Was just wanting an idea of wether we would be better off with a water meter. We live in a 3 bedroom detached house, there is 2 adults and 2 children and my water bill is £51.00 a month over 10 months, this seems a bit steep to me, was was just wondering what other people are paying with a similar sized house, on a meter or not.

I live in a 3 bed semi with my wife and 3 kids. Our washing machine does 2 washes per day, shower is used once a day and bath every other day. We also have a dishwasher used once a day. Our bill has just been reduced to £28 per month from £35. We're on a meter.

Our water rates used to be £56 per month so we changed to a meter... we now pay £24! There are only 2 of us in a 3 bed semi though. There is a calculator on the Yorkshire Water website which will give you an estimate on your monthly payments based on a few questions, see below link:

http://www.yorkshirewater.com/your-water-services/water-meters/water-meter-calculator.aspx

i would say that unless you have a massive family then the best bet is to go on a meter.

might be worth mentioning that if you do have a big house/large family (like us) they do a high user tariff for water meters.

we find it loads cheaper.

my washing machine/dishwasher/shower/bath never stop, granny annex uses the same meter....still only aprox 28-30 per month :)

You pick a water metre up for about £50 have it fitted and then work it out yourself, because if you get one with the water board its permant.

Thank you everybody, looks like a meter is definately something to think about.

Im sure the local water board will fit them and give a 12 months grace of if you want to keep it? Worth enquring then if your not happy have it removed. If it had been installed by a previous tennant, theres no going back!

The "rule of thumb" tends to be, if you have more bedrooms than people living there, then theoretically, you'd probably be better off on a meter.

I'm on a meter, and I don't find the charges are too bad.

Im sure the local water board will fit them and give a 12 months grace of if you want to keep it? Worth enquring then if your not happy have it removed. If it had been installed by a previous tennant, theres no going back!

The meter is not removed after the 12- month-grace period.

The meter stays where it is, but the Water Board simply charge you Water -rates as per the method used before installation of the meter.

I still object to the darn things - the water system was installed for public health

A housing estate in Bradford had to abolish the scheme after the re-emergence of dysentery - something we thought we'd seen the back of in Victorian times!

we have a water meter and I hate it, we bought a property with one already installed and by law you cannot get them removed and my bills have doubled

Hiya,

I work in the water industry ( for thames water but policy is the same for all providers).

What you need to consider when thinking about a meter is how do you use the water at the moment and how are you likley to use it in future. I have a 4 bed detached that is full to bursting with kids that keep leaving home and comeing back and love my meter.
If your kids are small they may prefer to have a bath. cost 25p. if they are older they may prefer a shower. cost 5p. power shower 20p.What is the rateing on your washer. cost varies 15p to 30p per load. Do you have a dishwasher? turn on once rather than 3 10 litre bowls for the pots. Boyfreinds/Girlfriends staying over.... extra water..... paddling pools... about £1.50 to fill.....

The policy is you can request a meter.... if it costs you more you can revert back, however if you move the next occupier will have no choice but to pay on the meter. Also if you have a leak you are resposible for the water that is lost..although most water providers will reach a compromise.

Hope this has made things a little easier for you to reach an informed decision.

I'm thinking about this too as I could be saving as much as £5 per week...

Is there an installation fee ?
Do they charge more if they find problems such as Lead pipes or anything like that ?

I tried to get one fitted for my 93yr old aunt she lives in a 2 bed semi when they came they said it could not be fitted to lead pipes,they came back to connect to the outside but found they could not do that either because the other semi and hers are joint water supply ,so not every house is suitable for a meter.

I just want to make a small point about water meters.

I know that the OP is asking if they personally would benefit, and it's fair enough to want to do what's best for yourself. I'm not having a go at you or anyone, but I think peaople are being hugely naive about water meters if they think they will ultimately save money.

Water is free, almost. The chap who works in the industry may wish to correct me but I think it costs Yorkshire Water about the same to fill up a glass or a swimming pool. What does cost money is treatment, storage, pipe maintenance, personnel etc. These are largely fixed costs.

Let's say Yorkshire Water needs £80m a year to run, and they want to make a profit of £20m. Under the rates system that £100m gets divided between the rate payers. Now imagine everyone has a meter and YW charges you a penny a litre, they need to 'sell' 100 000 000 00 litres. If the good people of Yorkshire start saving their water and making sacrifices to save money so much that they only buy half that amount - the price will double

To answer your question, purely in terms of how much it costs you now, of course you should get a meter. The price of metered water is being kept artificially low and being subsidised by ratepayers, it will continue to be this way up until the point that it needs to change. Just be aware that at that point you will start to pay more per litre and, the truly sick part, the more everyone saves, the higher the price will go.

What I´m saying is that the water company has certain fixed costs (staff, infrastructure, vehicles, building maintenance etc) these do not change if we use less water and they need to be covered, along with a legally allowed profit.

As you say ratepayers pay more right now so if they switch to meters they will pay (and the water company will receive) less money. If we all have meters and use less water then the price will go up, it will keep going up until the above is covered. As use decreases so unit cost will have to rise, currently Yorkshire water sells water at 0.2pence per litre, can I imagine a world in 10 years where they sell it at 15 pence a litre, a rise of just 7500% , yes absolutely - they´d tell you it was a bargain.