average water useage- what do you use?

paulsad

We had a meter in our last home a 4 bed det. (meter in garage) with loads of water use and it was really cheap. Moved here to a smaller house and its gone really expensive; luckily as we had the meter installed we were able to revert back to unmetered rates whuch were £10 pm cheaper. The meter they fitted here was out in the street and I personally think its reading both our water and next doors. So I pity the next owners (if we ever sell) who will have to be metered. Might leave them a note !

PasturesNew

I was being charged £40/month ratable value in a studio, no bath, 1 lot of washing once a fortnight, minimal washing up by hand (once every 2-3 days usually as I wasn't cooking much, mostly 1-plate sandwiches and re-using the plate if it had just been a cheese one). Changed to a meter and it was £15/month.

scooo

I said I'd come back to update this once I had some data and the time so ..

It's now been 3 months on the new meter, I have requested a new bill and I have it.

Over 3 months on the new meter (including the Christmas period when I'd expect higher usage) our usage had dropped to half of the previous 4.5 years.
The usage over the previous 4.5years was billed at and average of 0.6m3 per day.
The usage over the last 3mths has been recoded as 0.3m3 per day.
In monetary terms my bill has dropped from £2.09/day to £1.00/day over the last 2 bills.

I DID get a response from OFWAT who’s contact with Anglia Water resulted in me getting a call from a senior person at AW who has at least promised to look at their procedures and bring up the issue at the next general meeting, including the idea of testing meters after they have been installed. Whether or not that happens I can't say.
I also got another £50 "goodwill" gesture, not that this has ever been about getting money but it further demonstrates that something is amiss - they don't give money away without reason, they didn't for 4.5yrs so why now unless ....

I can only say to anyone reading this who has similar issues that meters DO go wrong, they CAN be fitted incorrectly and now you have an example to point them to if they ask for one.

I still get the old "that's the first time I've heard of that" line when speaking to both AW and OFWAT but considering the amount of meters fitted and the potential number of people that could be overcharged simply due to a nut in a hole not being tightened properly or being checked then I find that impossible to believe and I remain both astonished and appalled that there are absolutely no quality checks on such a vital service.

BackOnTrack

scooo wrote: »

I find that impossible to believe and I remain both astonished and appalled that there are absolutely no quality checks on such a vital service.

There are checks done on meters when they are installed but even the checks can be done wrong, and even if the check is done right it could be that the initial impact of an incorrect fit is minimal to begin with and only after a period of use does the impact increase.

Most water meters are done correctly but if anyone else thinks there meter is reading incorrectly then like scooo don't take no for an answer.

treasuretiger

Can you get access to your meter to start logging a weekly usage ...Im on my own and bill is around £10/mth

you must have some credit on you account cos up north £10 only just covers the standing charges per month!

zarazara

What worries me is that at the moment I pay just over £17 a month for water. Unmetered.
If we are forced to have a meter I can only see this rising.

Swipe

treasuretiger wrote: »

you must have some credit on you account cos up north £10 only just covers the standing charges per month!

Mine is £13/month and I have no credit on my account. Just received my last six monthly bill for £80. Unmetered it was costing me close to £600pa. A huge saving.

escortg3

We have had our first year on a meter. Our yearly water rates before meter was fitted was £650 per year.

Now 12 months with a meter and we have used 90 cubic meters

so our bill was 90 cubic meters water
86 cubic meters sewerage

Bill is £353.00 for the year. good saving:)

Cardew

treasuretiger wrote: »

you must have some credit on you account cos up north £10 only just covers the standing charges per month!

Perhaps he doesn't live 'up north'?

Charges vary across the country SW England pay over double some other parts of UK.

Also some companies have low standing charges and higher charges for water and sewerage - and vice versa.

In the Midlands(Severn Trent) the combined Standing charges for water and sewerage is £36 a year(£3 per month) but Severn Trent are not the cheapest overall.

bondy01

Just been doing the maths for this as got yearly metered bill yesterday. The 2 of us use approx 100 cu metres a year which is not particularly excessive and this equates to 60 gallons a day! Roughly £300 for the year which isn't too bad but when you say 100000 L for the year per property it's no wonder we need some big reservoirs.