How much water do you use

quartzz

singhini said:

quartzz said:

single use, with a few recycling methods in place

actual water use October-March, £36 (I'd say roughly 1M³ per week. maybe slightly less than that). waste water charge £24
standing order for water £18, standing order for waste £13
surface water drainage SC £24, highway drainage SC £8

total bill £125, with £36 of that being the actual stuff. When I moved in Oct 24, I got an estimated 6 monthly bill of £265. I phoned up to be put on a meter that was already installed underneath the pavement outside the house (70 minutes in Severn Trents phone queue - they obviously can't afford to take on any more telephone staff)

Severn Trent have told me the SC is going from £18 to £25 (28% increase?), and £13 to £20 (35% increase)
That's the SC increase, and not the water itself. This is obviously f     g fine. Since they are increasing prices, they'll be able to afford to take on more staff. So that'll be super. #s.

TL;DR, I think I'm using <100L per day

That's the beauty of living in this country, £125 and you can walk straight upto the tap and drink directly from it (no need to go to a well in the middle of the village).
Sometimes we don't realise how lucky we are.

It's easy to get used to not living in a third world country. & indeed - suggest letting other people know how lucky they are.

SuzeQStan

mmmmikey said:

What kind of surface does the drive have? Permeable pavers with small grit  in between

My original driveway was concrete and sloping towards the road, but I have since replaced it with gravel (in grids) so there's no longer any run off (not the reason I did it, I wasn't really thinking of drainage at the time). If you have something similar you could maybe just do the same? Or maybe have a strip of gravel say 1m wide at the lower end of the drive so the water soaks away rather than drain into the road grate? This is a really good idea - there is a downward gradient of our driveway and I do believe there is runoff to the sewer in the road.  I wonder if we could install some kind of soak away at bottom of the driveway - but it would have to be strong enough to drive over.

I'm still researching soakaways, have just dug out a copy of the building regs, will let you know if I find anything interesting. That would be great thank you

As an aside, I put in a large undergound rainwater tank when I was improving the drainage and "landscaping" the garden a few years ago (landscaping being a bit of a grand term for what I did!) At the time the economics were questionable, but my thinking was if I'm lucky it should just about pay for itself in 20 years time and even if it doesn't it's good for the environment and won't ruin me financially. It was a question of do it then or never do it, so I got the pick axe out and dug, dug, dug. Roll on 5 years and (a) I'm collecting more water than I had anticipated, and (b) now prices have increased it's looking like an altogether more sensible investment. According to my latest rough calculations I should be able to save £180 a year by flushing the toilet with rainwater, a worthwhile saving for a tank, pump, etc. that cost just over £2000. Food for thought maybe (if you enjoy digging ). Not sure if we enjoy digging as much as you 🤣 but your sweat equity has definitely paid off! Flushing with rainwater is intriguing - but labour intensive for most. Does your pump get the rainwater direct to your loo? 

Sorry it won’t let me type above - queries in bold 😊👍🏻

lyle1993

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

SuzeQStan

lyle1993 said:

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

Did you read the water meter when you moved in?  

lyle1993

SuzeQStan said:

lyle1993 said:

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

Did you read the water meter when you moved in?  

Yeah. Said 7 or something of that nature. Got ST coming round to do one of their efficiency tours. Just seems like even if we do shower twice daily it’s still twice as much as it should be. 

RavingMad

lyle1993 said:

SuzeQStan said:

lyle1993 said:

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

Did you read the water meter when you moved in?  

Yeah. Said 7 or something of that nature. Got ST coming round to do one of their efficiency tours. Just seems like even if we do shower twice daily it’s still twice as much as it should be. 

Very long showers?

lyle1993

RavingMad said:

lyle1993 said:

SuzeQStan said:

lyle1993 said:

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

Did you read the water meter when you moved in?  

Yeah. Said 7 or something of that nature. Got ST coming round to do one of their efficiency tours. Just seems like even if we do shower twice daily it’s still twice as much as it should be. 

Very long showers?

That’s what we are evaluating at the moment. I’m not in when other half showers but I think VERY long showers are the only way we get to anything like those totals without a leak. Dishwasher and washing machine on eco mode 4 times a week, water from tap very standard use as well as toilet flushing. Thinking can only be extremely long showers to get to 800 litres a day between two! 😂 

matelodave

what sort of shower and how long do you stand in it,

A deluge shower can dump 12-15 litres a minute and if you stand there for five minutes that's 60-75 litres a go. Multiply  that by three or four times a day and that could account for 300 litres or more. Running off lots of cold water until the hot tap runs hot, wastes all the water that you run away plus leaving all that lovely expensive hot water sitting in the pipework to get cold. Don't run water down the sink to wash or wash dishes, use a bowl or a dishwasher and save your washing up and do it once a day

We have an Eco shower head which delivers around 6lpm and I can have a pretty thorough shower, hair wash  I'm not bald) in around two minutes = 12litres. SWMBO takes a bit longer as she's got more hair but still gets in done in around 3 minutes.

Try checking your flow rate (time how long it takes to fill a 10 litre bucket), fit a flow restrictor if it takes less than a minute to fill, and limit your time to a max of 3-4 minutes.

RavingMad

3 mins for a woman!? You've got her trained well lol. My teenage daughter must take at least 15 mins every morning, but that's offset by the son's splashing a bit of water will do attitude 

quartzz

lyle1993 said:

RavingMad said:

lyle1993 said:

SuzeQStan said:

lyle1993 said:

2 person household in a 2 bed semi. Had our first water bill since moving in - friend who works for ST has sent me this from their meter system. In sum, we use 600 on average A DAY! Often touching 800L! No leaks as when we went away usage is zero. Baffled by it as we do no watering of plants (barely have a garden). Showers 3/4 times daily which I guess is a big contributor - but 800?! seems absurd. Especially reading some comments on here about 4 person households using 300 litres a day!!!

Did you read the water meter when you moved in?  

Yeah. Said 7 or something of that nature. Got ST coming round to do one of their efficiency tours. Just seems like even if we do shower twice daily it’s still twice as much as it should be. 

Very long showers?

That’s what we are evaluating at the moment. I’m not in when other half showers but I think VERY long showers are the only way we get to anything like those totals without a leak. Dishwasher and washing machine on eco mode 4 times a week, water from tap very standard use as well as toilet flushing. Thinking can only be extremely long showers to get to 800 litres a day between two! 😂 

Shower head, 10L bucket, time how long it takes you to fill up the bucket (hot and cold might have different flow rates)

Then one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165246558969  I suggest different colours for the different seasons. although that is not essential. [indeed, what matel said]. My flow rate coming straight from the tap on a shower adapter, fills up 10L in about 1 minute (not 10 seconds, got that wrong) from the hot, and the cold is about half that rate