Just got a water meter!

[HappydaysArehere]

Just got this Water meter against my better judgement. DH's brother said it saved money and one or two other people. There are two of us at home all day as we are retired. I cook from scratch and make cakes/puddings as well, this is involving washing of veg and fruit, clearing up. Then there are the wash loads which now seem numerous, the toilet flushing, the shower which needs to run before it gets warm,the dish washer every evening, the cleaning. We use very little for the garden as we have water butts and my husband usually washes the car with buckets of water. I regret our decision as I realise I hate thinking about it all. Apparently we can revert within a year so all is not lost. I find it annoying tho so will I get a shock or a surprise?

I agree about excess flushing - I don't flush every time I use it, it's not necessary. If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down.

When we moved to this house I was paranoid as we'd never had a meter installed before but the previous owners had. We use washing machines, dishwashers, power showers and even have a watering system in the greenhouse and it's not extortionate in fact it's comparable with our old house despite the fact the house is more than twice the size and we now have a garden.
I was paranoid about every little thing at first but once I got used to it I realised it made me more concious about water use but not necessarily restricted it, so now I use what I need and don't waste it BUT we still use it. IYKWIM

Savesome we're on a meter in same area. Pay £7 a week. Original bill when we moved in was £13 a week. Think they massively overestimate water usage. Do you read your meter regularly?

We moved 10 years ago just before Thames Water could force you to take a meter.We knew we needed to re-plumb the whole house and there might be leaks, so declined the meter. Just as well as we didn't find one increasingly severe leak for 4 years!

We pay £45/month which seems a lot compared to some here but that's 5 adults,two washing machines, three children (used washable nappies, now one wets the bed most nights), lots of washing up besides daily dishwasher, long showers and quite a few baths. We do have all the water-saving devices, don't flush wee at night, and don't use the toilet as a bin. So might be worth getting a meter in future once all plumbing is complete.

Oh the joy of living in the south west of England, where water charges are the highest in the country...

I'm single, don't water the garden much, but I do run a dishwasher. I pay nearly £40 a month on a water meter.

NoCitrus maybe having a water meter would have motivated you to find and fix that leak quickly. Instead you have wasted huge amounts of drinking water over many years. IMO every property should be metered by law.

£40 a month! That's horrendously expensive. I'm single, admittedly I don't have a garden or dishwasher, but I pay £16 a month on a meter with Yorkshire water.

Awake Thames Water are bastards. They don't give a rats about sorting out a leak, poor pressure or no pressure or fixing their Victorian infrastructure. I have a lead pipe bringing water to my house, shared with six houses. Sometimes I turn the tap and nothing comes out. The lack of pressure broke the boiler. And the waste drain blocks monthly for the same six houses. They do come and rod it, but they won't fix it.

Dealing with Thames Water is so frustrating.

The cost of re-doing Victorian infrastructure is so mind-boggling that no-one can face it, I'm afraid. (And it's only because the Victorian workers did such a fine job that we've been able to limp along to this point.) If any water company decided, seriously, to start investing in infrastructure, those bills would go through the roof.

The largest leak was TW's responsibility - to be fair to them, they have re-laid all the mains in the area. We were doing repairs as fast as humanly possible without someone giving us an extra £10k, and unlikely the meter would have shown much difference. The hot water is needed for medical reasons - takes me about 10 minutes before my shoulders relax enough so I can wash my hair and get dressed, for example. And no, that wouldn't qualify as a medical condition requiring extra water use leading to a discount.

NannyR Did you miss the bit about 8 people in the house? If you're single paying £13/month then proportionally you'd be paying £100 for our household!

Rates here. £45 per month.

It probably could be cheaper for us to switch to metering but I really don't like the thought.

There are a lot of water saving devices that rightly or wrongly I despise like these water saving loo flush just flush your poo around the corner so you cant see it and not away.
It just gives me the urge to press the flush every time I pass the bathroom anyway!
I like to was my car every 2 weeks or so and not pay to drive elsewhere and then pay anyway to get it done.

I'll stay on rates for as long as possible. In fact when we bought our house last year I crossed everything off the viewing lustvtgat gad metered water. That's how much I dislike the thought.

I was replying to awakecantsleep post that said as a single person they paid £40 a month on a meter and comparing it to what I pay in a similar situation with a different water company.

We had one installed when we moved into our new house and worked out that our rates were about to go from £21 a month to over £50. We ended up paying about £30. Saved a fortune.

Here everyone has a water meter now.

Nanny I paid similar (£17 I think) when I was living in a flat in the midlands (metered). I genuinely don't believe I'm using significantly more water now compared to then (had a dishwasher then, too). It must be that the water here in the southwest is much nicer water, hence attracting a premium....

Dung sounds horrendous. I've thankfully never had to get involved with a water company beyond setting up an account.

NotCitrus I have extra costs due to disability too. It sucks, doesn't it.

Maybe your water company is starting to bite the bullet of infrastructure replacement, Awake? Or maybe they have longer water transportation distances or something - as well. There are so many possibilities.

Have you checked out their accounts/website etc?

We were forced onto a meter when we moved house. I usually get 3 bills of around £85 a quarter and a balancing one of £100-£115.

There are 3 adults and 3 kids in the house.

Compared to my parents rates, we would pay about 50% more on rates.

That said, I have still not forgiven DH for forgetting that the hose was on for 3 days which resulted in a £250 bill. He has been told that if he does it again he has to pay.

A lot of the water meter installations have been made by sub-contractors and many have failed, resulting in leaks and very high bills, as they were on contracts of how many a day to fit, not how well they fitted them! CAUTION - If you can check usage after installation to see if you have a leak, do it. A few friends, not just one, have had this issue, and the bills were shockers. Yes, they got it sorted eventually, but a pound of prevetion ....

prevention - doh!

Water meter here (have never been on rates in 20 years, all houses we have lived in have been metered)

We are with Yorkshire water, we are a household of 2 adults, 2 children. The dishwasher is on every day, showers for 2 sometimes 4 (depending on whether we are showering at the gym) washing machine on twice a day 5 days a week. We water the garden if the water butt runs dry. We even had building works where they used my hose liberally.

I am home all day, and our bill is £27 per month.

Stop worrying, and wait for that first quarterly bill. You may be surprised.

We also live under South West Water and our water bills were £60 a month on a meter - 2 adults, 2 teenagers. However, for some reason, the new monthly payments have gone down to £45. I don't trust them though and will continue to pay the old amount as I don't want a whopping great bill this time next year.

I think it depends if you own your house and its size

PIL have a large 5 bed plus garden and installed a water metre

The small savings won't be the same when they come to sell to a family - I think it was a bad idea on their part.

I doubt it will matter much in time - we'll likely all have been put onto them.

I am . I am not on a meter, just DH and myself and we are frugal with water. Bill is £75 a month! AND I LIVE IN YORKSHIRE WHERE IT DOES NOTHING BUT RAIN.

Shove Get a meter!

I need to, don't I fluffy Though sometimes I think I could go off-grid if the on button for the shower just opened a hole in the roof.