having a water meter fitted 2morow

[CathyW]

hopefully all my bills will come down by 1/2
im paying the same as the ppl around the corner who have a pile of kids. and a 3 story house. and theres 2 of us and 1 bd bungalow. not fair is it.
so hopeing my bills will shrink alot. :)
just where hes got to put the meter, its in a cupboard in the bedroom!!!!!

[Fran]

Hope you find a reduction in your bills!! I'd hate to have a water meter fitted, having a husband with a dirty job and two teenage children :shock:

I'm sure you will be loads better off, do let us know how it goes ;)

[smudgley]

Our first house had a water meter. They are very good & it makes you a little more careful with your water. For instance I often leave the hosepipe running for ages whilst I'm scrubbing out the cat pens/washing the car, only because I'm too lazy to keep turning it on/off :oops: But I would if I had a meter.:roll:

Good on ya! You'll save a fortune.

[dandysmom]

I'm amazed! :shock: You don't have a water meter? :shock: How do they know what to bill you?
Living here in the City all my life where every house has its own water meter it never occurred to me that people wouldn't have one, unless, of course, they had a well...

I cannot believe how much I learn on Catsey.....

Hope it drastically lowers your bill!

[Kazz]

Eileen I am sure most properties in the UK do not have meters....(maybe new builds do not sure)

However I am sure once one is installed it can't be removed ie if you move and the new owner does not want it it cannot have it removed .

I don''t ant a meter I am happy how I am like Kelly though I thin I waste water. Although I try not to.

[smudgley]

Yes Eileen, I would say most properties in the UK don't have them, although they are getting more popular.

We bought our first house in 1993 in Bromsgrove (built in 1930's) and all the houses in that Road had a water-meter on a pilot scheme, kind of an experiment. We were always careful, as in not wasteful, but we used what we needed sensibly.

Our 2nd house didn't have one & I'm sure over time, we got lazy and started using more than we needed.

Our 3rd house doesn't have a meter.

Also - when we go away in the caravan, there is limited supply of water as you have to keep filling up your "tank" - you'd be surprised just how little water you can get away with using when you have to keep filling up (well when your hubby does:-D )

[Kim]

We were the first people to live in our house 14 years ago so it is a relatively 'new build', therefore we have a meter. I think the system is much fairer, i.e you only pay for what you use. However, we pay £50 a month for water :shock: paid far less when we didn't have a meter. :?

Hope it works out better for you though. :)

[dandysmom]

Forgive me for sounding dense, but do you mean that in most cases your water is free??!!! Sounds like heaven...my water bill runs about $30.00 a month and I'm just one person!~ When I had a basement pipe spring a leak last year and it ran for a bit before I went down and noticed it, the bill that month was almost $200.00!!!

[angieh]

A potted history for Eileen!

Although the "rates" were abolished in England in 1990 and replaced with the hugely unpopular Community Charge, which itself was replaced in 1993 with the Council Tax, domestic water charges have been based on the aforesaid rates which were introduced in the 1920s (with quite a few tinkerings in between). They are hugely out of date and if, as various rumblings and threatenings, local authorities ever got round to re-assessing property values on which their Council Tax is based (and the water charges) both taxes would go through the roof and there would be more discontent than any government could stand, which is probably why it has been put off again and again.

Having a water metre installed is a good idea and is one less financial worry to be faced in the future when other costs are rising!

Edited to say: some people have to pay another separate fee for waste water (ie sewage).

[Kazz]

Eileen - what Angie said :-D

Poll tax caused chaos in the UK..........seriously and can't see any goverment having the guts to reasses water.....:shock: ...so my water rates are

3 bed semi detached in West Mids.
Water £170.65
Sewerage and surface water (whatever surface water is:? )£168.52

So in total for a year (unlimited water remember) £339.17
divide by 12 and £28 a month for both unlimited water no probs with sewerage etc.

Karen

[angieh]

My water rates are for 3 bed bungalow on West Sussex/Hampshire border:

Water £101.48
Wastewater, Surface water and highway drainage £291.02
Year total = £392.50

Monthly £32.71 - unlimited water as Kazz above. The highway drainage is a laugh as we live up an unadopted bridle path with no drainage apart from any water just running down it - in heavy rain it's like a stream!

You do have to have a metered flow if you want to use sprinklers or an unattended hose in your garden.

[dandysmom]

Wow! Angie, Karen, very very interesting! So completely different from the way things are here. When I refer to my water bill, it does include the sewage charges also, usually just referred to as the water bill. I'm very careful with usage to hold costs down, but they do go up in the Summer when the garden needs watering and I shower more because of the heat..... next bill I get I'll make a note of how much it is per cubic foot so I can tell you all if you're interested ...

[smudgley]

our water rates with south staffs water are
£367.63 for year March 08/ March 09.

[Kazz]

Do you think seeing what we have yours is better Eileen.

I often wonder since meeting you if we are as similar as we appear on the surface.

May start a thread on that.

[dandysmom]

It can be a small culture shock, Kazz. When you grow up in an environment where everyone has a water meter and pays just for their own usage it does come as quite a surprise to learn that there is another system completely different, and that seems perfectly normal to those who grew up with and are accustomed to it!

It's not the sort of thing you would normally think about, and as you can tell I was really amazed...perhaps not being a traveler I am more provincial than I think....:shock:

Another of the things I love about Catsey...how we learn from one another....:D

[CathyW]

at the moment im paying 20 quid a month for water. and 29 quid a monthy for *dirty*water. theres 2 of us and we are in a 1 bd bungalow. i dont use my washer every day, every 3 days normally. and we are paying the same as the ppl around the corner who have 4 kids, plus adults.
when i lived in london my water rates (by meter) was 19 a month then went down to 17 a month.
so im hoping the meter will bring down the bills.

[angieh]

That does seem an awful lot BM! You should notice a big difference I would hope!

Oh Eileen - I do have two big rainwater butts in my garden which I use for watering outside, but when it's very dry they do get used up PDQ and of course if it's dry there is no refill!