Water meters

i contacted my supplier, in my case wessex water, when my monthly bill would have been almost £100 not being on a water meter.
i was told that with a water meter i would save substantially and went ahead with having a water meter fitted.
my monthly bill was £26!
that was several years ago when there was just me. now i've got my daughter and 2 grandaughters living with me so the monthly payment has gone up but not as much as non-meter people.
go for it op - contact your supplier. they will be very helpful. i did it all online by emailing their customer servicesvia their website so i had everything in writing and didn't have to rely on scribbled notes from a phone call.
it's one decision i've never regretted.

Your bill sounds rather high for two people - it will be based on your Council Tax band and the water area you live in. I live in SW Water area which is the most expensive in the country, and we chose to have a meter, as out tax band is also quite high. When we were a couple the metered bill was about £40 a month - we have no dishwasher but a garden pond that needs topping up in summer, and a large garden where we use quite a lot for watering veg beds, sluicing down the patio, etc. Now I'm on my own it's about £30 a month and I think I'll be due a rebate.

Most water boards have some kind of reckoner to help you calculate your usage and work out whether a meter would be cheaper.

Hi, there are two of us, husband has a job where I have to be washing work clothes constantly, we bathe or shower every day and don't skimp on water. We are metered and I poay anything between £79 and £100 a QUARTER , so your bill now sounds excessive BAMM2015. In this case a meter may be better for you, depending on where you live and what your particular company charges in your area.

I was in 'pleasant shock' after moving to a property with a water meter from a property that had been 'billed'
If there is only one person in a property or just two of you I would with out hesitation go for a meter.
I do not believe if a person really wants to buy your property that already has a meter this would make it, as one comments suggests, harder to sell.

If there are just a couple of you, get a meter!!! It will save you loads.
We have DS1 spending June and July with us, and believe me, he doesn't pay the billsrealise how much water he uses under his endless showers! But even then, we still pay much less than "water rates".

BAMM2015, thank you so much for this. Certainly not a boring topic and one very close to my heart as I started investigating this only last week. I believe my usage assessment hugely exceeds my actual consumption. The first thing I have to do is pay out £105 for someone to call and see if my request is 'viable'. Still pondering whether or not it will be financially worthwhile to do that.

A big saving for us once we had the meter. Also the water company came and gave us a device for putting on the tap which also saves water. There were other things available too, for the cistern and shower but we declined those.

I am sure water meters be compulsory before too long.

Meter wins with me it has saved me lots of money only changed in January when I was reviewing yearly bills but definitely no brainer for me.

When I was living alone in a 4-bed house, I had a meter installed and it was well worth while. When the DSs returned from working abroad, the charges shot up. Luckily they departed to start their own lives and careers. When I doownsized to a two-up, two-down end terrace, I did an on-line questionnaire on the water company's web site and they decided that it wouldn't be worth my while, so I didn't pursue the matter.

I decided to have a water meter many years ago when I was widowed, back in the early 90s. I remarried in 2002 but even with two of us, the amount of water we use is far less than - say - a family with children using baths, washing machine daily etc. We got rid of the bath years ago and have a daily shower, washing machine 2-3 times a week. I agree with valeriej43. It is really all down to water usage. Someone living alone is going to use a lot less than a family of 4.

I live on my own....and have saved ££££££'s by having a water meter installed.

I have a water meter and pay £15 a month,i use a lot of water, as wash about twice a week, have a dishwasher,i uses every other day, and 3 cats and a dog who need water bowls filling twice a day, also laminate floors which i mop every day, and 3 bedrooms,live alone
I have continually tried to get my sister to have one as she lives alone in a 1 bed bungalow, but she flatly refuses saying her neighbours have one and their bills are high, she cant see that they have higher bills, because there are 4 of them
You wont regret it, get one

Maybe ask your supplier if you can have it on a trial basis. That's what they offered me and I was so delighted at the savings that I changed for good. I thought we were high users as there was me and four teenagers using washing machine daily plus baths/showers.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Meter wins in our house. We don’t be stingy with water use but with a meter it’s a fraction of the cost- was just shy of £600 per year, now paying less than £20 per month! It’s a scary thought at first, but we wouldn’t want to go back now.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.