do you use a lot of water?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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

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

I have a water meter it costs me £24.54 per month. I live on my own in a 2 bed bungalow . Having a combi boiler means I only heat water I use . Where I used to live in 2019 3 bed house no water meter still on my own but had hot water tank . Cost me the same as everyone else which was in those days £160.60 a month . According to there data I use the correct amount for one person.

We on a water meter I have bath each day my Dh has showers water the garden from water butt, south east! 35 pound month now very happy with that ! Much less than when wasn’t on meter,

The reason I’m against paying for the water used like we pay for electricity or gas is that I feel that this penalises families. They must use more water than we do but then with children they are bound to. I don’t like the thought of families trying to economise and therefore being less than clean, not bathing their children daily as I did, or not washing their clothes as often as needed in order to save money.
I recognise that I’m out of sync with the majority of older people with this view, but that’s just how I feel. I’m sure we’d have a lower water bill if we got a water meter. Perhaps we should, because us not having one isn’t going to change the relentless march towards everyone having one.
My other worry is once everyone is on a meter, will the price rise relentlessly because at that point, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Maddyone
My other worry is once everyone is on a meter, will the price rise relentlessly because at that point, there’s nothing we can do about it.
I think you are quite right about that and also about the way it penalises larger families, though like all those on GN who come up with ways of economising on water use, it would do no harm for everyone to use water carefully.
However, no water meter, penalises pensioners or older people.

For example my water bill @£72 pm penalised us once DH stopped working, especially when having a meter means we now pay £10pm.

Jax it’s something to do with the way the pipes are configured apparently. We had a similar problem in our last house. I’ll just have to live with it.

I always put the plug in the the over the bath shower because I find feet get more of a soaking and it warms them up a bit in winter. Even with a full shampoo and conditioner and rinsing the bath is only about a third full.
It’s not a power shower though
In the wet room I use a large washing up bowl with a stopper in for the same as I have a chair in there for while I wait for conditioner etc to soak in.
No garden or paddling pool sadly so not guilty😉
Oh also I fill empty squash bottles with tap water and chill them for cold drinks.

Jaxjacky

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

It depends where the boiler is situated.
Ours is in the loft, so it heats the water from the bathroom taps one floor directly below it far quicker than from the taps in the handbasin in the downstairs toilet or the sink in the conservatory/laundry room, both of which are outside the original footprint of the house.