Water meters - pros and cons?

Cardew

davehills wrote: »

Do you have a link to a table showing comparative prices? How does Southern Water compare? (I have been told it works out about £3 a cubic metre)

I am not aware of any table.

In any case it would be meaningless because the companies all use different charging structures. e.g. a standing charge(bfore any use of water) with one company can be over £100 pa and less than £40 pa with another. The charges for Surface Water Drainage(SWD) also vary tremendously.

The one thing that is certain is that South West Water's charges are easily the highest in UK - for both RV and metered - over £5 per cubic meter in addition to standing charges for full water and sewerage. That is 2 to 3 times as much as some other Districts.

Southern water charges for 2012/13 are here:

http://www.southernwater.co.uk/DomesticCustomers/aboutYourBill/

£3.21 per cubic meter for water and sewerage and and £44 standing charges + £22 for SWD

pkey

I wonder if it would be worth some kind of survey being done on water meters, so that there were tested ball-park figures on whether water meters are cheaper or not

I have found this thread interesting and after all the conversation I am still interested in looking into water meters as you need them if you are renting out an apartment building to monitor your residents water use, can anyone recommend good suppliers of water meters? Preferably not too expensive!

abwsco

These are United Utilities charges. Standing charges are high imo.

http://www.unitedutilities.com/Our-charges-2012-2013.aspx

Cardew

pkey wrote: »

I wonder if it would be worth some kind of survey being done on water meters, so that there were tested ball-park figures on whether water meters are cheaper or not

I have found this thread interesting and after all the conversation I am still interested in looking into water meters as you need them if you are renting out an apartment building to monitor your residents water use, can anyone recommend good suppliers of water meters? Preferably not too expensive!

Water meters are fitted free by the water company. If it is not possible to fit a water meter for any reason, you will be offered an assessed charge.

There is no reliable ball park figure for calculating if it is advantageous to have a meter or not.

It depends on the Rateable Value of the property - which can vary wildly even for the same type of property - and the amount of water used.

Why would you need to monitor your resident's water use; if they have a meter, they should pay water charges.

mcc100

Cardew wrote: »

Water meters are fitted free by the water company. If it is not possible to fit a water meter for any reason, you will be offered an assessed charge.

There is no reliable ball park figure for calculating if it is advantageous to have a meter or not.

It depends on the Rateable Value of the property - which can vary wildly even for the same type of property - and the amount of water used.

Why would you need to monitor your resident's water use; if they have a meter, they should pay water charges.

It may be that pkey is referring to an apartment block with one bulk meter that he pays the bill for and then splits it between the tenants.

If so he may be considering fitting private sub-meters.

Just a thought.

Cardew

mcc100 wrote: »

It may be that pkey is referring to an apartment block with one bulk meter that he pays the bill for and then splits it between the tenants.

If so he may be considering fitting private sub-meters.

Just a thought.

Good thinking!

If that were the case, then it is probable that the plumbing system is not conducive to fitting meters. e.g. a common mains pipe and/or water entering property from two sources.(Mains and to a header tank)

It is normal(and sensible IMO) to have a flat charge per property, or include it in a Service Charge.

Lauralala

It is much better to have a meter and it's more expensive on a normal rate

Cardew

Lauralala wrote: »

It is much better to have a meter and it's more expensive on a normal rate

be sure that a water meter will save you some money but don't expect to save a
lot of money

A water meter is not always cheaper - there are a host of factors to consider.

The main consideration is the Rateable Value(RV) of a property. In that regard, there are many properties with a really low RV and there is no possibility that metering would be cheaper.

There is no 'one size fits all' answer. Some while ago I saw some figures that indicated that, of the unmetered housing stock in UK, some 60% would benefit from having a meter.

phsci

davehills wrote: »

Do you have a link to a table showing comparative prices? How does Southern Water compare? (I have been told it works out about £3 a cubic metre)

I'm not allowed to post links, but go to the OFWAT home page and then "Household consumers", "Your water bill", "Household charges: recent publications", "Charges and bills publications 2012-13".
Then click on the Excel spreadsheet at the bottom of the page which sets out average bills for each of the water companies for 2012-13.
Maybe not quite what you wanted, but next best thing.

whitesatin

We had a water meter fitted on a "trial" for a year, just under a year ago. There are only two of us in a 3 bed house so it seemed like a good idea. We were paying £36pm and they gave us a nice rebate at the time (not sure why) then charged us £23pm but put it up a couple of months ago to £25. Got the bill today, we are £5 in credit and they are putting our payments down to £23 again.

Of course, the breakdown of the bill shows the element of sewerage charges so it is not all about running taps etc.

We shall wait and see (August we got it last year) but on the face of it, I think we will be keeping it.

Mind you, normally we would be using a hosepipe to water the garden which are not allowed to do this year. This would probably have made a difference to the figures.

I find it interesting how I am now actively conserving water, e.g. using a jug to catch the water from the cold tap first thing in the morning before filling the kettle and using that for the plants. I no longer run the tap when brushing my teeth, etc. etc. Probably has been a good thing as I no longer take "free" water for granted.