Water Meters- Should We All Have One?

Razzamatazz My cat keeps drinking the hedgehog's water (despite having his own, fresh each day). I've told him to stop it

My cat drinks the hedgehog's water too! I've had to put some stones in for insects to escape - poor old bee drowned in it today.

I had one installed as soon as I moved into a rented house. Did not ask the LL. It was a family house so if I had paid the going rate I would have been subsidising families (as single people always do) and getting robbed blind. I have always been careful with water - showers rather than baths and washing a few things in the sink rather than in a machine - which comes from being single and childfree.

Water meters are an excellent idea. People should pay for what they use and not by some arbitrary system.

I am continually careful with water as I live on a narrow boat. For example....shower. Get wet, turn water off and soap, then turn shower back on and rinse. So many people just leave water running...even when cleaning teeth....what a waste of a precious resource. Also I never wash up until sink is full of things that need washing. Simple ways to save water...

Theoddbird

I am continually careful with water as I live on a narrow boat. For example....shower. Get wet, turn water off and soap, then turn shower back on and rinse. So many people just leave water running...even when cleaning teeth....what a waste of a precious resource. Also I never wash up until sink is full of things that need washing. Simple ways to save water...

Hi Theoddbird, narrow boat living always sounds lovely.

How do you get the water you use ?

We are not on mains water and have our own spring. The drink option for visitors. We have never run out yet but we are in a wet part of the country

Thats wrong Tizliz Scottish water spent on average 35% per head of population more on infrasructure and maintenance EVERY year for the past decade than any of the English water companies.
Water isn't a problem here as you know,we have more water in just one loch than the whole of England has in the entire country .Thats why WM has plans to pipe it down south.
Then they'll likely sell it off to the private companies who will want to sell it back to us at extorionate rates ...like they do with our renewable energy ! It costs us a fortune to connect to the so called "national grid" when the rUK gets PAID to add their supplies to that same grid !
You YES yet?

This link provides all the basics as to why it's important to treat water as a precious resource, wherever you live:

energysavingtrust.org.uk/why-we-should-all-be-saving-water/

Yes, I believe water meters are necessary to encourage people to consider their water use. Hot tub owners beware!

Theoddbird
I lived onboard for 20years. We could hold enough water for a week using it normally. But I still can’t waist water. We showered just like you. We did have a bath as well but rarely used.

MerylStreep

Theoddbird
I lived onboard for 20years. We could hold enough water for a week using it normally. But I still can’t waist water. We showered just like you. We did have a bath as well but rarely used.

Hi MerylStreep - I'm not familiar with the arrangements for getting water on boats - where did you get yours from?

I got one about 15 years plus ago when I was living on my own in a 3 bed house after my sons left home after I think was Martin Lewis said I was paying water for house full why I rang and explain I lived alone there came and installed one my bill dropped by £40 a month on my DD. Now in a one bed bungalow so I don’t need one as only me. Water meter are good if you have more bedrooms than ppl

We’ve had one since moving to Norfolk in 2009. Just upgraded to smart meter which gives good feedback of how much we are using, and how it compared with similar properties close to us. It alerted us to a water loss throughout the night caused by a worn ball cock on our tank. We do usually use the washing machine and dishwasher during the night because of Off peak electricity tariff, but the leak showed up on nights when we weren’t using machines. So we’re pleased to pay for what we use.

I live in N.Ireland and it works differently here as we don't have water meters, not yet anyway. We don't have council tax bills, but a household domestic rates bill instead, water is included in that. Non domestic premises get a bill for water and sewage.
If they introduced water bills it might suit me better anyway as I'm in my own and wouldn't use the same amount as the family of 6 two doors up. Different country, different way of doing things.

We've had one since 1989 when they were trialled on the Isle of Wight. When we moved to a different area to a house without one we had one installed as a priority. They make sense to me.

Water isn't a free utility even if no meter is installed. Yes, there is a valid argument that a meter will mean you pay for what you use, but the experience quoted here of a number of you who received much lower bills after having a meter installed, shows that unmetered properties are being charged plenty!

