Affinity water have been bugging me a bit to go over to a smart water meter, My current water bill for a 1 bed flat with just me in it is £316 a year because it is on the old rates system but I remember on a standard water meter on my old 3 bed property, I used to only spend about a tenner a month Has anyone gone over to a smart water meter? how did your bills change if they did? would you say the smart meter is a good or bad thing? How are these things powered/ and how are the signals sent/recieved?
got one in a 3 bed semi with 2 kids and saw a drop in rates, but they have been steadily creeping upward. I am sure that the ploy is to get everybody across initially with favourable rate differences, then drop the bomb of steady, above-inflation rises. bluetooth is what mine transmits to a guy in a van with a hand held reader. as a bigger picture, we have recently in work had a letter advising of the opening up of the water market in a similar fashion to gas/electricity, but only for larger user for now, but will be rolled out to domestic premises in the next few years.
I changed over a few years ago now and my water rates are a third of what they were. If you change over you have a year to evaluate and if you want to return to the old charges you can but the meter has to stay in. Unless things have changed since I did it. Steve From memory I paid well over £600 a year about 7 years ago I now pay about £20 a month
swapped over at work. saving a fortune. got a private water supply at home so no standing charge there. not that we pay per usage privately anyhoo up here
water falls from the sky, there is little cost in obtaining it, why is it so expensive? Grew up with what is now referred to as rain water harvesting, aka water collected off the roof, its not rocket science (rain gravity storage tank) and why isn't this being pursued now even if only used for flushing the toilet, outside taps, washing machines and other such uses I suspect a huge degree of the costs of water supply are Dividend payments to share holders and bonus's for the elite, and not just for the water companies but also to all their entourage of support industries
Water charges vary depending on the property. Cheapest is a terrace house, then slightly higher is a semi detached and finally the most expensive is a detached property. My water rates 7 years ago were based on my house rateable value ( 4 bed detached ), as I said I paid well over £600 back then, I now pay £20 a month of which most of that is standing charges. Steve
in urban and most suburban areas it would seem to be a case of Hobson's Choice, i.e. there is 1 water supplier, and even if you don't take water from them, they will charge for drainage of either your waste water or the water drainage infrastructure in your area. I guess in rural areas you may not have water either piped in or out, and hence no company there to charge you for it.
Can we be clear in the thread whether we are talking about water supply, water sewerage or both? Otherwise people will be misinformed. My supply is (actually) about £72 per year. Sewerage is £240 per year. Total is £312 pa, which seems to be in the same ballpark as others. I was told, years ago, that it was illegal to harvest rainwater except by means of a water butt, connected to your roof. Not sure if that was, or is still, true.
Don't get involved finm, you're worse with water than you are with politics. It rains for more than 370 days a year in Scotchland, what are you worried about? Besides, you guys get your water by raiding the next village, right?
Rainwater harvesting is becoming more popular these days, I recently worked on a new build where all surface water was drained into a two thousand gallon tank buried underground and water was pumped back into the house to be used for all toilets, the washing machine and dishwasher, obviously through filters. The water authority was informed and in favour. Steve
naw loz, my water flows from the summit of fraochaidh, its filtered naturally through the rock,moss and heather before draining into the river Duror that runs directly behind my house. v.nice, v.free.
