switching to water meter

Woby_Tide

so if they are moving to a house without one and the meter is being installed by the water company they have to wait 12 months to have it removed if I'm reading the info on the web correctly

deanos

If you move into a house with a meter then you will pay on the meter even if the previous occupier did not pay on a meter but had one fitted at some stage.

The meters are never removed once fitted , you have 12 months to decide if you want to pay via meter or not you could decide in 2 months that its not for you but the maximum time you have to decide is 12 months.


The water companys cannot demand for you to have one fitted if you move into one without a meter unless you have a swimming pool for exaple then they can force you to pay via meter.

This is for old build houses of course all new props have a meter fitted and you have no choice you will pay on a meter.

oscarhugo

In Anglian Water region you have whats called an "Out Reader" is a reader that fitted to the internal meter and fixed on the outside wall so you dont have to be in when its reading time.

At our 1850's cottage in rural Suffolk, an outreader was fitted by Essex+Suffolk water when the meter was fitted [inside]. This works well [the system] when it works at all [the outreader] -- the outreader has packed up 3 times in the 18 months since it was fitted...
Apart from that pain in the a---, we're certainly saving money because it is a holiday cottage with no sewerage.
And [and I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this] Essex+Suffolk Water gives an annual discount [£7.50 I think it is, off the top of my head] for paying by DD. So each half-yearly bill is somewhere around £11.50 & then a further £3.75 is knocked off the D-Debited amount!

deanos

Is the outreader a little grey box with a lift up flap and digital readout by any chance ?

oscarhugo

Is the outreader a little grey box with a lift up flap and digital readout by any chance ?

That's the one (or rather "no digital readout" for a lot of the time...).

MarkyMarkD

In our area the outreader is more like a black noduley thing, linked to the real indoor meter by a wire. Presumably it enables them to interrogate the meter remotely.

deanos

That's the one (or rather "no digital readout" for a lot of the time...).

LOL i thought so i cant go into detail on here but there are alot of problems with these type of reader, if you want any info PM me.

bordercars

we are moving to a house already on a meter so can't change back.
so have looked at ways to economise and iit seems the way to go is collecting rainwater.one of many sites to look at is
http://www.ecocentre.org.uk/rainwater-recycling.html
they reckon a 1/3 saving could be made by using rainwater for toilet and washing machine, have also had it suggested that by using via the washing machine i will use less detergent to.
by using rain you also save on the sewerage charge which even though is 90% of water in is in fact still dearer per litre out.
as a footnote we have not yet moved in and have only used a litle water for kettle 89pence in fact but with the standing charge the bill was £45 , is that the most expensive drop of water ever?

chaswick

Hi - I'm new to Money Saving Expert so excuse me if I've posted this wrongly.

I live in the Wessex Water area and I took up their offer of a free meter in 1998. After receiving our first bill we found that the metered supply was costing more than our already very high water rates, so Wessex obligingly put us back onto the rating system.

The meter is still there so I have done another check over the past 8 months. Our average useage is 33 cu metres per month, which works out (according to my calculations) at a charge of £836 per year - this includes standing charges plus sewerage charge.

We are a household of just 3 people. We each have a shower per day, with the occasional bath, we have a dish washer and washing machine, occasionally water the garden with a hose, and I suppose we use the loo a lot!

Is there something wrong somewhere - either with my calculations - or is 33 cu metres absolutely excessive - or should we be using the loo less!? ???

MarkyMarkD

I don't know what's considered normal, but we have had our meter for just under 7 months and we've used 41 cubic meters! So that's approx 6 cubic meters per month.

There is 2 of us and we have a DW and WM too - so pro-rata, you are using an awful lot more than us.