do you use a lot of water?

Greyduster we get hot water within a few seconds from our combi?

I knew I’d seen a bill somewhere and I’ve found it. Unfortunately it’s for last year but it is for the summer months when, I think we would probably use more water.
It seems so though we use less than the average 2 person household, in fact we are in the middle of a single person home.
I would expect that we would look good on the water usage front, I am a bit neurotic. When you grow up in a country that enjoyed 4hours of water every 4 days you learn to be careful.
If anyone wants to take a look then feel free

My dh has always been mindful of water usage. He was “green” when the word only referred to a colour. We now have a water meter but his behaviour (and now mine) hasn’t changed and is such that water butts and other containers are used to collect water for the garden and water used in the sink (we have a washing up bowl) is carried out to water various plants. I can’t remember the last time he used a hose.

I try not to use too much water. When on the phone to the water company the young man asked if anyone actually lived at my property so I wonder if I've gone too far the other way.

I don't put very much water in the bath and don't possess a dish-washer. I'm extraordinary lazy about watering the garden as lugging watering cans about is tiresome.

We have a water meter but I don’t read it regularly. I was a bit taken aback recently when Severn Trent sent me an email saying I was among their top ten percent of users at between 500 and 700 litres a day!! Of course it was a mistake and they apologised for scaring me to death - I thought I must have a socking great leak somewhere. I live alone, have showers only, and pay £21 a month for my water, but my biggest beef at the moment is the five litres of water I have to run off before I get any hot water to my taps because I have a combi boiler. I save this run off to use either in the garden or to flush the downstairs toilet but it’s tedious. I have a water butt for plants.

By the way, many water companies are currently offering FREE water butts and other free items associated with saving water. We have signed up for our freebies. Just look on the website of your supplier or look on the Martin Lewis website which is where I found out about it.

360 litres a day here. There’s three of us. Two of us have quick showers each day and the third has a long shower every two or three days. Also two baths a week usually. Washer on about five times a week. We have water butts and save water inside the house for plant watering. Think we’d struggle to get it lower than that. I pay £48 a month.

We have a meter and we use what water we need. We prefer baths and I water our extensive fruit and vegetable garden, as necessary.

I haven't had to water it for the last month at least, as every two or three days it has rained. When I do water it, I do not use a sprinkler, just a hand held hose. We have water butts, but they very quickly run out, during dry periods.

I am economical in my use of the dish washer and washing machine, which I usually onlu use twice a week and always on as short programmes as I can get away with.

We pay the bill twice yearly. It is not large enough to take much notice of.

Though we are in Scotland business premises have water meters and we had one installed a few years ago. Water company rang and said could we read meter because of covid, replied I didn’t know where it was so they did send someone out to read it. He rang and said he had come to read the meter and where was it? Don’t think it has ever been read we are just charged the minimum amount which is still too much for one person 8 hours a day - how many times does he flush the toilet. But at £25 a month half the charge at home.

We had a water butt fed from the garage roof in our Oxfordshire garden. That and collecting teapot and coffepot slops in a bucket were all we ever needed for garden watering.

We didn't have plants in pots in the garden, which probably helped.

I also used very weak tea slops for watering house ferns. They loved it.

If we ever need to water anything in the garden in Argyll I'll know that apocalypse in nigh.

I don’t know why so many are against meters Surely it is fairer to charge people for their own usage. We are much better off having one. I am also happy with our gas and electric smart meters.

If anyone is on benefits or has an income of less than £17,500 per year you can go onto a social tariff and have reduced bills.

tanith

Sorry everyone my mistake its 114 litres per day 🤭 what an idiot.

That's more like it 😁

We (two of us) average about 137 litres a day, which isn't too bad, though I know it would be far less if I lived alone. I'm not calling OH wasteful, but ...

Caramme

In England, if you are unable to have a water meter because your supply is shared with neighbours, then you can ask your water company to estimate what your usage would be if you could have a meter. If that is cheaper, then that’s the way to go.

I told a friend about this, she was thrilled that her water bill went down by about £200 a year.

I do have a water meter and I know that my usage is excessive for a single person in a semidetached house. It is because of watering the garden with a hose I know. But I cannot lift watering cans, which would probably result in using less.

Do I let my garden die? A large part of it is a pot garden.

I have a morning shower which is about 6 minutes I wash my hair and clean my teeth all in one go, I don’t do it to save water it just makes sense to do it all in the same place.

Incidentally, Hurray for water meters. Our bill went down from £72 pm to £10pm. We aren’t using any more or less water than we were before the meter was installed.

There are 2 of us here in a 3 bedroom house. I have the washing machine on once a week and run the dishwasher every 2-3 days. The metre reader was here recently and when we got our statement, our bill has gone down to £21 per month.
Neither of us bother with the bath, we have a 2-3 minute shower daily. I only ever boil enough water for one or two cups of tea.
I think we are pretty careful with our water usage.

Water butt for garden, mostly showers and I save my laundry to go in with DD2’s. Water meter here and I pay £18 a month, less than half of what my neighbour with no meter pays. Never wash car at home either.

I’m in the NE, so we have Kielder. By the way, all new builds have meters - mostly inaccessible to the resident, but at least it ensures pay for what you use.

BlueBelle

Whoops posted too soon the meter is outside in the ground I could nt tread it without something to open it and get on my hands and knees

Yes BlueBelle.
When we got our water meter, I understood it would be read automatically. To my astonishment, I received a letter from the water company asking me to read the meter, which was about 70 cm below ground level in the middle of the pavement outside our house. We removed the cover and noticed that the dial was covered in dirt and illegible. If you knelt down, swept the dirt off and used an inverted selfie stick you could actually take a photo of the meter on your phone. 🤣🤣🤣
The water company apologised.

I live on my own and I am paying £40 a month - I have a quick daily shower, use the washing machine about once in 5 days, and dishwasher, about once in 3 days. I queried this - they are coming to check if there is a leak and in the meanwhile , they have reduced my DD to £25 pm

We only use what`s necessary.
We have a 9kg washing machine drum,so only do a wash twice a week.
Haven`t got a water butt,but have three buckets to catch rainfall.

If I'm not going out that day, I sometimes don't take a shower, just a quick wash. I have M.E. so this is frequent. When I shower I have a bucket in it to save the water while it's warming up. I use it to water my garden (nearly all containers).
I save the water used for washing fruit and veg too, and any drained cooking water. I have water butts, and leave out buckets if rain is forecast.
I use watering spikes in the garden when it's dry, and also old plates and saucers underneath plants.
I don't always flush away pees.
I use liquid soap (usually block soap melted down with water) as it saves having to wet hands/body before washing hands/showering, then rinse off.
I keep any water too grubby for plants (greasy washing up water etc.) to soak pans rather than running water to do it.

I think I may be a bit obsessive having read this back!!!

We're mindful of water usage. We shower, not bathe, run the dishwasher full, wash clothing on lowest settings. However, we do carefully water our garden, veg, flowers, some shrubs.

We've an underground system that saves rain water and grey water for outdoor use in gardens and for drip sprinklers. Brilliant!

Oh, and we have 2 water butts which we use almost exclusively for watering my many pots.