Visit from the Water people

[srw]

[QUOTE 4585006, member: 9609"]£706 a year. (I must look into a metered supply as it may be cheaper).[/QUOTE]

Probably. For one of me, spending about half my time in a flat, my combined water and sewage bill is about £100 a year. Here's a table of typical use that you can use to estimate....

http://www.thameswater.co.uk/your-account/17690.htm

 

[slowmotion]

[QUOTE 4585210, member: 9609"]how much water were you using ?[/QUOTE]
It was three or four years ago and I honestly can't remember. I'll dig out the data set and let you know when I have some time.

 

[User482]

Isn't it the case that water meters are going to be universal and compulsory anyway before too long? New builds have them, and when you move house the water companies contact you about fitting one if there isn't one already. I do think people should be more thoughtful about how they use water, rather than assuming it will always be available in unlimited quantities any time they want it. We're all used to considering the effect of our usage on gas and electricity bills, but for some reason water isn't viewed in the same way and massive amounts can get wasted.

Water's far too cheap to sufficiently incentivize a lot of people and businesses. As one example, think of the cost of bedding plants for a garden, versus the cost of watering them. Who would be motivated to change how they plant their garden for the sake of a couple of quid's worth of water (or no cost at all if you don't have a meter)?

 

[User482]

I see what you mean; I hadn't thought of it as being cheap. My neighbour used to put a sprinkler on her lawn after dark, because having a nice green lawn was really important to her even though sprinklers were banned. She refused to have a meter fitted - I bet she thought watering the lawn would have cost her more than a couple of quid.

A sprinkler running continuously probably would cost more, admittedly... but very roughly, a cubic metre is about £2-3 for supply and sewerage. That's the same volume as five standard water butts, or 200 toilet flushes. It's incredibly cheap when you think about it.

I fitted a lever onto the bath down pipe so I can divert bathwater into a water butt if we have insufficient rainfall.

.

 

[byegad]

Feeling smug up here in NE England. When I've emptied Keilder Water* I'll worry!

* Paid for out of my water rates, so I'm determined to get my money's worth! According to the guide on the tourist boat there's enough water in there to allow every man woman and child on the planet to flush a standard loo 13 times in a row and still there be a drop or two left.

 

[Tin Pot]

Smart metering is the beginning of cybergeddon.

I think it was Thameswater.

We had an under floor lead pipe spring a leak a while back, that was mercifully easy to sort out.

 

[Tin Pot]

Even more bizarrely, loads of us still go off and splurge good money on plastic bottles of the stuff as well.

I cannot innoculate my family from this, they are still infected with the plastic water meme.

 

[Starchivore]

I think it is coming next year - I had a letter checking whether it was a domestic or business property, as United Utilities where making sure their records were straight for when we can choose who to pay for water.

Argh, another thing we'll have to compare and switch constantly to ensure we don't get ripped off...

 

[Starchivore]

I don't think we will, unless we are big businesses or heavy users.

I really hope not. The faff of comparing and switching and then tying up lose ends and correcting suppliers mistakes seems to take up a lot of my time.

 

[srw]

I really hope not. The faff of comparing and switching and then tying up lose ends and correcting suppliers mistakes seems to take up a lot of my time.

Start adding a cost for your own time into the equations. Even at minimum wage you'll realise that picking one supplier and sticking to them is close to an optimum strategy.

 

[Cycleops]

[QUOTE 4584911, member: 9609"]Make sure it is the water board - if they just have mobile telephone numbers on the side of a pick up truck loaded with old fridges bits of tree and asbestos and keep using the phrase 'to be sure, to be sure' then step back.[/QUOTE]

Or a horse called Hercules.

 

[toffee]

[QUOTE 4585753, member: 9609"]I would say its a fair bit better than that, I have changed quite a few times, never had any real problms, some excellent savings and it don't take that long. My recent was BT to Post Office for phone and broadband, may be one or two hours and £96 saved over 18 month. - it can be worth while.

I made some enquires about metered vs unmetered water and it is a bit of a non starter.

Currently paying £700 per year unmetered.

Compulsory £124 for survey to see if feasible then between £100 & £500 to fit meter.
Fixed annual cost of being connected £298
Fixed surface drainage152
first 25 cubic meter 128
then £2.24 per cube water and sewage.

threshold will therefore be 50 gallon a day. Even if we got it down to 35 gallon a day payback time just for the fitting of the meter would be 4 to 13 years. And then there is the risk of expensive leaks.[/QUOTE]


Bloody hell Meters are fitted free in Anglian region.

http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/household/water-meters/Pay-as-you-flow.aspx

Our family of 5 uses less than £40 worth a month. Rateable cost was over £40 15 years ago.

 

[RoubaixCube]

Let them in to start work then look over their shoulder and ask them water they doing?

I'll get my coat.....

 

[nickyboy]

[QUOTE 4588371, member: 9609"]May be it is a supply issue, I know what reservoir I'm connected too and its big, it rains there a lot and I have never known it as anything other as brim full. I could imagine Scottish Water not being too bothered how much I use and could imagine meters being a nuisance. I'm sure there are parts of the country where water is not in such ample supply and the relevant companies may be more interested in conserving the stuff.[/QUOTE]

You may be right but I suspect it's actually due to some other reason. Maybe there isn't the same political pressure to reduce water usage on the water suppliers in Scotland as there is in England (I don't know about Wales). In the NW we have lots of water and it rains a lot. Severn Trent are the water supplier to Derbyshire and they offer free meters.

We reduced out water bill by about 50% by having a meter fitted. At first when you have it fitted you fuss about how much you're using. But then you realise that it's about a penny a flush of the toilet and you start to forget about it

 

[nickyboy]

[QUOTE 4588821, member: 9609"]We must have a very different structure for water charging here, I don't think it is possible in this part of Scotland to save 50% even if you don't use any water. My fixed charges on a metered system would represent 65% of my unmetered water rates, and for anyone in a Council Band C property the fixed charges before any use is greater than an unmetered supply. (and none of that includes the eye watering costs of having a metered fitted that could potentially cost up to "£600)[/QUOTE]

My property isn't band C so that may have a significant effect on savings.

A quick google shows why things are different in Scotland. Scottish Water is a publicly owned company whereas the English and Welsh ones are privately owned. The funding to subsidise free provision of water meters in Scotland requires a decision from the Scottish parliament which it has chosen not to make.