Rain Harvester

Whizzo66

We live in a house built in about and around 2011, built as so say an Eco house. It is all electric with an Air Source Heat pump System for heating, a SUDS system to aid water drainage and a 3000 litre Rain Harvester, we also have restrictors fitted to all taps and the shower plus water saving cisterns. It is a 2 bedroom house with 2 adults and one teenager living in it. Our water supplier is Severn Trent, we have tried to get a discount/rebate on our water bill with them given the Eco info above but have been told that unless WE pay for a meter on the Rain Harvester to inform Seven Trent when it overflows into their system they are not interested?? Is this correct or are they just being awkward in accepting that we should/could be entitled to a discount/rebate??

Andy_WSM

Whizzo66 wrote: »

We live in a house built in about and around 2011, built as so say an Eco house. It is all electric with an Air Source Heat pump System for heating, a SUDS system to aid water drainage and a 3000 litre Rain Harvester, we also have restrictors fitted to all taps and the shower plus water saving cisterns. It is a 2 bedroom house with 2 adults and one teenager living in it. Our water supplier is Severn Trent, we have tried to get a discount/rebate on our water bill with them given the Eco info above but have been told that unless WE pay for a meter on the Rain Harvester to inform Seven Trent when it overflows into their system they are not interested?? Is this correct or are they just being awkward in accepting that we should/could be entitled to a discount/rebate??

I am in the Bristol Water (supply) / Wessex Water (waste) area and also have rainwater harvesting. Waste water is charged as a percentage of the metered mains water used (95%) I believe, so you are already getting a very heavy discount on your waste water bill as you will be using less mains water - yet you are still putting waste water into the sewer system.

If you are referring to a discount for surface / roof drainage, then no, you are not eligible for that unless NONE of the rainwater that falls on your property ever goes into the waste water system. Clearly this won't be the case as a couple of heavy downpours and my 3000L of storage is full and overflowing to the sewer.

Cardew

I assume that you are trying to get a reduction in your 'used water' charge on the grounds that the percentage of supplied water returned to the sewerage system is lower than average? Severn Trent used to estimate this average at 90% to allow for use in garden and evaporation. However I believe they have dropped the 90%.

Some years ago a farmer took a water company to court as he had a large lake and claimed that he returned far less water to the sewerage system than average. He won his case by fitting his own measuring equipment, and the principle was established; BUT only if the householder proved by measuring the water that did not go to the sewer.

Incidentally this farmer marketed his meter; and got banned from MSE for trying to sell it on this Forum.

Severn Trent state this in their website:

For most customers we assume that the volume of ‘water in’ is the same as the volume of ‘water out’, i.e. returned to sewer. The charge will be calculated by multiplying this volume of used water by the rates set out in Table 6 on page 23. The unit charge has been set at a level that reflects ‘normal losses’. This covers miscellaneous non-returns to the sewer, e.g. evaporation from cooking, clothes washing, bathing, hot water equipment and garden watering. If you believe that you have more than ‘normal losses’, and can prove this by measurement, you can claim a reduction in the volume of used water. Again, there is a standing charge payable to cover the extra cost of reading, billing and maintaining the meter and eventually replacing it depending on the size of the meter as set out in Table 7 on page 24.

You can understand ST's dilemma. If a customer didn't have to prove the above, we could all claim to be keen gardeners and use 50% of our supplied water on the garden!

matelodave

Do you flush your toilets with water from the harvesting system, - if so, that water will be going into the sewer, so you should be paying for it's disposal.