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Water meters - pros and cons?
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As our 6 person household has gradually reduced down to 2, we've recently had a meter fitted. We have separate water and sewage companies, and our initial bills suggest we will save over £350 this year.
I expected to save, but didn't realise it would be this much.
Even my mother-in-law, living on her own, is predicted to save.
Make sure you ask your water company for advice first.
Hope this helps,
Chris
There is absolutely no point in people posting on here that meters are cheaper, or meters are more expensive. There is no rule of thumb either e.g more bedrooms than people and a meter is cheaper.
The two essential factors to consider are the Rateable Value(RV) of your property and how much water you use; and the latter consumption is generally determined by the number of people in the household.
Knowing the RV of your property you can easily determine your annual bill by looking at the water company's website.
To estimate the amount of water you use, take a figure of 50 to 60 cubic metres a year per person, and look up the cost of that consumption on the company website. 50-60 cubic metres is the UK average and you can modify that figure according to how careful(or not) you are with water usage.
The above applies to us almost exactly, 2 people living in 4 bedroomed house, used to pay £54 a month x 9, so £486, just about to have our meter removed having accumulated an annual bill of over £650. We don't have a dishwasher or any sprinkler system in the garden, have a daily shower each, 3/4 loads of washing a week, live in Wales so watering the garden (especially last Summer) is very very rarely done, work 5 days a week so out the house from 7.30 to 6, spend 6 weeks out of the UK a year.... I was told by Severn Trent when I started querying the bills that we had consumption equivalent to 5/6 people living in the house ... I haven't the faintest idea why? We've had the flow test done, Severn Trent say there are no problems with the meter (fitted into kitchen wall) and we are not aware of leaks within the house... surely if there are any we'd have spotted evidence of them? I dread to think how much a family of 4/5 people would have had to spend on their water in this house... for us it's definately a big NO
An annual metered bill of £650 with Severn Trent equates to an annual water consumption of around 280 to 300 cubic metres.
The average in UK is around 60 cubic metres per person - so 120 for a couple and a bill of approx £300; as ST say you are using what would be expected of a 5 or 6 person household.
There is something very wrong if you use that amount on your declared usage. Could you have a faulty cistern? overflowing into toilet bowl.
So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and roam the world at will.
Robert Service
Compare this with ye olde fashioned syphonic cistern where you have to yank a lever in order to cause enough pressure to start syphoning the water out of the cistern - very unlikely to leak water in the same way.