save you money you could revert back to your old bills. The meter would stay there as a ‘sleeping meter’ and when/if your house was sold it would be activated for the new owner. Your water company may be able to sort out the same sort of thing for you.

One of the major things that OFWAT is looking at over the next few years is domestic usage coming down. Water companies are gong to be massively judged on how much their customers use. This is why a lot of companies are installing meters as, although they may loose some money on bills, the money they save by not being fined by OFWAT will more than make up for it.

OFWAT are 20 years late. Southern Water are having to impose rationing because they have only installed meters in 40% of Sussex in last 20 years. Being pushed they can now do 60% in the next 4 years. They lose 10% income (10% water less used and in reserves) on average for each installation so, disgracefully, havn't bothered and now can't cope. They havn't built a new reservoir for 30 years & these hold just 7% of reserves despite the continued & predicted rising population. They just 'hope' it rains & the Downs aquifers hold enough to last the summers. No pipes linking reservoirs to move around to areas of need either. It is laughable the consumers should be reatricted, they should be fined say a £1m a day for every day restrictions are imposed as it IS their fault not the drier weather they pathetically blame, that may concentrate their long term minds a little better

 

[The Merry Prankster]

OFWAT are 20 years late. Southern Water are having to impose rationing because they have only installed meters in 40% of Sussex in last 20 years. Being pushed they can now do 60% in the next 4 years.

By 2015 92% of all Southern Water households will be using a water meter

I'm no statistician but both these figures can't be right.

 

[scarby]

i fit water meters for anglian water and as a rule of thumb you will roughly pay about £12 per person a month on average. i pay £38 per month for 4 people(2 adults, 2 teenagers) you can save if you are a family by subtle changes of water use without being going overboard.
ask your water company what you pay per cubic meter (total, water coming in , going out and standing charges) probably around the £4 per cubic meter (1000ltrs) then you can work out what you use per day, on average 150ltrs per person.
bearing in mind a 5min normal shower will use 40 ltrs, a bath 80 ltrs, a 5 min power shower 100 ltrs, wc flush 6 ltrs.
in the anglian region we are fitting water saving devices free of charge to anyone who wants them , not sure if this is happening with southern water yet.
does anyone know who southern water contract the work out to?

 

[Wally Gould]

Anyone got one - is it worth it? How much do you save (if anything)?

You will save between £150 - £200 per year.

 

[Kaiser_Soze]

does anyone know who southern water contract the work out to?

Balfour Beatty do all the meter installs I think. I had mine fitted about 6 weeks ago. Got the first DD due soon since the reading. Hoping for a reasonable saving!

 

[Worthingite]

OFWAT are 20 years late. Southern Water are having to impose rationing because they have only installed meters in 40% of Sussex in last 20 years. Being pushed they can now do 60% in the next 4 years. They lose 10% income (10% water less used and in reserves) on average for each installation so, disgracefully, havn't bothered and now can't cope. They havn't built a new reservoir for 30 years & these hold just 7% of reserves despite the continued & predicted rising population. They just 'hope' it rains & the Downs aquifers hold enough to last the summers. No pipes linking reservoirs to move around to areas of need either. It is laughable the consumers should be reatricted, they should be fined say a £1m a day for every day restrictions are imposed as it IS their fault not the drier weather they pathetically blame, that may concentrate their long term minds a little better

Not the brightest idea in the world, where do you think your £1m a day fines would come from? It would mean a lower quality of maintenance, a cheaper (and therefore more breakable metering system, less staff (and the ones left probably offshored abroad) and even more restrictions in services.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Live in Hailsham,had a water meter fitted as a trial area and found it to be cheaper. As regards bath/shower,I have a bath every morning...a power shower uses much more than a bath,I leave the remaining bath water in the bath and use it to flush the toilet,to wash the floors,to wash the car and water plants...Good thinking Batman!!