oh crickey! Now they are talking about compulsory water meters!

[cranberryheights]

Council tax going up. Gas and electricity going up. Now government has granted a southern water company the right to install compulsory water meters with other water companies expected to follow suit. With a toddler and a baby on the way I used lots of water. Can my utility bills get any higher ?! :(

Hehehe - I've no idea where the meter is!!!

By the way - I have 3 children, not 5 (heaven forbid!!)

Hmmmm, I'll bet it's buried in a hole in the ground.

Do you think it would be helpful if you had a little display in the kitchen, clearly showing you how much water you were using, moment by moment?

I am in a 3/4 bed house atm, with a washing machine, dishwasher, and a bath and shower, my water bill is about 240 a year, what is everyone on a meter's bill

We are not metered but with all the usual mod cons in a 2bed and yearly we pay around £250.

we've saved a fortune going on to a meter - it's outside the kitchen window which is at the front of the house. No-one ever bothers us if they need to read it.

Our water bills almost halved when we had the meter fitted. It's crept up a bit now, as we've had two more children since then, and had a lodger intermittently as well. We now pay about £220-£250 per year; that's for a four-bedroom terrraced house, with two adults and three children, including a baby in washable nappies. We probably run an average of two baths a day (in total, not each!), and I run the washing machine and dishwasher every day as well, so we're not going out of our way to economise. Hopefully usage will reduce a bit once the littlest one is out of nappies.

Everyone I know who's switched to a meter says their bills have gone down. What's not to like?

It's definitely outside somewhere. I remember seeing it at one point. It's down under one of those little cover things. No disruption with having it read.

Why, then, do the water companies want us all to have meters if we all pay less? Am i being a bit thick here?

had a vague feeling it was an EU directive to install them but not yet

or something

gosh my finger is on the pulse

My meter is in a hole in the ground on the drive way, has a little 'man hole' cover, and the water company send out someone to read the meter reguarly. (not easy if the car is over the meter!)
I pay £27 a calendar month (approx £7 a week), this is a monthly plan where they have given me an average useage for the year and divided it into 12 payments over the year. If at the end of the year I use much less they will drop the payments.
I was paying £31 a month last year.
I live in a 2 bed house, no garden, no dishwasher.

Presumably because it motivates people to start monitoring their water consumption. I no longer leave the tap running when I brush my teeth, for example. Nor would I leave a hose running in the garden. And I develop a nervous twitch when the plumber announces he has to drain down the system. The sight of all that lovely water pouring out of the taps only to vanish down the plug is more than my nerves can stand.

So I guess the meter has had the desired effect in the frog pond. The reduction in our bills is an agreeable side-effect.

Bozza, don't tell me to be happy. I'm 28 weeks preg, still feeling sick and incredibly tired, moving hospitals, schools and house while trying to pass my driving test and have stressed toddler who won't go to nursery and is acting like a neurotic teenager. If you mean this is good news for me, I'll just have to start a misery thread about something else.

:o

Sorry to be a meter bore, but it's so lovely to be able to post on Mumsnet about something I know (rather than just my standard bullshit ) for a change.

It's true that not everyone will save money - gardeners with sprinklers, people with wasteful appliances, large families with a serious bath habit etc, may all find their bills going up. However, as soon as you put a meter in, people do start to think about their water usage instead of just treating it as a free commidity. It's my belief people would do this even more if water companies didn't insist on shoving the wretched things down holes in the ground so you have no idea how much water you've used until three months later when the bill arrives.

Acnebride, the EU directive on metering is actually related to energy meters and deals with this issue of people not actually being able to tell how much power they're using because a) traditional meters live under the stairs or in similar dark hole so no-one looks at them and b) when you do you can't tell how much power they're using because it's a stupid read out that makes no sense at all to the average householder.

The EU is after getting power suppliers to install 'smart' meters which are easier to read, let power suppliers offer you cheaper energy, and can do all sorts of whizzy things like tell you if something has blown up in your house, or someone is using/not using certain appliances.

Oh my god, I'm a meter nerd

According to the news I have just heard, the installation of meters in the South will mean a 15% drop in water usage and up to 75% (I think) of people pay less.

Gizmo - I have heard about energy meters (placed by the kettle or whereever) and think they are a brill idea. I actually quite like meter bores btw.

ch - to be fair I did say that you should be pleased not happy. Sounds like you need to start a new thread about the next item on your list. I think I could be quite sympathetic about most of those things.

Cranberry - I'd be very happy to have a good whinge about council tax and what we don't get for our money.

Our water bills at this house are lower than at our previous house. This house is bigger and we have a dishwasher and two bathrooms. Previous house was water rates, this house is on a meter.

When we bought our house 15+ years ago, we were given the choice to be on metered or rated water. We opted for metered, and all our friends thought we were mad. We were a family of 5, including 3 small children, and the dds and I were all at home during the day. We were sensible about it, but had a dishwasher, washing machine and 3 bathrooms (they put a toilet in any nook and cranny they can find!) and our bills were substantially lower than equivalent households on our street who opted not to have a meter.

I now work full-time as a childminder at home, so am obviously using water during the day, and our bills are still lower than others (and 2 dds still here).

I think water meters are great because it makes you aware of what you use, and being careful not to waste it.

This is very interesting as we are with Southern water and my first reaction would be to think the bill would be higher on a meter.

It's reassuring to hear that larger metered families can still use what they need and have lower bills. Our washing machine and dishwasher are on a couple of times a day and three children need to be kept clean.

A hosepipe ban doesn't really bother me as gardening has never featured greatly chez TinyGang. But I am not a shower person. Couldn't do without my bubble bath, I'm afraid.