average water useage- what do you use?

Frogletina

I came home the other day after about 5 hours to find I'd left a hot tap running quite fast. I'm now wondering how much water I might have used (I'm on a meter) besides the cost of the gas to heat it up! Any ideas?

I was gutted - but I have only myself to blame

Psykicpup

Frogletina wrote: »

I came home the other day after about 5 hours to find I'd left a hot tap running quite fast. I'm now wondering how much water I might have used (I'm on a meter) besides the cost of the gas to heat it up! Any ideas?

I was gutted - but I have only myself to blame

Take a container of a known volume - ie a litre jug & time how long it takes to fill with the tap at the same volume - NB you may need two of you as it can be quite fast!
Then its just math I'm afraid .. I cubic meter...(the volume you are billed on) is 1000 litres

BackOnTrack

Frogletina wrote: »

I came home the other day after about 5 hours to find I'd left a hot tap running quite fast. I'm now wondering how much water I might have used (I'm on a meter) besides the cost of the gas to heat it up! Any ideas?

I was gutted - but I have only myself to blame

There is a huge variance in bath tap flow rate so it is hard to say how much you would use but I would be amazed if it is more than a fiver.

If the tap could deliver 15 l/min, unlikely but possible, you would have used 4,500 litres of water. Half of this volume is far more likely and water roughly costs 1 pound per 1000 litres.

BackOnTrack

mrs_baggins wrote: »

any ideas on what people use? I am on meter and live alone. I must admit (shame!) to not flushing toilet every time I use it! I never hose garden/car etc. I do like a bath but have started not having deep ones. I prob have bath 4 times a week and shower at gym rest of time. I wash up by hand but not loads. My main thing i guess is washine machine. I do my sons washing which is not every week but maybe out of a month I may do 6 loads for him. However my bills do seem fairly high. I pay by dd and its £34 a month which seems to be right at the end of the period. Apart from not having a bath at all I cant see how i can reduce any more. (I do sons washing for good reasons which I wont go into) I am not sure how much water I actually use as I hav not been keeping tabs on it but any guides would be good!

Nothing shameful about not flushing after every use, as long as you don't have visitors round

Calculating use is tricky and if you really want to understand what you use then you should keep a diary of all water use down to when you turn on a tap on and off again.

Based on the info above I have come up with the following for your use:

4 baths per week at 60 litres/bath
8 loads of hand washing dishes at 15litres per load
5 flushes of the toilet per day at 7l/flush
4.5 loads of washing per week at 65litres per load
30 litres from general use of taps for cooking, cleaning, cleaning teeth etc. per day

Obviously I don't know the volume per use of your washing machine or toilet etc. so I have used my best guess, I work in demand forecasting for a water company and this stuff is the building blocks for a lot of demand forecasting.

If you don't work or work from home then add a few more flushes per day on for your toilet use if you don't then take another flush off based on what you have said.

If you have a new washing machine and toilet then the volume per use is likely to be a bit less if they are quite old then they will probably use more.

The washing up 15l per use figure is based on you using a bowl for washing up if you just wash under a running tap it will be considerably higher.

The 30l per day for tap use will probably suprise you, as I was when I first saw it, but that is based on monitoring studies and is suprisingly consistent. Little things like turning taps off when cleaning your teeth can make a big difference to this number

The above gives me 158 l/person/day which given the limited information is quite close to your usage. While 180 l/person/day may be average use for single occupancy average use is inefficient and can be cut considerably.

mart.vader

scooo wrote: »

Exactly what I asked, seems impossible to me hence my request for an explanation which they couldn't/wouldn't answer.

I asked for the meter to be checked (since it's now been removed) but she said they'd lost/thrown it.
I asked how drawing air could cause an over-read and she said it just does but couldn't explain. This was a senior manager I was talking to who seemed pretty knowledgable.
I asked if this would lead them to reconsider their "meters don't fail" policy and she said no, this was a one-off case.

So I've taken it to the Consumer Council for water.

If a meter fails once - others can fail.
If an engineer can instal it wrong once - all engineers can.
If their policy is not to believe or take it seriously then how do others get a just & fair service?

If I get a refund - what difference does that make to all the other people who may be/may have been overcharged?
The whole setup stinks to me and if I don't do my bit they continue to get away with it. I complained for 10/5 years about this, that's far too long.

This may only be a partial explanation, and it may not be correct but, its all I've got.

Fitting a meter is difficult to get wrong, but if you live towards the top of a hill, and if air builds up in the W. co's mains, and the air comes out through your supply pipe when you turn a tap on, it can make the meter over-read, because for some reason, air makes it spin faster than water, giving a higher read, (plus, if this is the case, you are paying for the supply of air.)

This is the W. Cos fault - there should be air-valves at appropriate places in the system to vent the air, but maybe in your case, there aren't, or they are not working. If you ask them to test the meter, (which will be at your cost, £75 I think) nothing will seem amiss (in any case you say they've thrown the meter.)

Unless your W. Co are more honest than mine, they will never admit that it's their problem.

Good luck with the CCW, they are a toothless watch-dog (they admitted as much to me) They have no power to force the W. Co to do anything. If my experience is anything to go by, they will ask the W. Co to reconsider, the W. Co will say "No" and the CCW will say, "Well, we asked them, but they refused" ! !

Yes, the whole system stinks, but what can you do? You ask how can you get a just & fair service - the answer is - You can't. As you will have found out, OFWAT will not touch this with a barge-pole, they have more important things to think about.

scooo

lol, thanks for that mart.vader!

I know what you mean and I know in the back of my mind that the chances are that your perceptions will be pretty much spot on but I'll do as much as I can anyway, afterall as Edmund Burke said:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

Hank_Marvin

I use 2 cubic meters a quarter, and for the privilage i pay Southwest Water £24 a quarter. £16 off the bill is a rip off service charge. Water in this area is dearer that Gold.

gatita

As you say Hank, the water charges in the S. West are truly outrageous, legalised theft in my opinion. As I mentioned before, think yourself luck with your charges, I paid last month £140 for one quarter, DISGUSTING

Hank_Marvin

Wow G. I would be depressed paying that much. SWS know they are robbers and should be renamed !!!!!! Turpin Water lol...

Careful_with_that_Axe

gatita wrote: »

It depends what region of the country you live as to how much you pay. Where I live (S. West) the cost of water & sewerage is outrageous, we live, husband and I, in a 2 bed bungalow, and pay approx each quarter £140. So, consider yourself lucky!!!!

Absolutely! I live in SW and am incredibly frugal with water. I live alone and am on a meter. I managed to get my last usage down to £11 for the quarter but still got slapped with the sewerage charge which I can do nothing to reduce so the total bill was neary £60!