Water meters - pros and cons?

Art wrote:

In general families would be better off not having a meter. The break-even point is about 2 people in a household.

It's also worth remembering that once you have a meter installed you can't change back again so it's important to make the right decision.

Regards,
Art.

That break-even statement is really is far too simplistic.

Firstly the way charges are levied on both metered and unmetered vary greatly according to the Water Company covering each area.

However the biggest factor is the rateable value(RV) of your property. A low RV and several people in the house will generally mean that you are better off unmetered. However there are plenty of threads in this forum that indicate that many(most?) families are better off changing to metered - often by consideable amounts.

Also from these forums I understand that you have a year to change your mind and revert to unmetered if you wish.

I am just about to go over to a meter as Seven Trent have calculated I will save £200+ PA on our bill. Note: Without a meter your bill are based on your ratable value not usage. Large house low occupancy = paying too much.

HI everyone this is my first post, hope it will be some use.
We are customers of Yorkshire water and before we swaped to a meter in Oct 03, our water rates were £358pa. By using the water calculator on the energywatch website we found our family of 3 would be considerably better off on a meter even after putting topspin on our projected usage. From initial contact with YW it only took 3 weeks to be online with the meter. In our case we got a bonus, with new cushion floor for free. This was because the fitter ripped our old floor covering while pulling out the dishwasher to fit the meter.
Our bills are less than half what they used to be, initially we were cautious with the use but now we dont even think about it. In our case its been one of our better financial decisions.

The thing that bothers me with water meters is - what happens when your next door neighbour is disconnected due to non-payment of water bills?

Back in Victorian times, there used to be street pumps. If your water was cut off, it wasn't a major problem, you could just go to the pump with your bucket. The Broad Street pump was disconnected in 1854 to contain a cholera outbreak, but again, this wasn't a major problem, because there were other pumps in other streets nearby.

Nowadays, there are hardly any street pumps.

If someone gets disconnected from water today, they can't go to a street pump. So they usually go to their next door neighbour instead.

Living next door to someone who doesn't have running water is a scary thought. Without water, your neighbour can't flush his toilets, have a bath, or launder his clothes. After a while, they will start to smell, and diseases might start festering. You don't want to run the risk of catching those diseases yourself.

That's why neighbours are usually quick to help out if you've had your water cut off.

However, if you've got a meter, you're caught between a rock and a hard place. You still don't want to run the risk of catching disease from your neighbour - but on the other hand, you resent paying for your next door neighbour's volumetric water usage when you're paying for your own usage as well.

But the water authorities don't care about this. They only want to make a profit.

I read somewhere that most complaints about disconnection don't come from the resident who get disconnected - they come from neighbours, who are worried about the public health risks.

The water companies often tell us that water meters encourage people to conserve water - but I don't believe that. I believe that rich people will continue to use water in just the same way as before - however, poor people will comprimise their health and hygiene standards to save water, for fear of not being able to pay the bill.

Most of the people who are better off with water meters are those in large houses with low occupancy - and, without putting too fine a point on it, these aren't exactly the people I'm describing as "poor".

isayoldchap wrote:

Their calculation seemed very cheap.But as I mentioned above,would I get a sewerage calculation seperate.Or could I be onto making a saving here of
£106 approx?

When they do a site survey,wouldn't the customer just be told he must have a water meter fitted as you are using a sprinkler?I guess they would not remove it then if you find you are using more than when you were unmetered.
Your views would be most welcomed before we venture off on our holidays.

There is a seperate charge for sewage. This will appear as a seperate item on your water bill under 'sewage'.

Regards,
Art.