Water metre

[RacingSnake]

Hi. Not sure where to post this, but has anyone got metered water and, if so, how much do you pay? Especially interested if you are a family of four who water their vegetable plot.

I am asking because our water company has said that if we use a sprinkler, we will have to change to a water meter. We are going away for a month in the middle of the summer and leaving my 85-year old mother to look after the garden - I can't expect her to carry cans of water to the runner beans!

Water company says that if we use a sprinkler without declaring it, they will find out and put us on a meter anyway. Could they find out? (Not that I was really thinking of illicit sprinkler use!)

I've got no idea about the sprinkler but water companies do ban hosepipes and sprinklers in the summer if there is a drought/short supply.

We moved house and now have a water meter. The water company have estimated our bill to be £60 per month based on family of 5, using showers and washing machine on every day.

I live in the West Country and we have never had a hosepipe ban. Will obviously have to cut back on showers and washing machine if we water the veg, though.

We have metred water, and do water our garden (not with a sprinkler, just watering cans), but we more than make up for it with other water saving measures that we put in when we moved into the house. We have water saving loos and a water saving shower, and even with the baths I take when my back is bad, we are still using less water than the average. We've got no complaints with the metred water.

On the other hand, you could invest in a more sophisticated irrigation system, with drippers on a timer. Doesn't necessarily have to come off mains water either - I saw a great one at Chelsea running off a rainwater tank.

We had one in our last house and got into debt paying £60 and later £80 per month for water .

This is going back to when there was just two of us and we were out of the house between 7.30 am and 6 pm during the week.

We had one bath or shower each a day, washed up once a day and did about 4 loads of washing and definately daren't water the garden. We'd couldn't afford to .

We pay much less now we are back on rates.

The washing was weekly by the way not daily!

I still wonder if we were paying for the whole street!

Feedthegoat - aaagh! which water company was this?

Yorkshire Water.

I must be one of the few who is grateful for rates!

I'm not exagerating when I say we really didn't use a lot of water and were very careful. We did all the taps off whilst brushing teeth, water saving measures for toilet flush type of things.

Worrying!

We are a family of 4, washing machine is on at least once a day, dishwasher is on once a day, I have a shower, so does DH and the boys have a bath most days.

I don't have a huge veg plot but we do water the tomatoes/potatoes/salad/herbs etc.

Our water bill is about £30 per month max.

instead of a sprinkler could you use a soaker hose? (the one with little holes in the hose pipe)

feedthegoat I think you were paying for the street!! I have always been on a water meter and £80 a month is crazy money.

We do have dual flush toilets, the boys bath is never a full one, but I don't feel like we are very economical with water.

Fizzylemonade I really do think something wasn't right reading that because saving water nearly became an obsession.

I think it would have been cheaper to bathe in bottled water!

Whereas I run a business from home - so I'm on a meter - I pay about £32 pcm

I run the washing every night (about 6-7 times a week)
I wash up for about 9-12 people 3 times a day plus dishwasher over night
I water the garden/play with water/wash the car

Just looked up soaker hose - that might solve the problem without using a sprinkler! Waterboard only says 'no sprinklers', not 'no hosepipe'. How could they find out anyway?