Water meters

I live on my own in a 3 bedroom house and I have deliberately not asked to have a water meter installed. I do try to save water myself but any problem here is usually water related necessitating in the tank being drained.

My friends and neighbours two doors down, two in the house, have never regretted their decision. They do not do the amount of clothes washing that I do and they do not own a dishwasher. They have baths, I have showers, it is swings and roundabouts.

Well our bill went from £35 to £17 a month after the meter was installed. ( two of us) Our water company had a wonderful online questionnaire into which you put information about your water usage - number of baths, showers, uses of washing machine, dishwasher, cups of tea etc etc. When I filled it in it came back with the monthly estimate of £17 - I have just finished my first year and I am in debt to the tune of £1.15. Very impressed. Go for it

Definitely go for a meter. Our water bill was £68 per month without a water meter, with a meter it went down to £25. We shower daily, don't stint on the dishwasher / washing machine, have a garden and a pond which we water and top up when needed.

I second all those who say go for a water meter. We've had ours now for about eighteen months. There's just the two of us, we use a dishwasher and I put the washing machine on once or twice a week, depending on what I have to do. We now pay roughly a third of what we were paying before. Have a meter installed, ours is just outside my kitchen window, it's easy to access and read.

When we came here there was already a water meter. We now pay monthly less than half of what we paid in our last house, and are usually in credit. We also have a dishwasher and use the washing machine around two or three times a week. We no longer have a bath to fill, only showers. There are only two of us, but my neighbour had, at one time, both his adult daughters living at home. When they moved out, his water bill dropped like a stone with metering.

I had the same experience my water bills were more than halved when I moved to a house with a water meter. Our bill is £25 a month 2 of us, 2 bathrooms, 3 loos- we mostly shower although I have baths in winter and we have 2 water butts for the garden.

I am on a water meter now and the half yearly bills are around £100 to £110. Currently our local costs are around £2.00 per day (yes that's right £730.00 per year). No wonder the shareholders of the utility companies are rubbing their hands in glee. I wonder how many of them are not on meters.

For most people it is a no brainer, especially with one or two in the house.
I do a lot of washing and watering but the payment is roughly £27 a month.

We more than halved our water bill by going on a meter but I would not have done it when kids were at home with all the !ing showers and dai!y double washloads.
We use washer Daily.shower Daily. Use Jetwash For Cars Weekly And Hose For Garden In Summer.
No Dishwasher.

Definitely go for a meter, especially if there are only the two of you,
Mine is only £6 pm but we have a cesspit: to include sewage, it would be double that - still only £12 a month.
I use the dishwasher approximately every other day but, I understand that uses less water than continually washing up by hand.
I shower rather than bathe as the bath was taken out to put in a shower for my husband who was disabled with Parkinson's.

I flat already had a meter when we moved in. There are just the two of us but when I spoke to some of our neighbours they are paying about £150 a year more than us and they are on their own. Definately get a meter.

The same for me. I don't particularly watch my water consumption: certainly not enough to make life inconvenient.
I can honestly say that my water bill is one which almost makes me smile now.

The 'rule of thumb' is that if you have less people than bedrooms you will save money by having a meter. No idea if that is true but in our town all houses have meters and I am delighted that our latest bill came in at just under £17 a month because we were in credit from last year.

We don't use a sprinkler in the garden very often and we use a dishwasher which apparently uses less water than hand washing up. We shower.

I had a water meter installed last year as they are changing everyone in the area. I was told it would be much cheaper for me but they don't change over to metered bills for two years so I'm still paying over £50 per month for just me.

There are four of us here, five when DGS is home from uni. We've had a meter for years and pay £28 per month.

There are two of us, we have a meter and pay £33 / month.

BUT --- We have two automatic watering systems that feed the greenhouse and about 50 tubs, I also use a sprinkler on the veg garden. These watering systems run for about 8 months of the year. So without those I suspect our bill would be sub £20.

We have NO water at the moment

Serious burst/leak about five miles away which means a large area has had no water for over 24 hrs. We were told it would be on at 2am then 10am then mid-day and it's still off.

You just don't realise how much you rely on it until you don't have any. Bottled water has now run out but I'm reluctant to go out again because the village shop has run out so I'd have to drive to Tesco. Not very amusing when I'm having a Tesco delivery this evening which was to save me having to go out! I have a houseful over Easter and again next weekend so I was going to spend the whole of today cleaning.

At least the hovering's been done!

Sod's law says the water will come on while I'm out.

Thank goodness for water butts. At least the dogs can have a drink and we can use it to flush the loo.

grrrr, water charges really raise my blood pressure as South West Water are the highest in the country and wages here are low. Rant over.
You’ll probably find it much cheaper to be on a meter. When we converted to metered water, we had the option to go back to unmetered within the first twelve months. Assuming the rules are the same, you can try out unmetered without risk

In our experience the bill was less than half when we had the meter installed. We are cautious, save water and never use a garden hose. In my opinion, go for it.

They say if you have more bedrooms than people living there then you will save by having a water meter installed. I live alone and pay £20 per month.
I think you may be able to have it taken out again if you find its working out more expensive.

We avoided the meter when the girls lived at home, but a couple of years after they had all left we changed to a meter - so just two of us in the house on a regular basis at that point. Our water bill halved! We pay £28 per month.

Your water bill is assessed on your Council Tax, the higher your band, the higher the bill. We live in a small house, band c and we have worked it out that we would not save much by having a meter. My daughter however lives on her own and it works out cheaper. Just a thought if you have a meter is it harder to sell your house?

We considered changing and I did the online survey to ascertain whether it was worth it. I found that it would have been more expensive to have a meter and neighbours have had their meters removed. I think it depends on where you live.

We've had one since they were first trialled on the Isle of Wight many moons ago. When we moved one of the first things I organised was having a water meter fitted. As far as we're concerned it's a no brainer.