How much water do you use

QrizB

1stTimer said:

my meter has been showing for a year now I average 859.1 litres a day.

Sounds like a leak somewhere.

Is the meter inside your house, or outside in the street?

If you turn off your main stop tap where your water enters your property, does the meter continue to increase?

mmmmikey

1stTimer said:

Currently having a nightmare with Thames water and trying to get someone out to my place, I live alone one shower a day, wash up once every 2 days. No dishwasher, gardening, car wash etc. flush every other toilet unless it’s the number 2.
my meter has been showing for a year now I average 859.1 litres a day.
I really think this is excessive but their chat bots just keep sending me in circles and when I did have an engineer out last month to do a reading I was at work so didn’t catch him 😣
they keep telling me about their bill increases and they don’t seem to understand it’s not the bill I have an issue with it’s the usage!

Hi - water meters usually have a little spinning thing that looks like a cog, and even a small trickle is enough to make it move. This makes it easy to detect leaks. First thing to do is to find the meter and look for the little black cog. Run a tap and make sure the cog spins. Then turn the tap off and water off at the stopcock in the house - often under the kitchen sink and make sure the cog stops spinning. If it carries on, you have a leak somewhere between the meter and the stop !!!!!! and you need to get a plumber to look at it. If it stops, turn the stop !!!!!! back on and make sure all taps etc. are off. If the cog is still spinning then something may be overflowing (e.g. the toilet cistern into the bowl) or you have a leak - again a job for a plumber. If it doesn't spin with the stop !!!!!! on then it sounds like you have a faulty meter and you should call Thames Water again, and tell them how you have tested things - hopefully that will do the trick.

edit/p.s. well worth doing these checks as it's not uncommon for leaks underground etc. to go undetected for years

QrizB

All those exclamation marks are because the forum thinks the second half of stopcock is a rude word but you can write it as stopcock and it isn't filtered out.

QrizB

My water bills have landed.

For the 174 days from 1st Nov to 24th Apr, we (3 adults) used 48 cubic metres - an average of 276 litres a day.

My bill for supply is £112, for sewerage is £101. Total £213 for the period, about £1.22 a day, £450 a year.

I'm happy with that.

mmmmikey

QrizB said:

All those exclamation marks are because the forum thinks the second half of stopcock is a rude word but you can write it as stopcock and it isn't filtered out.

Thanks cocker - as they say in Barnsley

singhini

@QrizB agree about the water bill (ive got a water meter but i started to submit a reading on the 1st of each month to get an accurate picture, and i spend about £20 a month (That's fine with me). What i've noticed is my usage has halved since sending regular readings from roughly 65 litres a day to 30 litres (trying to do my bit for the planet). 

1stTimer

Thanks guys for the advice, the issue I have is i don’t know where the meter is installed? Looks like all the houses on my road have the round metal thing at the end of the drive and the meter are in there, mine isn’t.
TW have said it’s possibly located in a neighbours, and bare with me if this sounds like a silly question but are they labelled up if I was to start knocking and asking if I can check inside there?
TW have now agreed to send someone out but within 15 days and can’t tell me the day in advance so I can be at home. It’s ridiculous.

1stTimer

Just want to add before the question comes up, I admit I have lived here years and have just always paid by DD without ever looking into what I am paying for. A costly mistake and one I will not do again

QrizB

1stTimer said:

Thanks guys for the advice, the issue I have is i don’t know where the meter is installed? Looks like all the houses on my road have the round metal thing at the end of the drive and the meter are in there, mine isn’t.
TW have said it’s possibly located in a neighbours, and bare with me if this sounds like a silly question but are they labelled up if I was to start knocking and asking if I can check inside there?

It's unlikely to be inside a neighbour's house. When was your street built? Is your house new enough that it might've had a meter from the start, or would it be a retrofit?

Finding your meter is pretty important as it's also where the water company's stopcock is, which lets you isolate your entire house in an emergency (or if your in-house stopcock needs replacing).

1stTimer

QrizB said:

1stTimer said:

Thanks guys for the advice, the issue I have is i don’t know where the meter is installed? Looks like all the houses on my road have the round metal thing at the end of the drive and the meter are in there, mine isn’t.
TW have said it’s possibly located in a neighbours, and bare with me if this sounds like a silly question but are they labelled up if I was to start knocking and asking if I can check inside there?

It's unlikely to be inside a neighbour's house. When was your street built? Is your house new enough that it might've had a meter from the start, or would it be a retrofit?

Finding your meter is pretty important as it's also where the water company's stopcock is, which lets you isolate your entire house in an emergency (or if your in-house stopcock needs replacing).

Looks like it was built in 1991. I’m going to try and call them rather than use their online and WhatsApp channels