Moved house, water bill now doubled 16 February 2016 at 4:40PM in Water bills 7 replies 2.7K views

mameha

I used to pay £30/month for water and sewage when I lived in Cheltenham.
Now I am paying £67/month for the same to Anglian Water who supply my new home.

The houses are both around the same size, 3 bedroom with 2 adults and 2 children occupants. Water consumption is exactly the same.

This seems far too high. According to a quick Google search the average water bill in UK for this kind of house is £30/month.

We do have a bath every night, and maybe put on the washing machine every other day. Aside from this we are not really using much water.

The only difference is metering.
The Cheltenham house was not on a meter, whereas the new house is metered. I did query the cost with Anglian Water and we did a test where I took a meter reading and then again a month later and they said the billed amount was correct.

matelodave

How long have you been in the house. How often do you read the meter and when was the last time you had a bill with actual meter readings on it.

Bills based on rateable value are fixed, so your annual bill is known and your DD will be either 1/10 or 1/12th of the total.

If you've got a meter then the water co will only read it once or twice a year usually around April/May and maybe Oct/Nov and so they will estimate your consumption and calculate your direct debit on the estimated amount.

They will correct the amount when they've got actual readings and consumption figures - generally in April

How can you tell that water consumption is the same - if you weren't metered before then you used as much as you wanted. Now you have to pay for what you use. The cost of water and sewerage is different in different part of the country and so Anglian might be more expensive

It's usually estimated that a person uses around 55cum a year, so you should estimate that your will be around 220cu.m a year. = just over 4 cu,m a week or 18cu.m a month.

Read you meter yourself either weekly or monthly and see if your consumption is anywhere near the estimate - if it's more then you can try and reduce your consumption. The size of your bill is totally under your control - use less you pay less, use more and you pay for it.

Pete9501

Four baths a night will be using a lot of water. Try using the shower instead and fit an egg timer in there:

https://www.savewatersavemoney.co.uk/products/view/3056/free-4-minute-shower-timer-united-utilities.html

matelodave

A standard bath is reckoned to use around 100litres of water and a shower can deliver water at 10-15 litres a minute.

So one bath a night for a year will use 36.5 cu.m = around £150 a year
and one 10 minute shower a night could use even more. Multiply that by however many baths/showers you have a night and you will see how your water consumption racks up.

Either have fewer baths or fit a flow restrictor to your shower and limit your time in there to 5 minutes.

Reducing the shower flow to around 6lpm for five minutes will only use about 30 litres = 11 cu.m/yr.

Likewise learn to wash, rinse and clean your teeth without letting water run down the sink, only use the washing machine & dishwasher with full loads and just fill the kettle with as much water as you need. Use cold water when possible as running off all the cold to get the hot water flowing wastes not only water but energy as well

Anglian Water used to give away flow restrictors for showers & taps, fitting them saves us a lot of water as my wife seems incapable of only half turning on a tap and so uses about a gallon of water just to rinse a yoghurt pot. The tap restrictor reduces that by at least 50%

Not only will you save water but you'll save the energy that's heating it as well

AnotherJoe

We do have a bath every night, and maybe put on the washing machine every other day. Aside from this we are not really using much water.

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That's like saying "apart from using loads of water every night, we don't use much water"

forestwn6

You also have to take into consideration that your sewage charges are based on your meter readings.
As well as that there may well be a charge for rainwater run-off from the road.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Back in the day, we used to share bathwater. Is this still a thing?

macman

There is no meaningful average price, because unit rates vary by as much as 250% by region, SWW being by far the most expensive in the UK.
Your previous property may well have been a similar size but had a much lower RV.