Cheaper water bill because i have a water butt?

ceridwen

A friend has suggested to me that I could reduce my (metered) bill because I have a water butt. He said that its because the water bill is divided into 2 parts - ie "Water" and "Sewerage" and that the Water Authority is assuming a certain level of rainwater is falling onto the roof of my house and then going my drains afterwards. The rainwater that I am diverting into my waterbutt is not going down those drains (because I'm using it for my garden instead) and therefore I shouldnt be charged for that "water disposal" called "Sewerage".

Well - it was summat along those lines anyway - I was getting a bit confused. But then I get a bit confused by being charged anything by the Water Authority other than just the "Water" part for the actual number of litres of water I am actually using.

Does anyone know what the position is on this? and can put it in a way that I can convey to a Water Board employee in a callcentre (who probably knows even less about this than I do..).?

Thanks.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

it is a logical point you are making, but they will prob say some randam thing ,,, and in the end you will still have to pay..

the only thing i can think of that will save your water useage... in you are on a meter, is the rain water you collect, use this to flush the toilet.. as then you are not drawing water through the meter... dont know how much this will save off your bill, but its worth a go, just to see if there are any significant sp? savings to be made...

we are not on a water meter at home, but we are in work, and i need to install a few industrial size washing machines... so i am lookinng around to see if i could collect and use rain water, even if its for some of my washes:D

davetrousers

You're only diverting a small amount of water into your water butt, plenty of it still goes down the drain.

Don't waste your time calling the water company.

ceridwen

Thanks for reply Triker - I am trying to be as careful with water usage as I can anyway. I have a shower (standard type - not power shower) - rather than a bath - anyway. The water butt is 190 litres capacity - which I estimate is covering about 90% of the water requirements for my garden and I run round placing trugs everywhere in the garden when its clearly going to be a downpour and use that water for the garden as well (to try and cover that missing 10% of what I need from the waterbutt).

So - theres no "spare" rainwater available for household purposes anyway. Having said which - I have tried flushing the loo with "other" water anyway - with various experiments of standing in a large size trug in the shower and using the saved shower water for flushing the loo. Somehow though - it doesnt seem to quite do the job "properly" IYSWIM. Is there a knack to that that I am missing?

I get the point you are making about I'd probably be told to pay it anyway - and thats what I'm hoping for "chapter and verse" to quote to whatever anonymous callcentre employee I get at the Water Board. Reason - I know they will only be quoting from a script and going "Computer says no" - hence I want something authoritative and that I can explain clearly myself in order to get through that "computer says no" barrier.

cajef

ceridwen wrote: »

The rainwater that I am diverting into my waterbutt is not going down those drains (because I'm using it for my garden instead) and therefore I shouldnt be charged for that "water disposal" called "Sewerage".

When your flush your toilet and empty your sink, washing machine etc., and when your water butt is full where do you think he rest of the water goes, the amount of water that goes into the butt after several days of rain is only a minute amount compared to the remainder which goes into the drains.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i see what you mean about the proper flush etc..

i told someone once thati didnt allway flush the loo when i had a little wee, they were horrified... and thought it was disgusting... when i said about using all that water just to flush my little tinkle away, they just couldnt see it..

maybe its the angle that you are tipping the water into the toilet,?

Soubrette

The only discount available with our water company is if you have a soak away and it is a reduction on the sewerage part of the bill - it has be both front and back of the house and you would get a princely reduction of about £19 per year.

Nothing for water butts I'm afraid

Sou

savemoney

No discount for having a water butt but you might get water butts subsided. I have 2 x 210 litres water butts both connected to each other and they only last me around a week or so if we have no rain. Dont have a huge garden but lots of pots

ziggyman99

It is possible to save up to 50% on you water usage by installing a rainwater harvesting system. To get that level of saving your going to need a very large storage tank. Rainwater systems start at 1000 litres and go up to about 70,000 litres. It would be based on your roof area, where you live (rainfall), the number of people in the house, how often you use the toilet and washing machine and lastly, how much you water the garden. Oh I forgot, you'll need to allow for when it doesn't rain.
So a quick calculation of my house reckons 2500 litres minimum with 21 days reserve. That's quite a big tank to accomodate. Approximately 2.5m (l) x 1m (w) x 1m (h). Ugly above ground unless you've got some bushes or a wall to hide it behind. Tanks are usually buried so you would require access for a digger - and the tank. The cost of all this work is likely to cost an absolute minimum of £2000 but realistically much more.
The then there's the sister technology....... greywater systems........ being green needs deep pockets....

Cardew

ceridwen wrote: »

A friend has suggested to me that I could reduce my (metered) bill because I have a water butt. He said that its because the water bill is divided into 2 parts - ie "Water" and "Sewerage" and that the Water Authority is assuming a certain level of rainwater is falling onto the roof of my house and then going my drains afterwards. The rainwater that I am diverting into my waterbutt is not going down those drains (because I'm using it for my garden instead) and therefore I shouldnt be charged for that "water disposal" called "Sewerage".

Your friend's logic is flawed.

You are charged for sewerage as a proportion of the water that the company supply. e.g if they supply and charge for, say 100 cubic metres, then you are charged for 90 cubic metres* 'waste water' or sewerage. It is assumed that 10% evaporates or is used on the garden.

So using a water butt saves you paying for any water it collects, but doesn't reduce the amount that enters the sewer.

In fact, in theory, if you collected huge amounts of rain water for flushing toilets etc, it could be argued that you you should have a higher sewerage bill than normal - not that it would ever happen.

What your friend is possibly confused about is that you can get a rebate on your sewerage bill if you can prove that more than 10% of your supplied water does not go back into the sewer.

There was a test case a couple of years ago when a guy with a big pond and large garden fitted a meter and proved that more than 10% of his supplied water went into the pond and on the garden.

He won his case and marketed the metering device(and spammed it on MSE)

* some companies show this as 90% of the supply and others reduce their sewerage charge by 10%. e.g. if the cost of sewerage was £1 for a cubic metre and you had been supplied with 100 cubic metres, This could be shown as 90 x £1 = £90 or 100 x 90p = £90

Soubrette

Cardew wrote: »

Your friend's logic is flawed.

You are charged for sewerage as a proportion of the water that the company supply. e.g if they supply and charge for, say 100 cubic metres, then you are charged for 90 cubic metres* 'waste water' or sewerage. It is assumed that 10% evaporates or is used on the garden.

I'm confused

My water company definitely gives a (fairly derisory) discount if you have soakaways on your property and I'm fairly certain this is on the sewerage part of the bill.

The soakaways are described as something that takes the rainfall away from the roof and into the soakaway rather than down the drain.

Rainfall is definitely not part of the water supplied by my water company (although they'd probably try and charge for it if they could).

Sou