Water meters - pros and cons? 24 September 2004 at 12:33AM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Water Bills 590 replies 361K views

Cardew

diamond_dave wrote: »

Had our WM fitted a fortnight ago and the difference is amazing.Current bill is £918 pa(RV) and I reckon that we will halve that with the WM. When you have to pay for every ltr of water you really notice how much you use, ie. the washing machine uses about 12 gallons(54litr) per wash.have put a tank in the garden -and in a few days I have 100 gallons of free water. Dont forget that its the sewerage charge that adds to the bill = water usage x95%. I reckon that it costs us about £5.50 per cu.m(220 gallons).It does make you carefull about what you use.

Presumably you live in the West Country if your water/sewerage costs £5.50 for a cubic metre?

Most districts are about half that price. You can get the exact price from the web.

diamond_dave

Yep, Cardrew. Originally we were paying for "Clean Sweep" -to keep the beaches clean.I didn't mind that but the bills have rocketed since then.In fairness the figure i've quoted includes the 2 standing charges, but it still makes you think about what you use.

b0b2600

I have a water meter connected from the main supply going into the house, but when I turn off the water under the sink the outside garden tap is still on all other taps in the house are off. Does this tap bypass the meter? I cant tell by looking at the meter unless I use 1 m³.

macman

b0b2600 wrote: »

I have a water meter connected from the main supply going into the house, but when I turn off the water under the sink the outside garden tap is still on all other taps in the house are off. Does this tap bypass the meter? I cant tell by looking at the meter unless I use 1 m³.

That's because your garden tap is spurred off before it enters the house presumably. If the meter is out in the street or on the front path then no, you will not be getting free garden water unless that supply comes from somewhere entirely different.

WaxiesDargle

had a meter installed the other day and checked it before I turned on a tap and it was showing 141 litres in the red part ...I know its only pence but I didn't use it...I thought I may have a leak and phoned them...and they said that the meters are tested in the factory with flowing water and that's why it had a reading

Gothicfairy

Not all meters are tested, they seem to test so many per batch made but that testing is done with flowing water. The meter can be reset after that at the factory but I am guessing yours got through.
As it is a small amount it might not be worth doing anything about however you can write to your water company and ask that they start the reading from 1 onwards. They might do that for you ( there is no rule to say they have to but it has happened before) Which company are you with as that would make a difference.

Make sure you write though or email rather then call as it is a back office process and no one on the phones will be able to do it or work out where to route the query correctly I should think.
You need to mark the letter or email for the meter options team/ fitting meters for free / Whatever the company call their free metering department.

selloptape

Since moving into a new house that came with a meter my bills have gone up from £140 per year to £240 per year.

There's only me and my son living in the house and I am very stingy with the water so I'm not sure how this happened (showers only - not a power shower, 4 washing machine loads a week, sava flush fitted, water butt in garden, wash up twice a day by hand - one bowl each time). OR was I just really lucky because my previous home had such a low RV?

Gothicfairy

You had a low RV. £240 per year is not that bad for 2 people at all as some of the bill will be standing charges and surface water drainage ( check that you are connected for that rather then having a soakaway)

Watersaver

I think that having a water meter installed really depends on your own usage as they fit some households and not others (in terms of saving you money) so I would suggest monitoring your usage as best you can to see whether or not it works out well for you. There are also loads of ways that you can make a difference to your usage but installing simply devices such as water butts and aerators etc.

I also spotted at the weekend that Veolia Three Valleys water are giving away FREE devices to help their customers save water which you can claim here: central.veoliawater.co.uk/my-water-water-efficiency.aspx

Swany247

Hi! We changed over to a water meter after everyone persuaded us it was in our best interest and we would make considerable savings. There's only 2 of us in the house, we spend at least 8 weeks out of the UK and we don't have a dish washer. We have a smallish garden with a greenhouse but I have two large water barrels that I use most of the year (if it's particularly dry I do use the hose pipe occasionally). I do set up a watering system for the greenhouse for a couple of weeks of the year but I only have a few plants in there). After one year of being on the meter our bills have doubled! We are told that we are excessive users of a family of 4 or more! Everything has been checked and we have no leaks inside our property. If we go back to the rating system our bills will be £45 per month but we will have to pay the meter debt off of £225 before we can do this! Yorkshire Water have checked their pipework and say the fault is at our side of the meter. We've had it checked and it isn't. We were advised that our water consumption on a meter would calculate at approx £25 per month but it has worked out at least double and now we will have to pay the debit off too. Our only option is to have the blooming meter taken out and we will be free to use whatever water we want to use in excess. The water department are not concerned at all about where all this water is going to so neither am I. Sorry if this sounds very negative but I am extremely angry but in some way I hope this helps you make an informed decision.