Water meters - pros and cons? 24 September 2004 at 1:33AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Water Bills 593 replies 361.9K views

Cardew

Thanks for the explanation.

You can revert back to RV charges within 2 years of having a meter; but the meter will be left in situ. However if you rent the new occupant will pay metered charges if the account is put in their name; and from then on RV charges is not an option for anyone - including yourself.

Average consumption is 55 cubic metres per person per year, you can get a good idea from the website if metering is likely to be advantageous.

matelodave

The letter you've got looks like the ones that are being sent out by certain water companies who are allowed to impose a water meter onto customers, whether they want one or not.

Some water companies in water sensitive areas can fit meter to aid water conservation - you may be in one of them, you need to check what the terms & conditions are

KenWilson

I think you should install Eddy Home water saving H2O sensor. It can help you save money on your water bill.

Cardew

USA Spam??

harrym1byt

harrym1byt wrote: »

We were charged on RV until recently, £533 per year was this years bill, paid in 8x instalments.

I used the online calculator which is supposed to work out what it would cost per year, if we were on a meter. There are two of us, living in a semi and both retired. We never water the garden and are supplied by Yorkshire Water. The calculator suggested we would likely end up paying £170 [1] per annum, so we requested a meter be installed. Four working days later, it was fitted under the kitchen sink. No charge and we get two years to decide whether to go back to RV billing.

YW estimated (?) we would use 90cuM (246L per day) so based our charge on that, £324 per annum, £27 per month x12. It has been in just 23 days and I logged it daily, out of curiosity. Sometimes we exceed the 246L, but not often. Our average is 214L per day which will be around 78cuM per annum, versus the 90cuM estimate - so I am expecting we will be over paying and get a refund.

YW's letter only said 90cuM / £324 per annum, so I also asked YW to write to me with a breakdown of how they had arrived at this...

Their reply was as follows:-
Water standing charge £23.28
Sewerage standing charge £8.76
Surface water drainage charge £38.92
So £62.21 before any water is recorded on the meter

Water is charged at £1.29 per !!!
Sewerage volume at 95% of metered, £1.61

We also received a £126 refund of the RV charge we had paid for the year so far.

For the next year, I am expecting our bill to be between 50% and 65% of what we have paid for many years. This without any changes in our living style at all. :j

[1] Why the online calculator got it so far out I don't know, perhaps it omits the standing charges, but something to be wary of. How YW were able to estimate how much we might use, is another mystery, but not that far out. Maybe they have access to figures of how many are living here?

A longer term update on this....

For a few years I have maintained a gas and electric consumption and cost spreadsheet. I recently updated that to include water costs, just to see how we were doing with the meter.

YW are charging us £27 per month x 12 months, £324 per annum, based upon their calculation that we would use 90CuM of water plus standing charges.

My spreadsheet, logged weekly, suggests we will use around 75.2CuM so our eventual bill will be around £289.00 for the year. So a very worthwhile saving on our unmetered RV based charge of £533 per annum.

matelodave

I'm with Anglian water and just the standing charge for water and sewerage come to £518 a year without adding the rateable value portion at 29p in the pound so we'd have a minimum spend of of at least £45 a month. I dont actually know what our Rv is as we got the water meter fitted as soon as we moved in - that immediately saved us over £200 a year. I guess we'd be paying over £600 a year by now

We pay £324 ayear (£27 a month) at the moment and we use about 70cu.m a year.

We dont stint on using water but dont waste it either although we do wash our cars and caravan and we've got an automatic watering system which is on from around April to September.

Having a water meter is a no brainer for us. I'd have to use an extra 50-60cu.m a year to justify being on a rateable tariff.

Stephanie4304

Meter is a life saver –!never looked back!!!!

KenWilson

Not spam, Cardew! But if you really want to save water, you should be opting for water-saving technologies. I just suggested Eddy Home. There are many other products too; you can Google them.

Stella72

I was wondering about putting a water meter in, but don't know if it will say me money in the long run.
I am paying 40 pounds a week for water and waste. Only a 2 bed 1 bathroom house and only 2 people live here.
I heard that if you have a water meter fitted you can trial it for 6 months - has anyone heard of this?
Thanks

Ebe_Scrooge

£40 a week ? That sounds a heck of a lot. Given what you've said, I'd say it's definitely worth giving a meter a trial - you usually have a year to switch back to unmetered if you want to.


Try plugging some figures into here to get some estimates :


https://www.ccwater.org.uk/watermetercalculator/