Is metered water cheaper than unmetered?

[Spidermama]

I pay about £400 per year at the moment for a three bed end of terrace house. There are six of us so lots of washing. We have an electric shower so not many baths.

I'm wondering about getting a meter.

My mum had a meter fitted and her water bill reduced significantly.

However, she lives alone and was paying a lot more than you.

I think you need to do a like for like comparison, ie, same number of people in family, in the same area.

ours has worked out marginally cheaper. but there are only 4 of us although still plenty of washing. one in cloth nappies.
we're quite careful with water generally though.
it hasn't made a HUGE difference, maybe a couple of quid a month.

When I lived in a 2 bed flat my water was unmetered.
I then moved into a 4 bed house with a meter supply and my bills were more or less halved.

I like the idea of the discipline of a water meter and the fact we can, to some degree at least, control what we use and therefore what we pay, but I worry about the relative cost.

I will ask around though Mercy to get an idea. Is it different from neighbourhood to neighbourhood?

They say on the website a charge depends on the rateable value of your house. How do I find out what that is?

We were in a highly rated area, though not a particularly big house (new build). We moved to a bigger house with a meter and our bills halved (2 adults and 4 kids)

We had a meter in our previous house but don;t in this one. Our water bill has gone down by about half. We're a family of 5 with associated washing plus ds2 is in washable nappies, power shower for dh and I every morning and bath for dcs once or twice a week. We live in a 4 bed semi, for comparison of rateable value.

My mum switched to a water meter and she has regretted it ever since and that is just with her and her DP as sis and I have moved out

Also, if you have a month where you use more water than others for exmaple, they recalculate your bill based on this unless you give them the meter reading for the next month or something similar...

I wouldn't recommend it

My mum was told that if there are more bedrooms than people it is cheaper to get a meter. More people than bedrooms then don't get one.
So 6 people in a 3 bed house, you will probably be worse off with a meter.
Thats what she was told so they got one (2 people in a 4 bed house) and they pay less.

Hmmm. I'm leaning towards being glad I don't have a meter.

Thanks for your help.

I thought I read on here once about there being a cap after a certain level for families above a certain size?

Just a quick gloat - I don't have to pay for my water as we have a borehole. For once something about living in the sticks is cheaper!

A borehole? Cool.

I think every house should be fitted out with a water meter -

we have 3 kids, do lots of washing, have dishwasher, used cloth et cetc and it's significantly cheaper with a meter
what puss said isn't always true - we have it read twice a year and pay for exactly what we've used, no estimations at all. It's Thames Water

my metered bills come to about 200 a year, 5 of us

I am really glad I don't have a metre and not because we're profligate with water but because both times i've had a leak between the road and my property and they have tried to charge me for the usage (even though both were outside our control - dug up by gas board etc) At one point on a metre they sent me a bill for over 1000.

now in a small 3 bed detached we are not metred and pay 21 per month. We just make sure we are careful with water anyway.

and I'm very careful about wasting water. why should I/you have to subsidize irresponsible water consumption