£450 water bill! and getting paranoid...

valmiki

all good tips, thanks

unfortunately I've checked all these....I think it's just plain bad usage :-(

i'm going to keep an eye on the readings for now...and start collecting plastic milk bottles!

still can't believe it £450 thats a lot of water

exil

Hmmm. still unmetered but my bill is about 350....

balijay

Hi don't know if this will help but I work on behalf of Southern Water and have seen leak problems many times. Report this to your Water board and they will test for a leak. If this turns out to be the case they will refund you via a leak allowance - ust be warnes that this can take a little time.

Cardew

The average use in UK is 160 litres a day per person. So with 3 in the house approx 0.5 Cubic Metres per day. 180 Cu Mtr a yaer.

deanos

balijay wrote:

Hi don't know if this will help but I work on behalf of Southern Water and have seen leak problems many times. Report this to your Water board and they will test for a leak. If this turns out to be the case they will refund you via a leak allowance - ust be warnes that this can take a little time.

Whats the point the meter isnt spinning when its turned off in the house indicating there is no leak, im sure the call center will ask to do this anyway before they send someone round

melbury

I have been really concerned about our water bills which have now crept up to about £450 per year. We have done the leak test thing and I even had the water company out and they changed the meter last year, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. There are only two of us plus a son that comes home from university in the holidays. I am now totally paranoid about water usage and try to cut down as much as possible.

I think the only fair way is for everyone to be metered - after all you pay for gas and electricity based on how much you use and so it only seems right that the same rules apply for water.

My neighbours both sides are not metered and pay about the same as us, but the big difference is that they use about six times as much water as we do. Both have children and admit that they wouldn't want to be metered. One even left a hosepipe running for about 30 hours until in the end I went round and said something!! They didn't realize that it was on, but I could hear it when I got out of the car - made me so angry - total waste.

Sorry to venting so much, but it should be a level playing field for all.

mssjab

I'm not sure why people seem to think that putting something in the cistern to save water is really a good idea.

The normal flush of the toilet is 9 litres (or 2 galls). I cubic metre of water is 220 galls and costs about £1.25. So that's 110 flushes for £1.25.

Reducing the quantity of water in the cistern can cause problems with the flush and with the drains if there's an insufficient flow to take the residue away.

By far the biggest user of water is a washing machine. My water bill really reduced when I had to change my washing machine and ended up buying a variable water content model.

Davidboy

I wish mine was £450, we are not on a meter, and our new bill for the year is £560!! That is with Wessex water/Bristol water company

Our last child is about to leave home so I think I am going to get a water meter, it will save us a fortune.

D

melbury

I am also with Wessex Water, but metered. Can I be really nosey and ask what rate band you are in, just to give me an ideal of where we stand. Thanks.

valmiki

mssjab wrote:

The normal flush of the toilet is 9 litres (or 2 galls). I cubic metre of water is 220 galls and costs about £1.25. So that's 110 flushes for £1.25.

according to my last bill, 1 cubic metre of water costs £1.10 for the supply, and 95% x £1.33 for sewerage, which equals £2.36. This doesn't include the standing charge of £0.1533 per day.

Assuming 9 litres per flush, and 1000L in a cubic mere, thats 111 flushes, for £2.36.

One flush costs £2.36/111 = £.0213 not much is it!

ok.... hows 10 flushes a day sound? for the year then £.0213 x 10 x 365 which comes to £77.75. This looks pretty substantial to me! Esp. as the new loos have a flush for 6 litres (I think?), then the bill would be reduced by £25.91 per year.

And that's just for ten flushes! my wife is currently on maternity leave and pretty sure that she has 8-10 flushes just for herself, never mind when I come home and flush!

btw, it looks like increased monitoring of the water meter is starting to reduce the water usage, it's already down to less than £1 a day! If we can keep this up thats a big saving from my projected £450 per year. Looks like it was just poor usage after all.