New Build - Severn Trent waited 18 months to produce first bill - £1.4k?!

Robin9

I found this - 17.2 galls is about 80 litres.   For two of you , daily showers, 1,000 litres a week., 50,000  year  is 50m3.    

Experiment with shorter showers !

On average, a shower uses 2.1 gallons of water per minute, which means that an eight-minute shower consumes approximately 17.2 gallons of water. However, this is just an estimate, and the actual amount of water consumed depends on various factors.

The type of showerhead also plays a significant role in determining water consumption. A standard showerhead has a flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute, while low-flow showerheads consume less water, typically ranging between 1.5 to 2 gallons per minute. High-pressure showerheads can consume up to 5 gallons per minute, significantly increasing water consumption.

lyle1993

MattMattMattUK said:

lyle1993 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Did you read the meter when you moved in?
Have you been putting money aside every month to cover the bill when it did arrive?

We’ve been putting away £30 a month. So have £600. Not £1400 unfortunately 😂  

Did you read the meter when you moved in? 

Yeah, they wrote it down as 5 on a piece of paper for us. Checked after a few days and think it said 7 or 8 👍🏼 

dunstonh

lyle1993 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

lyle1993 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Did you read the meter when you moved in?
Have you been putting money aside every month to cover the bill when it did arrive?

We’ve been putting away £30 a month. So have £600. Not £1400 unfortunately 😂  

Did you read the meter when you moved in? 

Yeah, they wrote it down as 5 on a piece of paper for us. Checked after a few days and think it said 7 or 8 👍🏼 

So, within a few days of moving in, you knew you were using around 0.74 m3 a day. i.e. 735 litres.      But you didn't budget on that basis.   £30pm was unrealistic for water in/out.    It may have been ballpark if you had a septic tank (so water in only).

735 litres a day is high but can easily happen - multiple daily showers, hose pipe in garden etc.  (early day hosepipe use in newly laid gardens would be higher for example)

Have you turned the water off to see if the meter continues increasing?
Have you read the meter over a shorter period recently to see if current use is different to earlier use?

lyle1993

dunstonh said:

lyle1993 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

lyle1993 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Did you read the meter when you moved in?
Have you been putting money aside every month to cover the bill when it did arrive?

We’ve been putting away £30 a month. So have £600. Not £1400 unfortunately 😂  

Did you read the meter when you moved in? 

Yeah, they wrote it down as 5 on a piece of paper for us. Checked after a few days and think it said 7 or 8 👍🏼 

So, within a few days of moving in, you knew you were using around 0.74 m3 a day. i.e. 735 litres.      But you didn't budget on that basis.   £30pm was unrealistic for water in/out.    It may have been ballpark if you had a septic tank (so water in only).

735 litres a day is high but can easily happen - multiple daily showers, hose pipe in garden etc.  (early day hosepipe use in newly laid gardens would be higher for example)

Have you turned the water off to see if the meter continues increasing?
Have you read the meter over a shorter period recently to see if current use is different to earlier use?

Thanks for replying. To be honest I appreciate your point but as first time buyers we didn't really know exactly what we were reading or using. We assumed being two people it would be similar to our next door neighbours, also two people (and retired) who said they paid £30pm and to set that aside.

Yes there is no leak by looks. I've been tracking last ten days and it's coming out 0.3m3 and 0.4m3 a day really. We've tried to keep our twice daily showers to 5 minutes max each - which I think still must be the bulk of our use considering we have a waterfall shower, which I've read can use twice as much as normal showers.

We don't do barely any watering to be honest so that definitely doesn't contribute towards!