SW Water - Meter, am I missing something?

kathie1101

I live in the south west and therefore billed by South West Water and currently charged on RV at £991 a year.

I have just completed one of their estimated meter saving guides online and it is coming out at £962 a year. This is made up of £380 water usage and £582 sewerage.

These charges are based on 4 of us (2 adults, older teenager & child). I think I may well have under estimated our usage on things like toilet flushes, and showers & baths and possibly on outdoor water usage - in which case the bill would be a lot more!

Based on what I entered (and as I say I think I am under estimating)
it says that my daily usage per person is 120 litres. I have read that the average usage is 150 litres per person (yes I know many use less).

I know that the toilets contribute to a large part of this - my youngest already doesn't flush for just wees, and at night I don't either (I am aware that most of the time all of the family could flush less). We have 2 toilets (one fitted about 7/8 years ago) this one isn't used as much, and the other I have no idea how old it is but is probably quite old. Halving our toilet flushes would save £83 a year apparently. Apart from the toilet usage I don't think we could reduce much further.


I am aware that we would be able to switch back within the year if it didn't work out for us - but I am quite scared that if I have under estimated our usage that I would be having to pay high water bills until they switched it back. Also, we live in a old house (100 years old), which I have been told are quite likely to have water leaks. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but been told it from several people.

I know that our charges are going to be more than most people because of where we live, but am I missing something here? I read all the time that people save hundreds by switching to a water meter, but based on my estimates (more than likely under estimates) I would be saving £29!

I have also used other sites- (Yorkshire Water) that says we use 138 litres per person a day around £1052 a year (based on SWW charges). Thames Water which says we use 134 litres per person a day. Both of these sites asked more questions on our water usage, so I am assuming that they will be more accurate with their figures.

If it helps, this is the usage I have inputted as our weekly usage:
4 baths - it shows as 114 litres a week, which I think would be under as I usually have 1 deep bath a week, the rest being shallowish.
14 showers (no power shower)
10 toilet flushes
7 washing machine uses
7 dishwasher uses
5 minutes for outside watering etc, 5 weeks of the year

Sorry for such a long post, but hoping the detail will help in finding out if I am getting my figures wrong somewhere or whether based on my usage I am actually better off sticking with the RV charge or not.

Many thanks to anyone that can offer any input or advice.
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tori.k

Don't go by there water calc it's pants when i tried it it came back £500 more then our RV rates someone on here said it was way out so we decided to bite the bullet and swapped Last April to a water meter and our bill's have dropped to £55 a month from the £90ish on the RV rates dispite not changing our water usage, you have 12 months to change back at no charge so it's worth trying I think your be surprised at how much you'd save especially as the RV prices will only keep on ridiculously rising each year

Cardew

kathie1101 wrote: »

I

Sorry for such a long post, but hoping the detail will help in finding out if I am getting my figures wrong somewhere or whether based on my usage I am actually better off sticking with the RV charge or not.

Many thanks to anyone that can offer any input or advice.
.

I think you have summed it up well.

The 'older teenager' probably uses more than the rest of the household put together, if my experience is anything to go by.

Many people do manage on far less than 150 litres a day per person.

It is a disgrace that the South West pay such outrageous charges - well over twice as much as other parts of the country.

abwsco

Our water bill with United Utilities is just under £600 based on RV. Like you I've done the online calculator and it said it would cost us more. However, after speaking to various people who have the same family setup as us and pay less as they're on meters we had one fitted yesterday.

If it does work out dearer we'll just go back to RV.

zchug

We just moved from a one-bed flat in the Thames Water region, bill about £250 pa, to a similar sized flat in apparently similar block about four miles away under Veoilia and the bill is now £390 pa approx.

Any ideas about why such a big difference?

kathie1101

Cardew wrote: »

I think you have summed it up well.

The 'older teenager' probably uses more than the rest of the household put together, if my experience is anything to go by.

