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

Franbern I know of someone who works in a care home, she’s, rightly or wrongly, taking her washing in to do at work.

Slightly off topic, but smelly kids was mentioned.......
Sadly, smelly chldren are in school now, mainly due to their families not having hot water much of the time (if at all), and launderettes even if you can find one) are far too expensive.

The secondary school where one of my daughter's
works have purchased a washing machine. So the children can be taken into school showers and their clothes washed,etc.

Most of these youngsters come from homes where the adults are in employment!!! Minimum Wage and zero hours.
What a dreadful condemnation of 2022 GB (sicth richest country int he world)

If you are a small family a water meter will probably save you money. If a large family (or need more water for disability reasons) it may mean you pay more. That's the financial choice. Everything else is morality which some folk can't afford. I hope Sunak is on a meter for his new pool!

Mumofthree

I asked 5 years ago for a meter, I live in a one bedroom bungalow on my own but was told I can't have one as our row of bungalows all share the same pipework whatever that means. I'd rather just pay for what I use.

I think if your water company is not able to install a meter for you because of shared pipe work or similar, then they can do an estimate of what you would be likely to use if you could have a meter.

I told a friend about this, she contacted the water company, they came out, agreed she couldn’t have a meter, re-estimated her likely usage.

She is now paying about £200 a year less, approximately £20 monthly.

Do check this out, what have you got to lose?

Our block of 25 flats has a water meter. Paid for from our Maintenance Charge. Individual flats do not pay for water (although, they do via that M.Charge). I have put out an appeal in our latest Newsletter asking people to take care with using water.

I do think having a water meter makes me more careful not to waste any, and I think having them installed in all dwellings would help. I have a lovely couple a few doors up from me, but he frequently washes his car, and just leaves the hose running the entire time, rather than turning off the tap when he is not actually using it.

But there would need to be allowance made for households with a disabled person who need to use a much higher quantity of water to live comfortably; possibly for other households too.

I asked 5 years ago for a meter, I live in a one bedroom bungalow on my own but was told I can't have one as our row of bungalows all share the same pipework whatever that means. I'd rather just pay for what I use.

catchment areas to our reservoirs are drying up and if we have a dry winter then we will be well and truly in the doo da next year. Aquifers too. Just because water is still coming out of the tap does not mean that there is not a major underlying problem. Notwithstanding the huge population increase over the past years. Water in reservoirs is not just water but contains all sorts of salts, minerals and nasties too. and now becoming concentrated. Every drop coming from our taps needs to be pre-treated

Calendargirl
I mentioned that I didn’t smell even though we only had a very shallow bath every 4 days and we lived in a hot country.
I suppose we weren’t bundled up in layers of clothes though.

Just occasionally, though, the reason is that the leaks aren’t reported. I was tutting away with some friends I met on a walk about the water that had been gushing out all day from under a pavement across from their house. I asked when they’d reported it and they hadn’t, but assumed someone else had. I rang when I got home and guess what….?

I doubt this is the major cause of leaks not being fixed though.

We’ve had a water meter for a few years now, we pay less than we paid before and it certainly makes me think twice about wasting water.
I only wish that our water provider - Thames Water, were doing their bit to save it as well, the leakage is outrageous.
I wonder if they are paying their shareholders a dividend from their profits rather than fix the leaks?

I have been keeping a bowl in the kitchen sink to keep water that would usually drain away..eg after just quickly running a cup under the tap or my hands and just pouring that water into a large container to water plants (easier than carrying the bowl). It amazes me just how much water we normally just let run down the drain.

As Maggie says, it was very Common in those days wherever you lived, We were in London.

Hard times silverlining48. My MIL told me when my husband and his brother had measles at the same time in 1957, she had one in the front room, one in the back kitchen, separated by the clothes horse. Open fire in both rooms.

Same as many of us surely. Having a cold tap and a tin bath was hardly unusual in the 60s. My dad was a miner and had to get clean in that tin bath with a kettle or two full of water after every shift. No pithead showers then.

But we’re in the 21st century now. Back then, the poorest and biggest families couldn’t even afford to heat that kettleful. At least they didn’t have to worry about the cost of the cold water.

Snap Razz

Should be a full stop between scullery snd toilet in first paragraph.

My late husband didn't have a bathroom as a child, he lived in Manchester in a two up two down terraced house with an outside toilet.

They washed in the kitchen sink, tin bath once a week, sometimes went to the public baths. I think my MIL had the second bedroom converted into a bathroom in the late 70's.

As a Child i lived in an old Victorian two up two down house with just one cold tap in a scullery Toilet in the garden.
Once a week water was boiled in a kettle and the tin bath removed from the outside wall for a bath.
Otherwise washed at the scullery sink every day.
Hope I wasn’t smelly

Several mention smelly kids back when we were children. Yes, there were always some children who smelled, but I don’t think that can be attributed to water meters in the 50’s and 60’s surely?

More likely they didn’t have a bathroom, they were from a big family, and were quite poor.

Razzamatazz , is hedgehog watering a legally approved water activity in your area? Lol.

Our hedgehog dish was also dry but I think it's because 3 blackbirds and a Robin bathed in what was left after the fox drank most of it.

Happycatholicwife1- yes, I agree that many will prefer that. People just want to get on with their lives with minimal fuss.

I agree with your posts Doodledog. The thing about water meters that worries me is that poorer families will cut back on hygiene. You mention smelly kids at school and I remember this well. Actually the smelly kids weren’t at my school but at the Sunday School I attended. I disliked being near one of the smelly ones. I don’t want that to return.

Maybe there are just people who like the least government intrusion.