Water Meters for Every Household

We had a water meter fitted about ten years ago, if nothing else it makes people think about water usage.

I do not have a water meter, there wasn’t one when I moved in, and haven't really thought about it.

I have just used an online cost calculator and my bills would be about £70 more with a meter.

I don’t know about ‘hygiene’ maddyone - anyone who ever browses MN much will be startled at the number of people - mostly younger parents - who have to wash every garment after one wearing, whether it’s at all dirty or not, whose children must have clean pyjamas every night, whose towels have to be washed after two uses, or even after just one. Etc.
Otherwise it ‘eewww!’ or ‘grim!’

It’s getting to the stage where any mention of ‘hygiene’ or ‘hygienic’ - at least on MN - is (to me) beginning to equal OCD.
Or at the very least, profligate with resources, and plain stupid.

I think water meters should be mandatory, when a property changes hands and all other properties on a rollout basis over the next 10 years.

We had a water meter fitted in our previous home, free of charge, easily arranged. It reduced costs drastically. Moving here to a much smaller property the water supplier advised us not to opt for a meter. Said it would cost us more. Foolish to argue we thought.

Ive had a water meter for over 20 years. I ordered it online and it took 5 minutes. They didnt even have to come into the house to install it.

Party4, why not ring the water company and ask then about metering and hand the phone to DH, so they can explain it to him.

I’m sure most pensioner households with only one or two occupants would save money with a water meter, but what about the households with families. Families use much more water with all the laundry and bathing of children. I think in a first world country such as ours, that water should be available to all and if families were metered it’s likely that they would try to save money by economising on water, which is not a position that they should be in. Hygiene is important, I don’t want families to feel the need to economise on cleanliness.

Our tiny home had an extension built on the side some 40+ yrs ago( not by us) .Years later when councils were messing about with the different rating systems the water rates became a seperate bill for all.
Water rates were charged by footprint area.At the time we lived in a bigger house with 2 showers/toilets and our water rates exceeded our neighbours due to the footprint of our extension.We paid for the privilege of facilities used by our young family.
Now after downsizing we have one very small bathroom but because of footprint the rates per month are double DSs with 4 bedrooms, 3 ensuites ,utility etc.I have tried to get DH to transfer to a meter but for whatever reasons he is so reluctant.In present day climate any reduction would be welcoming.

I endorse the idea of fewer residents than bedrooms. My neighbour who also lives alone pays twice as much as me - she pays £37 and I pay £18. I can’t understand why she won’t get a meter and pay for what she uses. I’d recommend anyone to sign up for the trial period, then see how you feel. Costs nothing.

Blossoming

I doubt that water companies have the power to make water meters compulsory. Clean potable water should be available to all.

Making them compulsory wouldn’t mean people had no clean water, though. Just that they are likely to be more careful about wasting it.

I pay 40 a month ( no water metre im the NW) ...3 adults at home...3 GD and 2 other adult children who stay over a lot and a dog.... wouldn't like to risk moving over to one

A neighbour few years ago told me this ... they hadn't got a water meter neighbour next door had one , neighbour with water meter was having her detached house sprayed ... think was to water proof it ... yes probably guessed asked the neighbour without a water if she could use their water ... they did say yes ... although personally I think it is a cheek! I do have a water meter

Our water were installed last year we weren't given a choice. We could stay on unmetered tarrif for 2yrs then we will be switched over or you could ask to be switched before that. I've just switched and my monthly bill came down from £46 to £30 straight away. My neighbour who's bean on a meter for ages only pays £21 a month. I'm pretty sure mine may come down further when they reassess my usage in 6mths.

Dripping taps? When we lived in Jersey, CI, in 1970s, you would ring the water company and they’d send someone to change the washer free of charge. That’s how precious water was then. I imagine it’s more so now.
Never watered the lawn and only give the flowers a good soak once a fortnight. Showers not baths and wait for full loads for various machines. It’s not hard to be reasonably careful.
We’ve only had a meter for a short time, but good habits are valuable.

All the houses near us built when ours was in the 80s have water meters. It's never been a problem, although I don't know what it would be like to have one installed now. We're responsible for all the pipework up to the water meter so if there was ever a leak our side of the water meter we would have to dig our drive up to find it. Whether it's cheaper for us I don't know.

They say that if you have more bedrooms than people (many of us on here, probably) then you benefit from a meter, and that works in reverse too.

On that basis we would probably benefit. We have 4 bedrooms with 2 of us, and we go away a lot.

I'm a bit uneasy though. A friend of mine lives alone, and she got very high water bills because of a leak in the supply (or something similar - it was an outside problem that had nothing to do with her, anyway). She had a terrible job persuading the water board that they were overcharging her.

Maria48 there's an online calculator to help you work out whether you'd be better off with a water meter. Have a look on your water supplier's website.

We haven’t got a water meter and pay £46 a month for water.

We have a water meter but I'm not sure it helps us save water or money.
.we had it installed years ago and our water bills did fall as it measures what we actually use rather than our bills being based on rateable value.

Given how much bother a smart meter for electricity led to I'm not volunteering to have a water meter!

We have had a water meter for several years. All we did was ring the water board and ask. It was supplied and installed free of charge. Our bill went down from £56 to £20.
I run my dishwasher and washing machine as normal, and have a 3 minute shower daily.

in scotland our water charge is in with our council tax, putting a water meter in would only tell us how much water we are using but not make any difference to the cost, if it did my water charges would be low as i don't use the boiler for hot water as i boil a kettle if i have dishes and that is very seldom as i mostly use paper plates as i live on my own.

Same here BlueBelle and you could keep the meter for 12 months and, if you decided it wasn't more economical for you, they'd remove it. I haven't heard of anyone doing that though.

I ve had a water meter for years I didn’t pay anything for the installation or anything else since apart from my usage bills