Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is it worth switching to a water meter?
Hi all
I was wondering if anyone here has switched to a water meter and could share their experience.
We're about to move houses and I've just received our first water bill which is about £41 a month. Since there's only two of us in a 3 bed house and we're not the sort of people who water their garden (at least not yet), wash cars or take long baths, I wonder if we could save some money by getting a water meter.
The fact that Thames Water doesn't even present you with this option when sending 'welcome to your new home' pack, makes me even more keen to take the plunge. Any thoughts?
Tags for Forum Posts: thames water, water meters
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Hi Milda. We had a water meter fitted a few months ago and our bills are 30% less. If you don't have a meter you are assumed to be a 5 unit family and billed accordingly. There are a sliding scale tariffs depending on the amount of people living at the address. It sounds like you don't use very much water so i would say a water meter would save on your bills. Good luck.
(If you are a single person houshold yet for some reason cannot have a meter fitted there is a specific, very much cheaper tariff for you. Contact the water company and inform them you are a single person household yet cannot have a meter.)
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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I beleive most houses actually have a meter outside the house under a small cover in the street. I would try to find this and monitor your water use for a year if you can be bothered. See where you go from there.
Alternatively, take the plunge now, as a family of 2 is highly unlikely to be out of the money with a meter. However, if you are ever likely to have more than 2 in the house (kids, etc?) then it might not be such a great move. I seem to remember a house of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) should about break even either way...
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Is it worth switching to a water meter?
Probably yes. If you are not a big user or don't water a garden nor regularly wash a car, the answer is likely yes. Bear in mind if you take the plunge and do have a meter installed, you cannot, nor any subsequent owner, have it uninstalled.
IMO, everyone should be obliged to have water meters, with a generous free minimum allowance per person. Thus, those who use water above a personal allowance (possibly extravagantly would pay quite a bit more.
Having a water meter is a small reminder not to waste it, even though the cost per cubic metre is not much.
Given that we don't have a national ring-main and can distribute water around the country easily, we will probably use grey water solutions to help spin out our water supplies. As in many things green, Germany leads in this subject.
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Permalink Reply by Milda Rami on
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Bear in mind if you take the plunge and do have a meter installed, you cannot, nor any subsequent owner, have it uninstalled.
Interesting. My understanding is that we can come back to the pre-meter way of water billing after 12 months (yet i dont think our household would have doubled by then! :).
Also, based on the online calculator, we could be saving over £100 a year. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how accurate my answers are because I have no idea how many times a day we flush the toilet or how many times a week we'll use the dishwasher (which I never had before).
But I think we might switch.. I'd feel better paying for something I actually use.
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Check this out. It has some useful tips. It seems to imply you can switch back too... If you do find out either way I would be glad to know.
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Permalink Reply by DrWhams on
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I've occasionally thought about a water meter, but the thing that I'm worried about is the odd occasion where you might not notice a tap was still running and then head out for the day. Recently our loo developed a problem where it wouldn't cut off the water after it had filled up -- after a few hours you'd notice that it was still going.
Ideally I'd want to have some kind of timer that will cut off the supply if water has been flowing consistently for a period (of say 30 minutes). I haven't ever seen such a device - has anyone else?
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I had a water meter installed at the earliest opportunity, several years ago, and I've not regretted it in spite of the odd dripping tap.
Meters save money over a year, not over a few days. A dripping tap shouldn't be ignored in any event, but if you accidentally leave a tap running – and overflowing - for a whole day, the extra few pence or even a pound or two on your water bill, is likely to be the least of your worries.
I don't know of a device as you describe, would not expect one to exist and would not want such a thing. Street water pressure can be four bars, which is pretty healthy, and it needs a very strong mechanical device to staunch it. These are known as (screw thread) taps. You do not want to automate this with some electrical servo because it will either not work when you might want it and will work when you don't want it to.
The cost of making such a device work reliably might eat up the next five years of water meter savings!
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I have a water meter installed, there are two people who live in my 2 bed flat and I run a dishwasher once or twice a week and the washing machine about the same. I pay £11 a month by direct debit, at the height of it I was paying £18 a month so from my experience I would definitely say switch.
I was also under the impression that you can't switch back from the water meter and neither could any subsequent owners of your property so I must have read it somewhere.
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Thanks Sarah. Very encouraging.
I will have to ask Thames Water directly about switching back, my current understanding so far is that we could but subsequent owners (tenants??) wont be able to.
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Yes you can but only in the first year. And meters for all are on their way.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Not sure why your water bill is so high - I have a three-bed house and the annual water charge is £377, about £31 a month. As there are only two of us, I could probably save money by switching to a meter but I have a cautionary tale: my sister switched to a meter and her next bill was ten times higher!! There was some kind of problem/leak in the system for which she was held responsible and it took months to sort out, during which time she was paying massively higher bills. She finally requested to return to the flat-rate charge, but they would not put her back on the same one as before, which turned out to have been some particular 'banding', so she is still paying more than before she started the process. Slightly off-putting, although probably unusual!
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Scary! We are currently refurbishing the house so any visible leaks should be spotted and fixed (fingers crossed). Though probably not if potential problems lie somewhere underground..
As for the bill, i'm rather stunned how high it is. I wonder if our large garden has anything to do with it..
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