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Discover eco friendly brands and sustainable fashion on our Ethical Living forum.

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Discover eco friendly brands and sustainable fashion on our Ethical Living forum.

Ethical living

Anyone on a water meter ? Is it saving you money ?

30 replies

CaptainUnderpants · 02/12/2008 20:14

have just gone onto a water meter. Can try it for 12 months to see if we make any savings.

Do you have a water meter and is it cheaper than paying water rates ?

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annesweetpea · 28/02/2020 09:33

I live on my own in a council one bedroom bungalow only use my washing machine once a week thinking of getting a water meter, I'm with Thames Water At the moment. I'm on a discount. And I pay pay £14.50 a month does anyone know if I was on a metre would it be cheaper

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notcitrus · 03/12/2008 18:05

I refused a meter when moving into my house - much as i'd like to save water we suspected large leaks (hopefully all resolved 3 years on) and needed lots of plumbing done including draining the system a few times.

Given our rates are under £400/year for a 5-bed house, I doubt I'd save money with a meter, especially now we have a baby and all the washing of his clothes and nappies. I have lots of friends who've moved to places with meters and ended up spending more - once most people were moved to meters they put the metered prices up.

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girlywhirly · 03/12/2008 15:51

Much cheaper. There are two of us in a three bed house and our bills are less than half what they were. Plus, this year we barely needed to use any tap water on the garden, just used saved rain from the butts.

Unless there are a lot of people in a home, you should make some savings; it is definitely in the interests of couples and single dwellers to have metered water, ie lone parents where dcs only live part of the time with them, or widowed inlaws for example, who by and large use less. It shouldn't cost anything to have the meter installed, and the workmen don't need access to your property unless te water main is in an awkward place, ours is actually under an inspection flap on the pavement.

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WingsofaTreefairy · 02/12/2008 21:19

We have one pay £40 per month but just got or over payments of £190 back. 2 Adults 2 children.

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Hulababy · 02/12/2008 21:12

Yes we do have a meter and I do think ti works out cheaper. There are 3 of us (me, DH and 6y DD). We don't really do anything to save on water bills

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bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 21:08

i thought it was rather high and asked my neighb about her band and she said her dh deals with all that sort of stuff, so left it at that. Then couple years later i was ranting over my latest bill to another neighb who told me what her band was and the investigation began. council people did not realize it was 2 houses. {very old building which was converted}

nice rebate though and big bill of 2 years plus the year they were in for the neighbs

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:50

lol well, thanks if you are! hehe

how on earth did you not notic you were paying double council tax???

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bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 20:45

I EXPECT I AM PAYING YOURS THEN THISISYESTERDAY

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:43

sorry, am probably just confusing you all lol

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:42

i think my £8.80 monthly charge is only for water in.
i can hardly find anything about water out though, which is Thames water. except our first statement which runs from july 06- may 07 when we paid £62

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bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 20:40

is it really? well i am probably paying for my neighbours too. Where we used to live I was paying my neighbours council tax for 2 years as well as my own! AND THEY KNEW!!!

Must investigate further....

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CaptainUnderpants · 02/12/2008 20:40

Blimey at bollockbrains rate is would be cheaper for us not to have a meter !

At least we can change back if it doesn't work out .

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PavlovtheCat · 02/12/2008 20:40

but not sure why! I remember a thread about water rates before, so should not be surprised that our metered water is less proportionately to rates than the rest of the country.

Rates for year are like£600 for a 2 bed flat. Charges so far for metered water is currently working out at aboutaround £650 (iam paying £30 per month DD but it is not covering it) While we do not save and strimp and scrape, we are not excessive....we have no garden, do not wash our car and have 1 2yo DD. DH showers most days (for 15 mins) and I shower every other day. DD sits at the bottom of our bath when we shower and plays in the water most days, and has her own bath twice a week so that does not use hardly any additional water. Yes DH leaves the tap running, but I dont use the washine machine every day, we have a dishwasher which we use alternate days.

So not excessive....but South West Water is horrendous.

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:38

blimey that's a lot bollockbrain. wherebouts are you?

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bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 20:34

forgot to say , we are on a meter.

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bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 20:33

we are family of 5 and just had my supply and waste bills.

£109 and £166 both six monthly so if you can work that our for the year (ie double each)you have a better brain than me!

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Stinkyfeet · 02/12/2008 20:32

Captain Underpants - we are with Three Valleys Water, on a meter. Our Direct Debit has just gone down from £17 pm to £14. We are a family of 2 adults and 2 children; washing machine and dishwasher run once every day, average of 2 baths or showers run every day. HTH.

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Stinkyfeet · 02/12/2008 20:32

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cece · 02/12/2008 20:30

captainunderpants - I am Surrey also! But not Thames Water... Used to be with them before we moved in 2005. Think it was about £35 pm rates not a meter, so much cheaper for us.

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:30

ooh hang on, it says at the bottom:

based on your current consumption the monthly amounts payable by you have been amended to £8.80

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:29

i am in sussex, and that is with southern water

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:28

agree with cece, that does seem a lot. I am sure that ours were something like £11 for water in and £13 for water out before we had meter fitted.

we got a bill this morning, coincidentally. we now owe £3.90!!! oooh

was £37.80 overall, but we were in credit. this is a quarterly bill

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CaptainUnderpants · 02/12/2008 20:25

We pay over £400 per year in water rates - live in Surrey , supplied by thames water. Hoping that we will pay less as really our ratable value has nothing to do with how much water we use .

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cece · 02/12/2008 20:22

I am at the charges you are paying.

We initially were on £23 pm but by the end of the year we had so much credit we had a refund. This year I am paying £15 pm but suspect it might not be quite enough!

2 adults and 2 children. We all shower/bath daily but do turn off taps while brushing teeth. I tend not to let it run iyswim. But I do run the washing machine at least once a day and the dishwasher. We also have loads of water butts for the garden.

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thisisyesterday · 02/12/2008 20:20

we are 2 adults and 2 children. one child in cloth nappies.
we haven't cut back per se. I guess we are a bit more careful with things like not always flushing the toilet if ds1 has only done a wee. and using washing up water or water from the water butt to do the garden.
but other than that we're not doing anything differently.

that's prob why it's only saving us a few quid a month.
we didn't have one voluntarily though, we had to have one put in ewhen we moved house