Just had my Yorkshire water/sewerage bill - about £500. So looked into water meters, which by looking at the calculator
Any views/comments before I, er, take the plunge?
Changed to a water meter about 20 years ago and my bill halved. My annual water bill is still less than it was unmetered 30 years ago.
Unless you water the garden 24/7 its a no brainer.
Similar story here. We swapped to a meter in the late 90s and pay less now than we were then under the old system. Even when there were 5 of us it was still cheaper.
Two adults, large house, very small garden. We had a meter installed about 5 years ago and the bills increased. Not by a lot, but a definite increase.
I suspect it's because of long showers as we work from home and aren't in a rush in the morning.
My neighbour had the wisdom to get a water meter. I foolishly waited until I was forced to have one. When I did get a meter the Direct Debit failed because it had not been used for over a year. The bill is less presumably because the rateable value of the house is quite high.
When I changed I saved quite a bit. What appears to be happening since is that the standing charge has increased faster than the pay what you use bit of the bill. For me its still cheaper on the meter but not by the margin it once was.
Be careful if you are a heavy hose user.
As a family of five, it is likely much better for us to stay without a meter. I have just bought one of my own to fit though, to see exactly how much we actually do use.
SteveW
More likely to be the cups of tea/coffee and loo flushing all day. B-)
I take the less-than-politically-correct view that I live in a wet country (Wales) and I really don't see why I should have to start thinking about how much water I use, even a little bit. There are enough things to worry about already.
It depends on how many are in your house. If fewer than the average family it will be proportionally less. I live on my own so my water bill halved when I got the meter.
It's now 'smart' and transmits its readings to the mothership.
Whilst there are, clean *drinking* water might be an issue in the future (even for us), judging by how close we sometimes get re hosepipe bans and dry reservoirs in these hotter summers.
And it's not like we have the surplus energy to start electrolyzing sea water yet.
If we can dig holes to make soakaways we can dig holes to fit grey water diverter tanks to flush the toilets and water the garden with? [1]
I wonder how many people regularly flush 1/4 pint of wee away using 2 gallons of fresh / drinking water (not even split flush cisterns or only flushing every so often)?
Cheers, T i m
[1] Given most people living in their own houses have the bathroom upstairs, even if you captured the grey water from the bathroom (bath / shower / basin) and ran that though a small diverter tank (under floor?) that was then pumped up into a conventional loft storage tank for the upstairs toilet, that would be a start?
Is this really practical or would you start getting the same problems with unpleasant smells as you often get with washing machines caused by body fats and soap/detergents.
With a washing machine a dose of washing soda and a very hot cycle clears the problem.
Capturing rain water is possibly a better solution.
Have you converted your house to the above system?
RJH was thinking very hard :
I swapped to a meter (Yorkshire Water) three years ago, the unmetered cost was similar to yours as was the predicted saving of switching. I actually saved rather more than predicted. A local friend has found similar, both just two adults in the house, not being too stindgy with water use, but also not wasting it.
And the rest. As long as you don't waste it by lawn watering washing cars, or have people who have baths every single day, then the decision is a no brainer in my view. Of course it does depend on the bit they still guess at, Sewage handling. With all the fat burgs they have to clear, I'd not be surprised to see this go through the roof, now they all have to pay to dig the roads up by the day. Brian
very true ....
what about my mains pressure free energy generator ? .....
I doubt it. Something is wrong.
Have you tried ensuring all taps, etc are off, reading the meter, and reading it again after several hours? When we had a meter fitted years ago at our previous property I couldn't understand why we seemed to be using so much water. So I turned off the stopcock in the house and watched the meter in the pavement slowly turning. There was a leak in the polythene supply pipe a metre of so from our front door. It was repaired by the water company free of charge, and we were not charged for the 92m^3 calculated to have been lost over the leak period since the meter had been previously read.
Probably not cost-effective.
What proportion of the savings was down to a reduction in the waste water treatment costs? Only having a mains water supply we don't pay the water co for waste water treatment...
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