Is this water bill high

[Scared0112]

We’ve been here 12 months. Im only now taking notice of everything and I suspect we have a leak, now today our water bill arrived and I realise I do not know what is normal and chatgpt suggests not.

it’s a 4 bed, 70s house we are renovating. 2A and 2c.

we do run a dishwasher, perhaps a load of laundry a day and I would say perhaps 11 baths per 7 days.

any ideas?

My last water bill was nearly £700 for 6 months and that's following a hosepipe ban so our usage was lower this summer than previous. Southern Water have ratcheted up the price of water so much, it's obscene. 2 adults, 2 children in the house - we run dishwasher and washing machine daily, both adults shower once a day and kids have a bath most days (but share water). I'm afraid your bill sounds about right.

Apologies if I missed it, but I haven't noticed anyone mentioning the huge difference in water consumption between electric showers and power showers. We love a power shower when staying hotels, etc, but would never change the electric showers in our house.

4 bed 2 bathroom. 2 adults and 2 children. Dishwasher, washer on most days. Pressure washer used for 2 cars cleaned bi-weekly. All take a shower every day. Mindful of turning taps off when brushing teeth and cleaning etc but have a large garden so water by hosepipe. Never paid more than £42 / month and in credit.

11 baths a week.
I would say that is about the correct amount

How can you only do 2 loads of washing a week? Surely just your bedding and towels would take more than that for 3 of you, then all the clothes on top?

It will likely be the baths. If you have a water meter it may be a smart meter then you can check if you have leaks as it's measured hourly so you can look at the nighttime ones and if you are out and check it's zero

This is what brought our leak to light.

The water company installed smart meters to all houses in my street. Our water bill shot up ludicrously. We could see the leak because there was a high and stable hourly consumption and we never showed a zero rate.

OP. Set up an online account. You should then be able to view your annual, monthly, weekly and hourly consumption rates. When you look at the daily rates, you can see how much various activities consume.

We pay £39 per month for similar usage. It’s based on their readings of our meter. Having a meter years ago saved us a lot of money.

Depends how much water you use and how many people / size of property you’re in. If it’s based on council tax bands and you have a lot of people in a small / low band property you’re probably better off without a meter. If you’re a single person in a large/high tax band property you’ll be better off on a meter. I had one put in on a flat in England and my bills dropped to a third.

We have baths. Unless you have them shoulder height(!), they don’t use significantly more than a 5 min power shower. We use a hose to wash two cars and, in summer, to water our fairly large garden, if there’s no ban. Our bills are less than half yours. We are ST too.

We are a family of 6 and everyone has a bath every night and a shower every morning - teenage daughter spends on average 1 hour in the shower at a time doing god knows what 🤷‍♀️😩! I have the washing machine on at least 2 if not 3 times a day and dishwasher on at least every day too. I’m also menopausal and go to the loo at least 30 times a day and our metered water bill is £55 a month!

Bloody hell, how does everyone find the time?

Most people find the time to wash themselves and their clothes.

Yes, as do I, obviously. But 6 baths in a household every night must be difficult to schedule in, surely? Unless you have a lot of baths in your house.

4bed here with 2 adults 1 teenager and 1 child with a water meter. We have a shower each in the morning so 4, teenager is not quick! 1 bath a day, Run the dishwasher daily plus probably 1 load of washing and our bill is £73/mth we’re in the north west.

We're a family of 5 and use about 88m of water compared with your 136m.

Daily laundry, dishwasher, and showers for all. Also dogs needing showers sporadically. We don't skimp on water, just use sensibly.

Your usage is incredibly high. Either due to a leak, all of the baths, or both.

Our last bill was £552, so actually your rate is pretty cheap.

Check if you have a smart meter, if you have you can see exactly when the high water usage is. They take readings hourly and it's very easy to tally up what you was doing when the water usage is higher so you will see if it is bath time that is using it.

Sorry I’d entirely forgotten I’d posted… lots of replies…

to the poster who said I hadn’t mentioned being disabled until after original post, yes- I’m newly diagnosed, my life has been turned upside down and my career wrecked the last two years and couldn’t understand why, or what was causing me to be so ill. Honestly being disabled is such a new thing for me that it’s hard to even write. But yes, I cannot be trusted to shower alone- I am at risk of fainting due to standing too long, slipping etc I also love a warm soak because it’s often the only way to not be in pain. Our current shower is too small to sit a stool in, eventually when we have money to renovate this will be considered important elements of design etc. unfortunately it is not curable and a life changing diagnosis.

correct, pp who said RE British Gas. No they don’t supply water but we have homecare. A leak was found, plumber estimated it was likely adding £50 or so pm on but agreed our bill seemed high but possibly accurate based on current useage so clearly is what it is 🤷‍♀️

thank you to everyone who commented. Lots learnt.
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2 adults, 2 children (one neutodiverse, oy baths, no showers). we average on just under £40 per month

I just checked, we are using about 50 cubic m per month, so less than half of what you are using.