Extremely high bill - aaarghh!!!!! 9 November 2007 at 4:31PM in Water bills 7 replies 1.9K views

Ellie007

We recently moved into a property and just received our first water bill. We are on a meter, which is new to me.

Basically the bill was for £189 for a period of 129 days. Consumption was 112m3 which equates to 863 litres per day. We were on holiday for a week during this period.

There are two of us, no kids. We each shower twice a day, use the dishwasher once a day on a short, "eco-friendly" wash, and put the washing machine on probably once a day (also on a short cycle). We have no garden to water, and drink bottled water.

Does the consumption sound reasonable? Because it's horrified me! :eek:

Opinions gratefully received!

kitchen_buff

Did you take a reading when you moved in?
Contact previous owners and ask if they found the bills high.

matthewn.green

Did you record the meter reading when you moved in? If so, ring up and query. Sound very expensive. I had a bill of £180.00 for my water, but that was for 7 months. Does sound like you use quite a lot of water though!

jimsmum

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]How much hot water does your family use?[/FONT]

Activity
Gallons

Baths

10-15

Dishwasher (average load)

8-10

Hand-washing dishes

8-10

Laundry: Hot wash/warm rinse

30

Hot wash/cold rinse

19

Warm wash/cold rinse

9-12

Showers (with energy efficient shower head: 2.4 GPM) 15-minute

36

10-minute

24

5-minute

12

Showers (without energy efficient shower head: 4.8 GPM) 15-minute

72

10-minute

48

5-minute

24

Daily personal use

4

Dont know if this table is right but if you and OH are having 2 showers a day each for 15 minutes without an energy efficient shower head thats 1309 litres a day!!!!!!!

Cardew

The average consumption is approx 60m3 per person per year; so 120m3 a year.

So assuming there hasn't been a mistake with your initial, or current, meter reading, you are using water at the rate of 317m3 per year.

How long are your 4 showers a day?

You could have a leak?

Ellie007

Thank you for your responses.

To be honest, I don't recall that we took the reading ourselves, although the bill refers to a reading on the date we moved in. Is it likely that Thames Water would have read the meter?

The previous owner has moved abroad, so can't raise that query I'm afraid.

I know that we do use a fair bit of water, but can't believe that the figures are correct. Shower-wise, we each spend approx 5 minutes in the morning (depending on how late we are running!) and 10 minutes at night. We are at work all day so no water is used in this period.

I am starting to suspect a leak. Incidentally, Thames Water have done a lot of work down our road in the last few months - would this have any effect?

kitchen_buff

Soud like a leak could be possible or maybe a faulty meter. See if the meter has a name on it and then google it.

drc

The same thing has happened to us. Moved in to a flat in August, got a water bill for £40 for just over a month, none of us use a lot of water and we have a baby and it is a lot more than we were paying in our previous flat.

Thames Water said we might have a leak in which case a drip test can be done or they might have just used a predicted meter reading rather than the acutal one done by the last occupants when they moved out. They aren't able to come and check the meter until December which I am annoyed about. Also, the meter is buried in the ground so I can't take a look at it. Am dreading our next bill.