Water bill - Metered vs Unmetered?

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
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Bristol
Received our first sole water bill the other day (previously paid as part of a larger shared house) and was wondering if it's best to be metered or not, and if so if it's even possible to get a meter.

We're currently unmetered and our bill is £337 for 10 months (£154 water, £182 sewage). We're a couple in a two bed using a normal amount of water - 2 showers a day, a bath once a month, 2 washing loads a week, no dishwasher.

Thoughts?
 
I was on the standard rates system for a few years paying £45 a month. Switched to metered around 3 years ago and the bill went down to £13 a month. That's me living on my own and not being careful how much water I use. Since the gf moved in and the shower is used for A LOT longer plus more washing etc the bill is now £28 a month.

Personally I think you'll be better off on a meter. I don't think you'll use anything like we do.
 
unless its changed you can have the meter installed and if the price goes up you can have it removed... (there is a time limit)
 
edscdk said:
unless its changed you can have the meter installed and if the price goes up you can have it removed... (there is a time limit)
Click to expand...

Some do it free others charge.

I got one here installed, but it's never been used in the 3 years I've been here.

Only found it when I dug out the crud to get to the stop c ock.
 
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If you have a water meter fitted, you can choose to go back to your previous payment method within first 12 months, they will not remove the meter.

But be careful there are areas where water meters are compulsory, depends if your area is a 'Water Stress Area' defined by the government.
Bristol water is rated LOW, so your ok.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...Mp3ZYp7RAKgFwSg&bvm=bv.47008514,d.d2k&cad=rja
 
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I'll let you know in a few months!

We're having a meter installed tomorrow in the hope that it'll bring our bill down a bit. Family of 3 but we're quite frugal with water so we're hoping to see some benefit.

Currently out watering in the new grass seed and washing the cars before it's installed :D
 
Our water bill (2 of us, 2 showers per day, bath 1-2 times per month, dishwasher 3 times per week, washing machine 4 loads per week, 3 cars cleaned weekly) is £120/6 months.

Our rates would be ~£500/pa. So this is less than half the "unmetered" amount for us.
 
^^ Looks promising for us then :)

Not sure how much our unmetered bills are tbh as the wife deals with all the mundane stuff like that, but she's got a keen eye for a bargain so must be confident that we'll be better off.
 
I've heard if you have less occupants than bedrooms, you should generally be better off with a meter.
 
Surely it would be better to ring up, ask them for how much they charge per (some unit I can't think what they would use) and also the fixed cost, and then work it out using a previous bill? :S
 
Hyburnate said:
Surely it would be better to ring up, ask them for how much they charge per (some unit I can't think what they would use) and also the fixed cost, and then work it out using a previous bill? :S
Click to expand...

Water authorities do publish their charges per M³ but if you don't have a meter you have no way of knowing how many units you are using so it's impossible* to work out :)

*I suppose you could measure out each drop of water you use throughout the month and convert it but even I'm not that anal :D Easier to have a meter installed and see how it goes.
 
paintguy said:
Water authorities do publish their charges per M³ but if you don't have a meter you have no way of knowing how many units you are using so it's impossible* to work out :)

*I suppose you could measure out each drop of water you use throughout the month and convert it but even I'm not that anal :D Easier to have a meter installed and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

As the calculator above, there's average figures you can use to work it out.
 
We pay around £330 pa for the water (unmetered) with 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 bed house - which is the same amount we paid in a 1 bed flat with 2 adults. According to the calculator above we should be paying around 800 with a meter.

Think i'll give it a miss for now...
 
I know this thread is getting on a bit but I did say I'd be back to update :)

We were paying a lot for our un-metered water so my wife used an online calculator and that indicated that we could save quite a bit on a meter.

Their first attempt at fitting it failed so they had to get the heavy mob in. They dug around in my front lawn to try and find the supply pipe but eventually found it buried under 6" of concrete on my drive. To be fair they've made a tidy job of digging it up and making good, and all FOC of course.

Within a few days of fitting they sent us an estimated bill for the year. £420 based on our suggested usage which worked on an estimated 130m³ per year. That works back to around 2.5m³ per week, or 0.35m³ per day on average. We've been on the meter for 25 days since, using water just the same as we did before with a couple of dishwasher loads per week, 5 or 6 loads of washing, and everything else we'd normally do.

Their estimate would suggest us having used 8.9m³ by now, but we've only actually used 3.2m³. If we stayed at that kind of average it would mean an annual bill of something like £151 - way below the £700 we were paying before un metered!!! :cool:

So in short, we'll potentially make a massive saving by changing to a water meter and I'd recommend anyone to have a serious look into doing the same.
 
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