Water useage for a year - just got our bill FAQ

Nov 02, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 37 Replies

Essex and Suffolk Water : Anglian Water sewerage. water £1.57/m3, SC £52.26/year sewerage £2.14/m3, SC £103/year

My meter has been in probably 20(ish) years ago. What has changed over time is the percentage of the bill that is the standing charge, especially sewerage. The standing charge has risen in percentage terms greater than the sewerage "usage" charge.

And they say radio amateurs never shower 😏

Ours is actually in the pavement outside our rear gate (which is actually down a side road, via a wide path behind the single neighbour between us and the corner).

Behind that path was a carpenter's workshop, with a shared unmetered water supply, teed off under that path. Then he retired and it became the brothel I have mentioned before. They never paid a bill (possibly because they didn't have a letter box and never answered the door (as the postie told me). Eventually they were cut off in the street, and so were we. The water company got it back on with an hour of my phone call.

The premises weren't separated until the brothel was demolished and a small house went up. The builders did a temporary botch job on the tee (which they blanked off during building) and never fixed it properly because they had a separate supply and meter fitted. Then we had a meter fitted, and the water company's guy noticed the whizzing meter. I then realised why the path was now soggy. Anyway, they fixed it and it's been OK for years.

It's just a bit inconvenient to walk round the corner with a suitable implement and a torch, then grovel on the pavement. Especially in snow.

If only I had one of those remote reading gadgets...

We were supposed to be spared that - with a flashy new electronic smart water meter. Identify a leak easily, it promised.

Naturally, it doesn't work. "The head end" is not transmitting, said the man in the van. He didn't fix it though.

The water meter is at the bottom of the hole with an LCD display. The "head end" is a plastic box attached to the underside of the cover over the hole. It uses cellular, a special low data rate low power mode (NB-IoT?).

Presumably there is a battery in the meter part (unless it's powered by a turbine in the water flow!) and another bigger one in the "head end".

nib

Our meter was fitted years ago - probably the late 1990s- long before remote ones were around as far as I know.

I think the rest of the road has had meters fitted in the last few years - ours is one of the newer houses ( mid 1980s) so no one had meters when built. I don’t know if the newer ones are remote / smart meters. I’m sure ( well almost) ours wasn’t changed. Certainly we haven’t been informed and have no gizmo to read it.

Just to expand on the shower setup… soon after we’d moved in I measured the flow from the showers at 12l/min. I sent off for some restrictors, which turned up with a choice of 8 or 6 l/min inserts. In practice, there was no noticeable difference between 12 and 8l/min, but the 6l/min was dire - it took so much longer to shower that there was no overall saving over the

8l/min inserts, so the latter is what I went with.
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I only recently learned about Essex and Suffolk water. A water supplier from around Brentwood to around Yarmouth IIRC.

All sewerage handled by Anglian Water.

We are Anglian Water for everything.

Very strange to have two water companies with independent water supply networks serving the same geographical area.

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An intriguing read. Amongst other things I didn't realise that water companies would move water across the area by extracting from the lower reaches of a river then pumping into the upper reaches of another river. Reduces the amount of piping needed I assume.

Cheers

Dave R

Probably nearly 30 m^3/y by my estimate.

Not giving up my thinking and planning time though!

nib

We are 150 m3 per year. Two people, two showers each a day. Dishwasher every two days, washing machine every 1.5 days. Watering the garden in hot weather, jet washing the driveway and patio twice a year.

Similar here. Parts of Kent (East Kent in my case) have water from South East Water, and sewerage from Southern Water.

We used to get separate bills, but a while ago they arranged for SEW to collect all of it and pass on a portion to SW.

As you sewerage charge is based upon your fresh water use, it makes total sense for your fresh water supplier to bill you for both.

We've always been billed only by SE Water, and they charge for waste on the behalf of Thames Water

Bills usually give typical values

1000l (1m3) = 12 baths

My estimate was based on measuring the flow rate from the tap and the time to fill the bath so based on my bath and my preferred depth.

nib

I though the traditional measure of water was "Olympic Swimming Pools"

I've seen Thames Water bills using cups of tea to quantify usage !

Usage: approx 27 m3 per year.

One person; one shower; no bath.

3 water butts for garden et al. No dishwasher or pressure washing.

approx £218/year (water and sewage) Bills are (smart) metered, not rateable value.

approx £8/m3

One bill from Yorkshire Water (who take water & sewage charge); sewage payment goes to UU (via YW)

2 here, and we use around 71m3 per annum. Very little garden watering, minimised use of washing machine, baths every 2 - 3 days.

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