Smart Water Meter - not an option?

FlatFour

Hi,

We've been looking at switching to a Water Meter - we've run the numbers and think we'll be better off, especially after a recent £20 a month increase, meaning our bill has more than doubled over the past couple of years after a prior £20 increase.  Water is expensive...and we've had a hosepipe ban for months.

By coincidence, we recently got a letter from our Water company, talking about Smart Water Meters.  Looking in to this, these Meters use a similar system to Smart Electric Meters - essentially using a cellular network to communicate.  The problem is, we're in a dead zone here when it comes to signal - rural area, in a dip on the "wrong" side of a hill.  Smart Electric Meters simply don't work.  Our energy provider informed us of this, after much speculation on my part that this was indeed the case, and we're marked as cannot have a smart meter for that reason.  Which is a pain, as we cannot take advantage of certain tariffs without one.  Though I was dubious of Smart Electric Meters in the early days, as several friends had huge headaches with theirs - spuriously high bills, despite minimal usage.

I have spoken to our water provider, but their support staff seem only geared up to arranging appointments for new Smart Meters, they're not informed when it comes to potential blockers.  I have escalated by query via eMail, person I spoke to suggested this, but it might be ten days before they respond.

So, I was wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation, in that they want a Water Meter, but have been told that a modern Smart Water Meter likely won't work.

Just trying to save a little money here, which I can do if we're just paying for what we actually use.

Robin9

I would go for a Water Meter even it's not Smart.    Your bills will almost certainly reduce.

I assume you are already reading your Gas and Electric every month -  just add Water to the regime.

Peter999_2

Yes, go for a normal water meter.     I have a water meter that is "smart" - when you look at thing, it is just a normal water meter with a communications device plonked on top.     I read the meter every month to know where I am with cost (like you say, it is so expensive now) and work out how much I owe each month.

I am disgusted with the water companies that they only bill every 6 months, really pisses me off.      With my electric company, if I make a manual meter reading I get a bill the next day - why are water companies not forced to do the same.

FlatFour

Robin9 said:

I would go for a Water Meter even it's not Smart.    Your bills will almost certainly reduce.

I assume you are already reading your Gas and Electric every month -  just add Water to the regime.

That's the issue, they don't offer regular Water Meters any more, and they couldn't answer whether their Smart Meter would act as a regular Meter and that I could submit readings.  If they could have confirmed that, I'd have booked an appointment right away.

Yeah, already submit monthly Electric Readings online no problem.  No Gas here unfortunately.

QrizB

FlatFour said:

So, I was wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation, in that they want a Water Meter, but have been told that a modern Smart Water Meter likely won't work.

Just trying to save a little money here, which I can do if we're just paying for what we actually use.

All the smart water meters I've seen have also had a conventional metering display that can be read by a human.

Book an appointment and let the installer give it a go.

If the installer says you can't have a meter, you'll be eligible for an assessed charge instead of rateable value which should save you a bit.

FlatFour

Peter999_2 said:

Yes, go for a normal water meter.     I have a water meter that is "smart" - when you look at thing, it is just a normal water meter with a communications device plonked on top.     I read the meter every month to know where I am with cost (like you say, it is so expensive now) and work out how much I owe each month.

I am disgusted with the water companies that they only bill every 6 months, really pisses me off.      With my electric company, if I make a manual meter reading I get a bill the next day - why are water companies not forced to do the same.

I'd be perfectly happy with that, but they're not offering regular Water Meters any more - at least, that's what I was told.  Plus they didn't know if a Smart Meter could be read like a regular one and the readings submitted.  I'd assume it can be, but I'd not put it past them to make them not able to be read by the customer.  A case of "Trust me bro, that's how much you used.  Honest." sort of thing lol.

I'm with you there.  We've been prevented from using water - hose pipe ban - but they still put the prices up.  In an ideal world, it'd be use £20 of water (in and out) and be charged £20 next month.  Simple.

FlatFour

QrizB said:

All the smart water meters I've seen have also had a conventional metering display that can be read by a human.

Book an appointment and let the installer give it a go.

If the installer says you can't have a meter, you'll be eligible for an assessed charge instead of rateable value which should save you a bit.

That's good to know.  Shame the person I spoke to couldn't confirm that!

I was expecting that I'd book an appointment anyway, and find out that way.  However, as the person I spoke to couldn't answer even my basic questions, it sorta threw me a bit.

I might still just arrange an appointment after all, and go from there. I hope they'd still accept Meter readings even if the Smart bit doesn't work.  Not sure how they'd assess our use accurately?  I mean, our current bill is "assessed" based on house size and occupancy.  My hope was to simply pay for what we use, so our direct actions - water efficient loos, washing machine, short efficient showers, using water butt for garden etc. - all actually count.

born_again

We have had a water meter for at least 10 years that is smart in that their van drives past & read the meter.

la531983

born_again said:

We have had a water meter for at least 10 years that is smart in that their van drives past & read the meter.

Same here. It still has a counter on it. It doesnt grant me access to any "special" tariffs as far as I am aware (unlike the electric equivalent), nor can I "log in" anywhere and get hourly/daily/weekly usage.

Lorian

And if they cant fit a meter they should put you on assessed charges, which night still save you money depending on how many occupants and if you have a pond/sprinkler etc.

FlatFour

born_again said:

We have had a water meter for at least 10 years that is smart in that their van drives past & read the meter.

A van drives past?  I wasn't aware of that sort of meter.  However, that's not the type our water provider are fitting, according to them.  Well, only the one with cellular communication was mentioned.

Lorian said:

And if they cant fit a meter they should put you on assessed charges, which night still save you money depending on how many occupants and if you have a pond/sprinkler etc.

Will certainly look into that, I wasn't aware of this "assessed charge" until it was mentioned earlier.

We do have a pond, and we have changed the water in it.  However, now we have a working filter again, there's very little need to do that.  We don't top it up either, the rain does that.  Even during the recent dry and hot spell, it didn't go down that much as we put a cover to shade it.