UK water rates & metering
A year ago I decided to have a water meter installed, as the unmetered water rates were getting ridiculous; my last unmetered bill was ?440-odd for the year or about ?37 a month. When applying for a water meter you have to fill in a questionnaire to estimate your water usage and the bill for the first year is calculated based on that and the number of people typically resident in the property. So my first year was calculated at ?28pm, which by default was based on two people, but on correcting this assumption it was reduced to ?20pm for the first year, an initial saving of ?200.
I've now received my second bill based upon the actual metered water usage for the first year, which turned out to be substantially in credit, so my payments have now been reduced to just ?4pm(!), a saving of nigh-on ?400 per year. So, if you haven't considered a water meter yet it might well be worth it, or at least to run the calculator and get an estimate of your metered usage costs. For Northumbrian Water the calculator is at:
https://www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/your-account/usage-calculator.aspx
I've now received my second bill based upon the actual metered water usage for the first year, which turned out to be substantially in credit, so my payments have now been reduced to just ?4pm(!), a saving of nigh-on ?400 per year. So, if you haven't considered a water meter yet it might well be worth it, or at least to run the calculator and get an estimate of your metered usage costs. For Northumbrian Water the calculator is at:
https://www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/your-account/usage-calculator.aspx
Post edited by Battle Bunny on
Comments
meters will come in everywhere eventually. If he had known about the metering in his place, he might have not bought the place, he told me. As it has a massive garden and he had to buy 2 water buts.
Had a girlfriend years ago with the same problem with meters , yep you are more careful with water but REALLY careful.
oher thing is putting a brick etc in the old toilets so it don't fill up with water so much etc.
It's criminal really that they don't have basic reductions based on number of residents; if the council can manage it for taxes, then a private firm should be able to cope.
Pain in the jacksy is the usual farce that you have to wait in all day for a surveyor to visit, and they only do office hours.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Apparently they put in an earlier bid on my place and didn't get it, then later the owners wanted to sell in a hurry just as I was looking round, so I offered 2.5k more as a 'let's-not-p*ss-about-then' sweetener and asked for the kitchen goods thrown in, and the agent (nice young lad) had them already agreed to it before I'd even got the preliminary mortgage approval.
Turned out it cost this other couple over 10k more to get next door when it came up a few months later, only for the fence to blow down the first month they were in! Mind you, they clearly had the cash as they got all that re-done, re-furnished and had the heating entirely re-done, then the water meter done, whereas I was on white rice and Lidl beans for a year.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
I took the day off work for it, but because I booked the date about a month away, they said they could be flexible with times, e.g. put me first on the list. The engineer came round at 8.30 and just wanted me to turn my tap on so that they could check which supply (out in the main street) was mine. They didn't even need to come into the flat. It took less than 10 minutes. So I spent the rest of the day eating junk food, drinking beer and playing computer games.. :-P
Now I don't do anything, just have to wait until they've finished the work.
I don't know what you'd do if they said they'd couldn't fit one. I think the rates are based on some very out-of-date valuations. I'd be tempted to leave my taps on all the time just to get my money's worth.. :lol:
Nothing wrong with that! We already have the "if it's yellow" rule in our house and use recycled bathwater to water the garden in the summer.
In our house it's Mrs Spoons who's the skinflint though - I had to stop her from getting one of those electricity usage meters otherwise she'd be rationing telly and internet time to one hour a week :roll:
:???:
Care to elaborate?
(And if it's brown, flush it down.)
Pyskool - a remake of Skool Daze and Back to Skool
"If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow." :)
I get told off for that sort of thing in our house. But I do sort of begrudge the way we generally use perfectly good drinking water to flush our bogs with in this country.
I get the idea..
there is ways you can get rain water , to use the loo instead. I've seen 2 , both on telly.. one is like a tank buried in the garden and the other is like a loft tank, just on the outside of the house roof, but they had a flat bit of roof so wasn't too tricky to fit I guess in their case.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
however, once everyone is on a meter prices will go up as the water companies will be receiving less income per household.
just. sayin...... ☺
Exactly. Although we usually flush it if there's already something yellow in there, we're not complete savages! :D
The only time problems arise is when our kids' friends come round and think they don't need to flush anything at all :o
Mrs S is already like that as it is! If I'm upstairs putting the kids to bed and she's in the bath or something, she'll turn all the lights off downstairs even though she knows I'm coming back down, meaning I have to fumble my way back down to turn the light on again without treading on stray piece of Lego or one of the cats on the stairs.
She does have her good points, can't remember them at the moment though :lol:
friend disagree's and didn't like his first *3 water bill :o
It's just that you're on a small craft with half a dozen other people, and you can only carry so much fresh water on-board.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf6qZMF9I70
Basically when you flush, the water will exit the tap which is above the toilet cistern and you can wash your hands in clean water, before it exits into the toilet.
We have a meter on the house and would change back in a flash.... but alas we can't
my assumption is the water companies get people in on cheap rates (former owners in our case) and then can bend you back over the barrel same as anyone else...
On the other hand 2 small kids makes for LOTS more washing than is the norm...
When you apply they give you a target date. Their target was the end of last summer, so they've now refunded me almost 6 months of payments, which was a very nice surprise... :o
Considering some of your featured saucers in that other thread, surely you had to sometimes :-P
What's the problem with the first 10 seconds of water, ?
If its tainted and then clears up that will be a problem with your system and not theirs.
If it runs clear and then tainted and then clear again that's usually their mains?
I never knew if 'running the tap' was a British thing, or a regional thing, or whatever...
I sent the second company a letter and asked them how they worked out where the water went after it entered the house. I also suggested that I sweat a lot and when drunk tend to piss over the garden fence onto wasteground. I also **** into carrier bags and leave them out for the dustmen which I pay for through council tax.
I never got a reply. I just got another bill.
Thanks for your post Dave, that has really made me chuckle.
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