Water meter - bills as predicted?

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

We are being compulsorily metered this year (the whole town is) and I went to the water company website today to see what effect it is likely to have on our bills. We are a family of 4 in a Band C house.

According to their calculator our bills will be around £200 a year more than they are now just for supply (sewerage is separate). It is a very vague calculator, didn't ask how often you use WM, DW, bath etc, just whether you had one.

I wondered if anyone else had used these predictions before they were metered and did they give a fair prediction? I am a little concerned, we are by no means lavish in our water use, we have a dual flush loo, turn taps off when brushing teeth, use a water butt for the garden etc.

I suppose the other way of looking at it is that we have been underpaying for years.

I dont have a water meter but dwr cymru say that if you have more rooms than people a water meter should work out cheaper for you. I assume this means bedrooms but not sure.

We're the other way round, 4 people in a 3 bed house. I was expecting it to go up a bit, but £200 seems a lot.

try this:

www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.388#

I ran it for my last house in southern England and it was bang on our actual bill. It is showing me that here in the Midlands, with no mains drainage, a water meter would double my bill!!

That's even worse Special - that puts the total at over £500! We only pay £227 at the moment. Better start saving . Thank you though.

I didn't think you had to- we had a water meter put in on our street- that was compulsory, but I rang them up to say I didn't want it, so they didn't connect us to it, but it is there if you or any future owner changes your mind.

We've been told they are doing the whole area, I don't think there is any option not to use it but might give them a ring.

I got a meter in 2009 or so. I was looking at my bills from before. I am still paying far less for my water now than back 4 years ago, despite the huge rises in price. If your estimate is true, then you are using more water than the average house in your rateable value.

I expect we probably are, I guess there are ways we can cut down a bit, although we already do most of the easy things, we're onto the harder/less pleasant ones next. I suspect that the reality is we have been getting our water very cheap for many years, £227 a year is very little compared to gas and electricity, and we will just have a more realistic price from now on. Our rainwater all goes to soakaways, I could probably get that deducted too according to MoneySaving Expert.

I got a reduction in my bills and spent less than they thought I would meaning I now have to pay £5pm for the next 3 months compared to the £24pm that I was.

Easy to see what you're spending and you will reduce the amount that you use and not be wasteful as you will be aware that every penny counts.

£277 seems awfully low. You've been on a good one for years.

It's horrible how all the bills are rising. (I can go on and on about food and utility prices). Doubly so when it's by £200. I'm glad you got some help from money saving expert. They are pretty clued up on these things over there.

MSE are great for all this stuff, we have just signed up with their cheaper gas/electricity thing, which does regular comparisons for you and lets you know when you need to change tariff instead of having to remember to do the comparison websites yourself.

King it's £227, not £277, I had no idea what the average was, but I've just been and looked at a few old threads and can see that it is very cheap, so with that I will stop complaining and be grateful that we had it that way for so long.

I had an estimated bill of £288 for the year, that's for me and dd (who's 4) now gone down to £273 for the year.

I was worried when it initially got installed thinking it would be more than the billed rates I paid but being more aware that you pay for what you use I think makes you use less!

Metering is a good way of making sure people aren't overcharged (I had 2 years of billed payments to pay off - moved, didn't realise I was liable and thought it was included in my rent) and I'm sure that my 2 years of bills I was liable for previously were massively overpriced however I couldn't pull the company up on it as there was no way of knowing!