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 pay £6 a month to Southern Water on a meter! I live (mainly) alone in a 2 bed modern cottage. Daily showers, occasional bath, dishwasher and washing machine on a couple of times a week (when full).

Slightly embarrassed the other day when the builder asked to use the downstairs loo as I am an advocate of 'if it's yellow let it mellow'

Dw use can use as little as 9l of water in a cycle. If you live by yourself you'd only need to put it on 2-3 times a week.

Massive misconceptions on this thread about dw using lots of water when they don't.

I think you need to be careful when interpreting some of the quoted metered and non-metered payments. Generally, rateable charges run across 10 months of the year, whereas metered payments run 12 months of the year. So you need to prorata the payments to compare.

If you are a growing family and you have (or are likely to have) more people than bedrooms, it makes sense to stay on rateable charge.

Surely the water companies should be working towards mandatory metering for everyone? That would surely encourage people to think about what they use, and it would be fairer than penalising those who use very little at the expense of those who don't care.

My wife and I pay £45 a month water/waste water charges and when our youngest son finally left home we enquired about having a water meter installed.
We did calculations based on all the usual stuff - dishwasher, shower, garden hose etc etc - but it turned out we would be no better off with a meter.
We have a pretty average 3 bed semi, live in NW England .
Incidentally , has anyone ever worked out the percentage increase in water charges compared to salary over the years they have been paying these charges ? We became property owners when we married in 1973 so thats 43 yrs this year.
When we married our water rates - as they were called then - were ( wait for it ) -
£4 a year !!!! That's not a misprint - FOUR POUNDS STERLING A YEAR.
We now pay £540 a year.
That is an increase of 135 times original rates.
When we married I earned £25 a week basic as a tradesman. ( First mortgage was £18 a month - happy days !!! ).
£25 a week is £1300 p.a.
So if my income had increased by the same rate as my water charges, I would now be earning £1300 X 135 = £175,500 p.a. which I assure you I am not and I also reckon the vast majority of people are not either.
So - have been ripped off or what ????

How on earth can two people with a dw and a shower use £45 a month?

Do you provide showers for the entire street?

I think we need to investigate having a meter installed asap.

We pay £764 a year to Severn Trent - that's a massive £63/month!
There's only 3 of us now most the time (plus one at university so only home part of the year).

We're not massive users of the washing machine (clothes/towels actually get worn/used more than once in this house! and it is only run when full) and the dishwasher only goes on every 2 or 3 days (how do some people need to do more than one load a day?). Sounds like we could get our bill down by quite a lot.

When we moved in our water bill was £800 a year (big 4 bed house with 2 toddlers). The first thing we did was have a water meter installed after I nearly fainted at the £800 bill. Our bill went down to £20 a month. 13 years later it is now £24 a month for the four of us inc two teenagers.

We are still waiting for our meter. It will be installed next week. We have two years to decide to keep it or go back to rates (£71 a month for 10 months a year)

I'm also in rented - landlord doesn't want a meter. I live alone, have no dishwasher, wash clothes once a week, shower twice a day for five mins each time (I go running, so need to shower). Wash dishes once a day (because I have to boil a kettle for hot water).Two bathrooms, but don't use the downstairs one for more than the loo because there's no heating, and, okay, my bladder isn't what it was but I don't think I wee that much.

My water/sewerage? £55 a frigging month. It's crippling me...

No. Meters are horrendous. Down south for a family of 5 it is approx.£100 a month.

No. Meters are horrendous. Down south for a family of 5 it is approx.£100 a month.

Are you sure you haven't got a leak? I'm in Kent, four of us (three adults), we don't restrict our water usage and pay less than £200 every six months!

Why are water meters bad?

You pay for what you use
same as gas, electricity, phone etc etc

would you like it if your food shopping bill was based on the size of your car rather than how much you ate?

you could of said the same argument about the poll tax

Thank you all for your interesting posts. I am awaiting the first reading with interest. Your hints on washing brushes with water butt water is worth considering. I know flushing the toilet is also a problem but not too keen on leaving it. Really interesting to learn about different water authorities charging different rates.

I strongly suspect that no being metered is going to become very expensive. We live in one of the town which was forced into water meters very early. Due to the nature of piping in our old terrace, they were unable to meter us/ everyone opposed it, as the water runs through the whole terrace, and we all suspected the billing would be inaccurate. They now charge us £35/ month for water in, and £28/ month for water out, based on their estimates for three people's usage. (And yes, that is in the south)

It may be helpful if those wishing to compare prices, could also post details of the consumption as well as the total price - I say this as a South West Water customer

We pay a disgusting amount for our water, but I am certain our consumption is only 'average' for a 3 bed home with a family of 5. It's the price per unit which differs according to which water company you're with.

South West Water (like most other water companies, I guess?) offers a scheme where families with 3 or more children and claiming certain benefits, can basically pay the maximum unmetered rate for their property, their bill is capped at that particular amount. This is NOT benefits bashing before anyone jumps on me! On the whole it's a good thing but of the people I know personally who fall under this scheme, most of them have massive paddling pools in the summer, they hose down their gardens where the dogs piss and they wash their cars liberally with a hose. I can't afford to do any of those things and I'm paying double what they're paying for water. If South West Water simply halved the unit price for households on WaterSure instead, I wonder how much more careful they'd be with their consumption...

i get what your saying,im on just the set amount split between 2 companys

i pay £550 a year all in and to be honest my kids are more water aware than what i am

im a gardener and have a large beautiful garden and dont hesitate to get the hose out,fill the 12ft pool once or twicw a week and leave the sprinker on for the kids to run under

dont have a a car though

if i was put on a meter i would deffo consider my usage more,but im no way going to volunteer for it as im sure my bill would rise,so yes you have a valid point and understand people that have no choice in the matter are cross with unmetered

though the water companys prices vary so much in differrent regions its difficult to see how differrent they are

awaits a flaming about enviromental damage im causing

I was astonished at the difference between our pre-meter water bills and post-meter water bills!

Before we had a meter, our bills were £48 per month. They are now £14 per month!

Family of 4 here with 2 DSs, we pay £31 per month on a meter.

Baths most nights but against MN rules we do jump in after each other unless DSs are particularly grubby, 3 million loads of washing a week maybe a slight exaggeration but it's never ending, dishwasher on most nights so regular house usage I think. We also follow the if it's yellow let it mellow rule, unless we have guests

However we have water butts to water the garden in summer, or I have been known to use old bath water.

I've never not had a meter and it does make you think about usage and not be wasteful.

Have recently received our first water metered bill. It covered just three weeks and was priced at just over £13. Unmetered we were paying £56 a month for eight months a year. The direct debit for Thames Water is £27 a month for 12 months a year. So far, so good. We have a year to decide if we wish to revert. All your posts have been really interesting. I have been telling my husband that a dishwasher uses less water than washing up in the sink. Some years ago I mentioned to a dishwasher engineer who was repairing our machine that I didn't use it every day as I tried to be economical. He started the machine up and opened the door to show me how little water it was using. In a sink I would be rinsing off and changing water etc so you have confirmed this.