Water meters - pros and cons?

Paul_Varjak

If you do change to a water meter, you have one year in which to decide whether to go back to unmetered usage.

You are likely to save more money with a water meter the higher the old ratebale value of your house is and the fewer people you have living in your property.

Other factors are hose pipe usage, how often you have baths (a shower uses less), how often you use washing machine, dishwasher and flush toilet.

Also make sure that your house insurance covers you for loss of water if you are on a meter.

squeaky

rizla01 wrote:

Actually Squeeky, She'll have to wean me into connecting it up.

Just got to put the tiles up and it'll get done. (To quote mens usual phrase ---- One Day!)

You're looking at a saving of possibly 150ltrs per day!

Now where was it you said you left the tile grout?

dougk_2

I found only pro's when moving to a meter.

Unless you waste water (like for watering the lawn!) then you have nothing to loose.

squeaky

Waste water? Even when in the shower, which is in my bath, I put the plug in. The water gets scooped out of the bath and put to use in the garden.

jimjoeray

I have recently changed to a meter and expect to reduce my bill by a third. My MIL is now thinking about doing the same but lives in a council bungalow. Is she allowed to have a meter?

alanobrien

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?

As already mentioned if you change to a water meter you can go back to an annual bill if you ask within the first year.

What they seem to avoid telling you is that the meter is left in place so whoever buys your house when you sell it is stuck with the meter.

A friend of mine changed to a meter last year - a family of 4 in the Thames water area, their bill increased by £40 on the year so they went back to the annual bill.

So i guess its worth doing for singles and couples
but questionable for families.

Woby_Tide

They could have always used it a as kickstart to saving water and cutting down usage rather than saving money!

squeaky

Woby_Tide wrote:

They could have always used it a as kickstart to saving water and cutting down usage rather than saving money!

Exactly. No washing hands under a running tap, - get wet, turn off(or very low), soap up, turn on, rinse, turn off.

Have showers instead of baths and maybe have a good soak just once a year I mean week

Sort out dripping taps straight away - it's surpising how much water they use.

And a zillion other water thrift measures I'm sure will follow...

Cardew

Th main factor in determining if you will save is the Rateable Value(RV) of your property.

RV was supposed to be calculated on the notional letting value of your property and had little to do with size or value of a property. Thus an old large property could have a lower RV than a modern(i.e. late 1980's) smaller property.

If you have a very low RV, and use a lot of water, you will proably be worse off with a meter. However I believe the majority of households will be better off with a meter.

squeaky

Somewhere on this site there is a pointer to all the information you could need on water meters and links to check (roughly) if you might be better off. I'm blowed if I can remember its location right now, but if I find a spare minute or two I'll have a look for it.

Edit: Found it:- Saving Water