Baggytrazzaz
If your in a marina there will be standpipes all along the pontoons.
If like us who were for most of our time onboard on salt marshes they are dotted around.

Irrespective of whether we pay for our water usage by meter or by a percentage of our houses' rateable value, NOBODY should be making a profit from what is a natural resource and a necessity for life. Nationalisation of the water companies only means profiteering and shareholder payouts, it does not mean, as it did with the privatisation of the energy companies, that we have a choice of supplier. I have to pay Anglian Water for the provision of water and sewage services, I cannot take my custom elsewhere. Yes, we do have a meter, yes it saves us money, yes I am angry that water is privatised.

Our water rates were very high, my parents recommended having a water meter put in and it made a huge difference.. especially when the kids moved out and there were just the two of us.

It surprises me to learn you do not all have water meters in Britain.

I appreciate that you pay water rates, but if that is the only payment you make, then surely those who are careful in their use of water, or who do not water gardens etc. are paying part of everyone else's water usage?

In Denmark, both flats, houses and businesses have water meters that record your use of tap water and a meter that records how much waste water and sewage leaves your premises. We pay for what we use of clean a water, and pay a charge for cleansing and disposing safely of sewage.

Right now the principal discussion here is whether the law could be changed allowing us to use rain water in toilet cisterns and in the pipes leading to outdoor taps meant to be used for watering gardens and other outside jobs, but not for supplying drinking water. This is allowed in the Netherlands, but not here, as yet.

Most local authorities have reconstructed their sewers so that rain water from gutters no longer goes in with the sewage, but into a seperate conduit leading directly to the purifiying plant.

I honestly thought all countries were doing this, but apparently not.

In very dry summers a local water board may impose a ban on the use of hose-pipes for watering gardens or washing cars, cleaning patios etc. Likewise the local fire brigade can impose a ban on using calor-gas burners to burn off weeds, using barbecues or lighting bonfires and camp-fires if the summer is very dry.

We are also forbidden to lead industrial waste, sewage and domestic waste water into ditches, rivers, ponds or other waterways, and farmers and market gardeners have to leave a border zone between the fields they use pesticides on and public waterways. (We don't have any significant private waterways, only small ornamental ponds in private gardens or on large estates). As far as I know, all public or private fountains must be pumping the same water through the fountain, not using water that then runs down a drain.

Water is a finite resource, so it surely makes sense to conserve it using all possible means.

As I live alone I would love one, but many years ago an employee of Thames Water inspected and declared my home unmeterable so I'm stuck.

We have a choice, Grandtante. And several posters have explained why they’ve chosen not to have one.

Having a meter doesn’t automatically equate to better water conservation.

MerylStreep

Baggytrazzaz
If your in a marina there will be standpipes all along the pontoons.
If like us who were for most of our time onboard on salt marshes they are dotted around.

Thanks, for explaining, I had no idea. But where does the water provided by the standpipes come from? And is it metered?

Baggytrazzas I have a stand pipe near my mooring....I use a hose.

When we lived in London we didn't have a meter, just paid quarterly or annually (nearly £1000). There was just the two of us in a 3-bed house with one bathroom with a shower but no bath. I knew of only one person in the street who had a water meter.

We moved away to a larger house (which we extended further) where a water meter was already installed. After just one year on the meter our annual bill was only a third of what it had been in London.

Having a meter hasn't really changed the way we use water, in fact we probably use a little more as we now have a dishwasher, two bathrooms and three toilets. We don't often need to water the garden which is a lot bigger than our previous garden. The planted borders are well established and look after themselves even in the current heatwave. We have some pots on the patio which we water from a butt that collects rainwater. I'm trying to convince DH to divert grey water from the kitchen and bathrooms for use in the garden. He can see the sense of it but doesn't want the hassle of doing it, or pay anyone else to do it.

I have never met anyone yet whose water bills have increased after having a meter installed.

Baggytrazzas no not metered but living an a boat teaches you to be careful with water. The way I shower saves a lot of water especially. I fill my tank once a week.