Why not compulsory water meters?

[:::Jerry::::]

LOL... Yes Frank, some do!

[bigcat]

quite. If an international pipeline one day enables our excess to flow to countries lacking water, at a price, this may change. But for now we've got more than we could use sensibly.

True in some cases, but not across the board. There are plenty of Victorian systems that cope quite happily with the heaviest of weather.

NT

[Doctor Drivel]

Moving water from one area to another has problems of scale. A soft water area may find 1000s of systems will have scale problems, causing corrosion, because of poor quality imported water. In some soft water areas many heating installers don't pour in inhibitor, against what the makers say, and never have problems of corrosion at all for 25 years or so.

In the UK we also have supply pipes that are far too small. It is still common to supply 1/2" 20mm plastic, to new homes. Madness. The larger the distribution pipes the greater the underground water storage. The UK only has half a clue and viewed as incompetent which it comes to water and plumbing. Quite rightly so too.

[:::Jerry::::]

soft water

Those problems could be solved at the same time as the distribution network is built.

[Pete C]

Drivel alert!*

should read:

that's better!

• not wrong, but drivel nonetheless.

cheers, Pete.

[Doctor Drivel]

This one hasn't a clue.

[:::Jerry::::]

If you say so, Frank...

[Mark Williams]

Thank you for that information. Far more useful than the water company web site! It's the access for ongoing meter reading with the current layout that puts me off. The riser is in a boxed-in corner of the bathroom and the stop valve is accessed through an arm sized hole in the side of the adjacent basin unit. I might investigate putting a door/ access hatch in the boxed-in section to facilitate access to a meter, but this is less desirable than a meter which can be read from outside the building as is possible with the separate supply pipes found in more recently built flats.

My reading of the lease is that the riser is the responsibility of the freeholder and everything after the tee is mine. I've no reason to believe that a meter would be problematic from that point of view.

Indeed. I don't need convincing on that score...

[PJ]

There are flats in Norwich which have a water meter in the bathroom but a remote digital meter near the front door.

[Peter Johnson]

My meter is read from outside, via some sort of sensor. AS it happens the meter is just the other side of the wall but it wouldn't need to be.