Many people do manage on far less than 150 litres a day per person.

It is a disgrace that the South West pay such outrageous charges - well over twice as much as other parts of the country.

You have hit the nail on the head there about the teenager , and not just with the water! Daren't complain too much about the water with the teenager though, as it could result in one very smelly teen that has the perfect excuse not to wash :eek:

I appreciate everybodys input, it does help. I have heard that the online calculators can be wildly out - I suppose partly because they base their figures on set assumptions on how much water certain things use, but was quite shocked that they all came out as quite a bit more than my RV or just a saving of £29.

One other thing, if I do decide to switch and then change my mind - does anyone know how long it takes to switch back? Does it happen immediately?

Many thanks

tori.k

It should be immediately they wont remove the meter just put you back on a RV bill/payment plan, that's what i was told but i didn't get it in writing i think you will be most surprised, we are a family of 5 youngest is 14 and making a huge saving i dont aspire to the "let it mellow" idea especially as i have all lads only thing we have changed is i don't use the pressure washer anymore (I broke it) im still doing 2/3 loads of washing a day :mad: and someone is always home as i work nights, I really didn't believe we would save anything so im well chuffed as the extra saved last year topped up the oil tank

macman

zchug wrote: »

We just moved from a one-bed flat in the Thames Water region, bill about £250 pa, to a similar sized flat in apparently similar block about four miles away under Veoilia and the bill is now £390 pa approx.

Any ideas about why such a big difference?

Not without you telling us if that is based on RV billing or metered billing.
If the former, then different RV value (and different water authority) means different annual bills.
As is repeatedly stated on here, the size of the property has absolutely no connection to it's rateable value.
The solution is to get a meter, or if not possible for the fla, then subsequently apply for assessed billing.

kathie1101

tori.k wrote: »

It should be immediately they wont remove the meter just put you back on a RV bill/payment plan, that's what i was told but i didn't get it in writing i think you will be most surprised, we are a family of 5 youngest is 14 and making a huge saving i dont aspire to the "let it mellow" idea especially as i have all lads only thing we have changed is i don't use the pressure washer anymore (I broke it) im still doing 2/3 loads of washing a day :mad: and someone is always home as i work nights, I really didn't believe we would save anything so im well chuffed as the extra saved last year topped up the oil tank

Thank you very much, I know what you mean about the "let it mellow" where males are concerned lol! I don't mind with my youngest, but not sure that I could stand it with the other 2 males :eek: I had been convinced that there is no way we could save with a meter, but having heard from yourself and others in Cornwall that have saved, I am really thinking it might be worth a try. I think I will give SWW a call and speak to them.

Thanks again everyone :T

jimjames

Something to bear in mind is that in areas with very high metering (like the SW) the increase in RV charges is much higher than for metered customers due to the way the average charges are allocated.

Not easy to see the table info but over 5 years, meter charges increase by 1% and RV by 29%.

P31 of Ofwat pdf
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/pricereview/pr09phase3/det_pr09_finalfull.pdf

Household bills (£)
2009-10 2014-15 change
Metered Unmetered Metered Unmetered Metered Unmetered
Water and sewerage companies
Anglian 348 470 336 533 -3% 13%
Dŵr Cymru 292 456 276 449 -5% -2%
Northumbrian 267 335 280 375 5% 12%
Severn Trent 280 316 267 307 -5% -3%
South West 401 723 407 935 1% 29%

busybee100

kathie1101 wrote: »

I am really thinking it might be worth a try. I think I will give SWW a call and speak to them.

Do speak to them I found them very helpful when I had the same problem with the online calculators, they suggested our annual bill would be £200 per adult and gave me an all inclusive figure of £5 per cubic metre so I could watch what our usage and costs were as soon as we were metred. I read it every week (along with the gas and electric) so will soon spot if we have any leaks. We've now had it over 12 months and pay £50 per month where as last years bill was going to be £802:eek: