Water meters - pros and cons?

rombrain

The whole water rate and RV setup is a national mess. How's this? We live in an area that we pay £142 per year water rates. My wife's stepdad lives less than a mile away in a small, 1 bed sheltered bungalow, no garden, no dishwasher, in fact minimal useage. He pays £320 per year??????????????

Caterina

BEWARE OF WATER METERS IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY OF 4+

We are with Thames Water, 3 bed terraced house, two adults and two (unfortunately very careless) teenagers.

Our regular unmetered bill was around £300, we decided to try water metering and the meter was installed in October 2007.

We just received our first bill. When I calculated the difference per day we were saving 16 pence per day! This is in winter, when there is less use of water, no garden to water, no frequent showers and lots of laundry because of the weather....also I have been as water-frugal as I could, sometimes washing the dishes in the same water for the whole day.

I am fed up! I decided that for a saving of appx. a fiver per month, £60 per year, my quality of life was getting really low, I felt apprehensive as I saw the kids cleaning their teeth with running water, and felt that we would have a very high bill at the end of the year, and get stuck with the meter (you got to get out of the contract within 12 months or you are stuck with it!).

I know that I need to educate the kids about water savings (I DO!!!) but you know what? I just don't have the energy to police their water use all the time, on top of who they see, what they smoke, if they drink etc etc etc. Teenagers are teenagers and will do what the hell they want when I am not around. I am also fed up of not being able to relax in the shower, thinking that I have exceeded my allotted 3 minutes. Sod this.

So today I rang Thames Water and asked to be reinstated on the unmetered service. Ohboy do they make it difficult or what! After being put through a number of hoops and given incorrect information TWICE (both customer services assistants told me that I had to be on the meter FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR!!! If I had listened to them I would be STUCK with the damn meter!) - thanks goodness for internet information, I managed to wrangle out of them the information that I can cancel after all, by putting the request in writing.

Funny, they never wanted a written request when we went to meter services! Anyway, I shall post the letter tomorrow and will see what happens then! Will keep you updated on progress.

Caterina

margaretclare

Hello Caterina

I think you're right - it depends entirely on size of family, use of washing-machine, use of showers vs baths etc.

I had a water-meter installed way back in 1992 after I was widowed. I was going away a lot to work and obviously, wasn't here to use much water.

DH and I are now a pair of retired wrinklies. We use only the shower (had bathroom re-done a few years ago, no bath at all). So, shower for 2 of us each morning, washer on perhaps twice a week, 3 times at most. We have 2 water-butts at the back so use collected rain-water as much as possible for gardening. Often we don't flush the loo (don't pull for a pee) except when we need to. DH does wash the car. Otherwise, we're at the opposite end of the spectrum from a family like yours.

Hope you're successful in cancelling.

HTH

Tesco_points_addict

Yes we are a family of two also, mainly shower occasional bath! But we are much better off with a meter, but there again we are careful, no leaving taps on etc..

littlemissjojo

Caterina wrote: »

BEWARE OF WATER METERS IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY OF 4+

We are with Thames Water, 3 bed terraced house, two adults and two (unfortunately very careless) teenagers.

Our regular unmetered bill was around £300, we decided to try water metering and the meter was installed in October 2007.

We just received our first bill. When I calculated the difference per day we were saving 16 pence per day! This is in winter, when there is less use of water, no garden to water, no frequent showers and lots of laundry because of the weather....also I have been as water-frugal as I could, sometimes washing the dishes in the same water for the whole day.

I am fed up! I decided that for a saving of appx. a fiver per month, £60 per year, my quality of life was getting really low, I felt apprehensive as I saw the kids cleaning their teeth with running water, and felt that we would have a very high bill at the end of the year, and get stuck with the meter (you got to get out of the contract within 12 months or you are stuck with it!).

I know that I need to educate the kids about water savings (I DO!!!) but you know what? I just don't have the energy to police their water use all the time, on top of who they see, what they smoke, if they drink etc etc etc. Teenagers are teenagers and will do what the hell they want when I am not around. I am also fed up of not being able to relax in the shower, thinking that I have exceeded my allotted 3 minutes. Sod this.

So today I rang Thames Water and asked to be reinstated on the unmetered service. Ohboy do they make it difficult or what! After being put through a number of hoops and given incorrect information TWICE (both customer services assistants told me that I had to be on the meter FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR!!! If I had listened to them I would be STUCK with the damn meter!) - thanks goodness for internet information, I managed to wrangle out of them the information that I can cancel after all, by putting the request in writing.

Funny, they never wanted a written request when we went to meter services! Anyway, I shall post the letter tomorrow and will see what happens then! Will keep you updated on progress.

Caterina

Hi Caterina,

Keep an eye on your meter readings, so that you have an actual reading to present them with if they try to close the account on an estimate. Good luck!

*puts on tin hat*

I work for Thames Water, so if anyone has any specific questions regarding them, I will try to help!

mikevans

scootermacc wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience or advice on whether gettnig a water meter might save money or not?

I have a natural reluctance against the idea in case my billis astronomical, but this is emotion not fact.

Anyone help?

Unless your family is more than 3 people, and if these 3 people are willing to use water as economically as possibe, then a water meter will save you money.
Our water board is Severn Trent, and they will fit a water meter free of charge, and will let you revert to normal billing if you find that you are not saving money. Once the meter has been in place for 12 months you have another month to ask them to get back on the old system of billing.
We're only a couple, but after only one month in to being metered I can tell that I will be saving over £100 per year on my £299 bill

high-rise_andrew

I'd like one. Am only a single person who hardly uses a washing machine in a week, flushes occasionally etc. But unfortunately high-rise tower blocks in the Glasgow slums are not built for such modern thinking ideas:(

Cardew

mikevans wrote: »

Unless your family is more than 3 people, and if these 3 people are willing to use water as economically as possibe, then a water meter will save you money.

Welcome to the forum.

Your statement is far too much of a sweeping generalisation and your circumstances won't apply for many people.

For a start the structure and charges for Water and sewerage vary greatly across the country.

Secondly it totally depends on the Rateable Value(RV) of your property.

Even within Severn Trent are there were 8 different charging zones.

You can have House A with a RV of £50 or less, and House B with an RV of £1,000 or more.

So it is very unlikely that metering would ever be worthwhile for House A even with a single occupant, yet House B metering would always be worthwhile even with 10 occupants.

I am in Severn Trent and if I were not metered my annual bill would be £1,300. I could have a lot of people living in my property and still be better off with a meter.

The bottom line is there is no 'one size fits all' solution.

You have to look at the RV of your property, and the tariff for your area of the country.

The average household uses 60 cubic metres, per person, per year. Using that as a basis you can estimate if a meter will work out cheaper; but it is only an Estimate.

GhostDog_2

Hmmm ok so I skim read some of this thread but.........

Just had water bill land on doormat.

2 person household:

No bath - shower. (used daily!)
(New) Washing machine (used 4 x week)
No dishwasher (only me!)
No hosepipe - garden all paved for dog!

And the bill for last 6mths use is for 2 cubic metres use of water???!!!

As I pay on DD I am in credit by almost £170.

I must work up courage to open meter cover and actually read it - can't bear the thought of a rat popping out!!! But I'm sure it must be wrong.....although it does say it was an actual reading?

Its got to be wrong hasn't it?

mute_posting

GhostDog wrote: »

Hmmm ok so I skim read some of this thread but.........

Just had water bill land on doormat.

2 person household:

No bath - shower. (used daily!)
(New) Washing machine (used 4 x week)
No dishwasher (only me!)
No hosepipe - garden all paved for dog!

And the bill for last 6mths use is for 2 cubic metres use of water???!!!

As I pay on DD I am in credit by almost £170.

I must work up courage to open meter cover and actually read it - can't bear the thought of a rat popping out!!! But I'm sure it must be wrong.....although it does say it was an actual reading?

Its got to be wrong hasn't it?

Well based on averages, 2 of you would have used 60 cubic metres over the past 6 months, so if the water company says they have read the meter and you have only "used" 2 - you're quids in.

However, it is worth

a) checking the meter for yourself to confirm readings match (you don't benefit if the next reading shows you have used 118 cubic meters in 6 months)
b) if meter reading does match, being prepared for the day they cotton on and replace it with one that works! (not sure how they go on about previous usage if the meter is found to be faulty - they may base it on an "average" or just write it off in that you have paid for what the meter said - even if the meter was wrong)

HTH

MP