Water Meters pros/cons

Looking at the news that Severn Trent intend to screw their customers some more.

After some thoughts really.

I live in a small 3 bed semi, two occupants and 3 cats. The current bill is £573 based on rateable value etc. according to what I can find the average ST bill is closer to £440 a year.

So trying to get some idea of whether swapping to a meter will result in a saving or just get shafted again?

A meter sounds good to me in that scenario. Depends how much water you use, I guess!

So you might save £130 a year, but even with the worse case scenario (leaking pipe after the meter, sudden medical issue that means you need to use 2x the water etc etc), without a meter your bill will never exceed the rateable value.

And when you’re selling up, you can advertise that there’s no meter.

Plus you’ve no idea how they measure ‘average’…

we swapped to a meter after East Surrey said you can try and switch back if you don’t like it.

I was very surprised to see as just a couple we saved about two hundred pounds a year, although we use the washing machine a lot (muddy MTB clothing needs plenty of washing).

2 people in a 3 bed house you’ll probably save a decent amount. “Average” use includes people watering their lawns and probably assumes 4 people in a 3 bed house. Our bill went up by c50% when our nephew lined with us for a year.  If you’ve got modern appliances and toilet cisterns most of your water use comes from flushing toilets and bathing. The rest doesn’t really add up to much

pros – encourages you to use a resource sensibly.

– you only pay for what you use
– if your meter stops working and the company does nothing about it for ages you’ll get free water for 18 months.

cons – you need to do something about it if your toilets start free flowing. It pretty unlikely that you’ll have a leak on your side of the meter that you’re not aware of.

Water meter more often proves to be cheaper, especially with lower occupancy – but perhaps not if you have a teenage child using the shower for 30mins a day (that would impact your energy bill too)! Rateable value is a terrible way to measure water consumption. Paying for what you use is fair, and people tend to reduce their usage when on a meter anyway (circa 10-15%). If you do get a leak on your supply pipe then a meter might aid with detection, and you might get a customer side leak allowance off your bill once fixed (no idea if that is STW policy mind).

You can’t opt out of a meter once you have one. Sometimes meters go wrong/get misread/ and if you get a succession of estimated reads then you can end up paying too much or too little and make up the difference/get a refund or credit. EDIT – if you end up getting a smart meter then it’s much better as it reads itself and you can track consumption far easier.

You can’t opt out of a meter once you have one.

That’s if you move to a house which has one. If you get one fitted, you have 2 years to change your mind.

Four adults here and about £800 a year. Checks out to the average use for a four household family. I do wash the bikes and cars regular, shower is on daily as in the washing machine.

And when you’re selling up, you can advertise that there’s no meter.

When there is a change to bill payer the water company can force them on to a meter if they want, so this is a mute point. For most people their bills go down on a meter versus rated value, unless you have a lot of people or big irrigated garden. Obviously as more of our old housing stock is metered what we pay will redistribute but currently, for lower occupancy you’ll almost certainly see savings. You can always get a water butt for the garden.

Pedant alert!

moot point not silent 🙂

No option here, UU fitted meters all along my road earlier this year under the pavement

Fewer folk in the house, meter, more, leave it.

The only con is if,  like me recently,  you get a leak after the meter.   Took thames 6 months to get round And fix it .. I reckon I’ll get £2k back once the leakage allowance gets sorted but until it is it’s a bit worrying!

Have paid £12 a month since forever, with a meter installed. 2 people in a 2 bed semi not massive users.

Water meter apparently broke approx 2 years ago. Water company said nothing, just started estimating usage. A debt grew over year one based on this estimate. This year they wanted to up our MONTHLY bill from £12 to £78!! Based on a wild guess.

While I accept our original bill was low, this new rate is mental.

Since this this water meter has been replaced (less than an hour for the engineer doing it) and I’m a month we’ll have an estimated water usage to apply to the last two years.

So, in summary, they may be ok, but the companies need to let you know if they can no longer read them!

No idea how they estimate use.
there’s two of us in a two bed. Both doing near daily exercise with the subsequent showering and washing.
also with a boiler that’s slow to respond so end up wasting a bit at the start of every shower and washing up bowl.
thought we’d be using loads.
we were about half the estimate.

4 people in the house, watering garden, washing bikes /cars etc, we’ve been asked repeatedly by Anglia water whether we want to switch to a meter and have stubbornly resisted it, successfully so far.

The anecdotes above suggest we’ve made the right call, currently we’re paying £580 a year.

4 people in the house, watering garden, washing bikes /cars etc, we’ve been asked repeatedly by Anglia water whether we want to switch to a meter and have stubbornly resisted it, successfully so far.

The anecdotes above suggest we’ve made the right call, currently we’re paying £580 a year.

Without doing the maths, I’d say so, yes.

Single occupancy here with a meter, and rarely use the hose, I pay about £200 per year total (yorkshire water) athough the bulk of my bill is standing charges for sewerage etc, rather than actual consumption.

Two adults, a child and garden/carwashing… the sums get a bit more compicated.

We used to be on a un metered connection and paid around £500 a year for waste & drinking water

Now on a metered connection, 3 people in the house £8 a month so £96 a year for drinking water

Waste water is £20 a month so £240

So a total £336 all in

My Yorkshire water account I am paying £386.66 per annum, living by myself.  I was advised that a meter would not make me any savings not sure after this thread now.

My Yorkshire water account I am paying £386.66 per annum, living by myself. I was advised that a meter would not make me any savings not sure after this thread now.

I’d be shocked if you didn’t save at least £100 per year, unless you are a prolific waster of water! And as above, you get a long ‘cooling off period’ so you may aswell go for it.

I was sure I’d heard something on the radio on the radio about this (More Or Less? I can’t find the episode) It was interesting about how they measure consumption, and ‘average’ use.