"Flushing Allowance"

JS477

We're experiencing brownish [mains] water and have been advised by or water company to flush our pipes for about 40mins and as such they've applied a "flushing allowance" to our account because we're on a water meter. Does anyone know what this "flushing allowance" equates to in terms of volume of water or monetary value?

Thanks.

deanos

Not a great deal, did they tell you to take a reading before and after you have finished ?

JS477

No, when I rang them up to advise them of the brown water they knew about a problem in my area and also knew that I was on a meter (from the details I gave them) they then advised flushing our lines out and as I am on a meter they'd allocate a "6 hour flushing allowance" to my account.

HappyMJ

should be about £5.

Gothicfairy

It is normally about a cubic meter that is given back..so that can be anything from £2.00 to £5.00 as you really wouldn't use more then that I should think.
Not sure how they can allow a time scale as the meter only works by reading cubic meters rather then hours and days > If I were you though I would read the meter before and then after just to make sure and that can be sent to the company if there is any problems with the amount paid.

JS477

Just rang my water company and asked what a 6 hour flushing allowance represents and they said it's the equivalent to 5m^3 of water which is worth almost £10. But you as a water meter customer have to inform them of discoloured water for them to apply it to your account.

Gothicfairy

Wow that is a better allowance then many do..
I would still keep an eye on your readings though.

JS477

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Wow that is a better allowance then many do..
I would still keep an eye on your readings though.

Oh I will

I normally take monthly readings just to see that everything's about "normal" w.r.t. to consumption.

hatchy

Quite funny reading this. We live in a farm bungalow (used to work here for 19 years till dairy cows got sold and then made redundant as a result, just rent the place now) and the water supply is gravity fed from a Wessex Water reservoir (literally 100 yards from the house/farm). God knows how old the pipes (must be metal still) are but you can run the tap as long as you want and there will still be 'bits' in the bottom of the glass/kettle (not killed us yet in 20years, good bit of iron in the diet :rotfl:) . Every time the supply is interrupted the colour is a lovely brown colour when it comes back on, we just run the taps for a few minutes and it is fine again (not on meter so could run it all day if I wanted to). A 6 hour allowance is an incredible waste of a valuable resource and shows how little regard the water company themselves have for it.

BackOnTrack

hatchy wrote: »

A 6 hour allowance is an incredible waste of a valuable resource and shows how little regard the water company themselves have for it.

Did you miss the bit where the water company advised them to flush there pipes for 40 minutes? The 6 hour flushing allowance is probably to compensate them for the inconvienience.

hatchy

BackOnTrack wrote: »

Did you miss the bit where the water company advised them to flush there pipes for 40 minutes? The 6 hour flushing allowance is probably to compensate them for the inconvienience.

The inconvenience of what? running a tap?:rotfl:. More likely, given the pathetic 'compensation society' this country has turned into, they are covering their backsides if god forbid anyone did get a poorly belly and the water was blamed. They can turn round and say "we gave them a 6 hour allowance, not our fault if they only used 40 minutes of it".