Water meters - pros and cons? 24 September 2004 at 12:33AM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Water Bills 597 replies 363.8K views

notional

I live on my own in a one bed flat, which is the top half of a house. Thames Water is my supplier.

I read that as a single person it's usually worth getting a meter, and if it's found to be not technically possible to fit one, you get put on a permanent discounted tariff.  This is absolutely true: it was not possible to fit a meter as the pipes are inaccessible (I had guessed this before the engineer visited).  My water bill got reduced from £23.45 to £21.77 a month. 

I believe this is true for all suppliers, but do check.

Cardew

notional said:

I live on my own in a one bed flat, which is the top half of a house. Thames Water is my supplier.

I read that as a single person it's usually worth getting a meter, and if it's found to be not technically possible to fit one, you get put on a permanent discounted tariff.  This is absolutely true: it was not possible to fit a meter as the pipes are inaccessible (I had guessed this before the engineer visited).  My water bill got reduced from £23.45 to £21.77 a month. 

I believe this is true for all suppliers, but do check.

If a customer applies for a water meter, and one cannot be fitted,  all customers regardless of number of occupants, must be offered an 'Assessed Charge'. Whilst a fixed charge, this is not a discounted charge, although it usually is considerably cheaper for single occupants.

All water companies have differing methods to calculate the assessed charge. For instance Severn Trent use the type of property as the basis i.e. detached house, semi-detached, terraced or flat. The Assessed Charge for Thames Water is on the basis of number of bedrooms. In addition allcompanies offer a single person rate.

RobM99

Probably already mentioned (I'm not trawling through 60 pages!) but water companies will have an on-line calculator. Dead simple to do.

RobM99

Following on a friend (a lady I'm wooing - but without luck!) has done the above calculation and her water bill would go from £660 a year to £300.   May I say...


Boom!

sheilavw

I pay just over £43 per month for 10 months for water. I was widowed in July 2019, my Daughters have left home so there is just me. I only have a wet room , I wash twice a week. Would I benefit from a meter? Is it free to change? thanks

harrym1byt

sheilavw said:

I pay just over £43 per month for 10 months for water. I was widowed in July 2019, my Daughters have left home so there is just me. I only have a wet room , I wash twice a week. Would I benefit from a meter? Is it free to change? thanks

£430 per year. My annual bill five years ago was around £450 (Yorkshire Water), when my partner passed away and living alone. I did a bit of research which suggested I could cut my bill in half with a meter, so I gave it a go and sure enough it did and then some. I am no longer alone and paying a little more, £276 per year, but we use more water and prices have gone up and no doubt the £450 annual bill will have increased for unmetered. I take no special precautions to save water, I am just less frivolous with its use than I was.
It used to be you could try one for a year, see how it worked out and reject the meter if it didn't work out for you, not sure if that is still true.
    

sheilavw

thanks harrym, I think that I will look into it. Im out at work too (term time)