Has anyone had a water meter fitted and found they actually paid less on their bill?

brewerdave

Had a meter fitted in 2012 - have just updated my spreadsheet and we have saved an average of £320 py vs rateable value calculations ie ~ £2900 - better in my pocket than the water Co. And we haven't rationed - in fact since we both retired we are  using more water on the garden!

clearancer

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

phillw

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

Could be a leak, or you are being charged for the wrong meter.

brewerdave

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

That's 90% more than our usage - and as I said earlier in the thread, my wife puts plenty of water on the plants and vegetables thru the Summer !!- sounds like a leak -have you checked for constantly flowing water in toilet pans ? From experience what looks like a trickle into the bowl will quickly add up over the weeks.

clearancer

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

The first check Northumbrian Water told me to do is to take a meter reading every day at the same time for 7 days. I've been unable to do this. The meter is under a load of murky water! I tried bailing it out, but it just got murkier!!! Is it usual for the water meter to be underwater???

Cardew

clearancer said:

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

The first check Northumbrian Water told me to do is to take a meter reading every day at the same time for 7 days. I've been unable to do this. The meter is under a load of murky water! I tried bailing it out, but it just got murkier!!! Is it usual for the water meter to be underwater???

Lots of people report that there is water over the meter.

If the water covers the meter again, after you have bailed out, that could be the reason for your high consumption i.e. a leak from the house side  of the meter.

clearancer

Cardew said:

clearancer said:

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

The first check Northumbrian Water told me to do is to take a meter reading every day at the same time for 7 days. I've been unable to do this. The meter is under a load of murky water! I tried bailing it out, but it just got murkier!!! Is it usual for the water meter to be underwater???

Lots of people report that there is water over the meter.

If the water covers the meter again, after you have bailed out, that could be the reason for your high consumption i.e. a leak from the house side  of the meter.

Hooray. An engineer is booked. Except they can arrive anytime between 7am and 7pm. I've not seen 7am since lockdown began back in March 2020. Guess I'll have to set my alarm!!!!

clearancer

clearancer said:

Cardew said:

clearancer said:

clearancer said:

I moved house July 2020. Just had my first “bill” from Northumbrian Water for £290. That’s for 6 months. Two people. They’re not taking phone calls so I had to speak to them on messenger. 123m3 water used. How is that even possible? She asked if I had a swimming pool. No one will come to the house cos of COVID. She’s given me a list of checks to do. 

The first check Northumbrian Water told me to do is to take a meter reading every day at the same time for 7 days. I've been unable to do this. The meter is under a load of murky water! I tried bailing it out, but it just got murkier!!! Is it usual for the water meter to be underwater???

Lots of people report that there is water over the meter.

If the water covers the meter again, after you have bailed out, that could be the reason for your high consumption i.e. a leak from the house side  of the meter.

Hooray. An engineer is booked. Except they can arrive anytime between 7am and 7pm. I've not seen 7am since lockdown began back in March 2020. Guess I'll have to set my alarm!!!!

Engineer been. There is a leak outside my property. He had to shovel the snow away to find the meter! Thank you essential workers

Addiscomber

We are Thames Water customers, and had a meter fitted compulsorily just before lockdown last year. It appears to have been activated on April 22nd. After a month we were told that our Predicted metered* annual bill was: £315.18 against Current unmetered annual bill: £625.67.  After another couple of months we chose to switch to metered billing there and then rather than wait the 12 months, as we could see that we would save quite a bit. We were credited with about £64 that they estimated we would have saved if we had been metered from the beginning of the current year. We are 3 adults in a 3 bedroom house. (I should add that I am disabled and unable to get up to the bathroom at the moment, so I have a shower using 3 buckets of hot water with a battery powered camping shower. So if/when I get upstairs again or we have a bathroom downstairs, our usage will go up a bit.)  The only problem has been that they do not explain how they will bill in future, and we don't currently have a realistic figure to put into our monthly budget, as we appear to be paying a small amount whilst we use up a credit of about £150. I'd rather have that repaid to us, and pay a proper amount each month but they don't seem to be able to tell me how to do that during a slow laborious webchat.

Yellowvest23

Yes paying about 60% less ,£22 month
that’s on using around 40m3 per year.