Forum Topic

Water meters by stealth are here

see thread on Brentford TW8 sight "these here water works" and the whole of South Ealing now has water meters - bet you didn't know - bet they didn't tell you

Jo Smith ● 6877d14 Comments

Well I've had a Water Meter for years Jo, and it has saved me a packet. But then there are only two of us now, I guess if you live in a Household or 4 or more one looks at all this in a different way.

Colin Vaughan ● 6877d

We, three of us, have had a water meter for 18 months. Our water bill has halved.

Alan Brainsby ● 6877d

Question is though, when everyone is metered will costs rise to, in real terms, what they were before. Cynical old me thinks that will be highly likely!!

Colin Vaughan ● 6877d

yes it might cost less if you are the only one on your meter, but in our road there are up to two or three houses linked together, so how is that going to work?

Jo Smith ● 6877d

Well I have never heard of a 'shared meter' system Jo. That sounds like the old Telephone 'Party Line' system that went out years ago. it must be one customer one meter, unless you are in rented accomodation of course in which case the Landlord pays, and passes part of the cost on to you, hopefully without ripping you off, but who knows?

Colin Vaughan ● 6877d

Colin - there is no way I can let you get away with this.  Our houses were built during the 1860's.  So come on here not the practises of today, we have air bricks where there is no air brick it was not invented, they just left out a brick.  So why would it not be normal as it is in our street for three two or four of us be joined together, the Victorians also cut corners as Thames Water is doing today, so who pays????????????????

Jo Smith ● 6877d

The water meter could be placed close to the house's stopcock.It would have the advantage of being visible to you so you could monitor consumption as you might read the gas and electricity meters. The downside is that the meter reader would have to enter the house.

Alan Brainsby ● 6877d

PS meters are free to install at the moment, just request one from Thames Water. They come and fit it.Ours is below the pavement outside our house. It should have been an easy job to swap out the previous coupling for the meter. Some s** had poured concrete down the hole. The excavation done to access the coupling looked as if a Grand Slam bomb had hit the place!

Alan Brainsby ● 6877d

Living in the Tree Estate, where our flat is a maisonette, I do indeed share a water meter with the flat above me.  I guess the total bill for the water is simply halvedWe found this out last year when we had a leak and the water was turned off after the meter, which impacted both properties

James Lockwood ● 6876d

Is it possible that Thames Water could(will) force us to have a meter installed for our supply ?

Gerry Tan ● 6875d

That is possible Gerry, but at least for the moment you would benefit with only two of you (presumably)living in your premises.Your water bill should halve,or there abouts.Mine has, but then I am not with Thames Water. Judging by the correspondence on this site and elsewhere they seem to be a law unto themselves.In the long run, as I have said before, once everyone is metered, that incentive may well majically disappear!

Colin Vaughan ● 6875d

Thanks Colin - I think you're right, now that we've got rid of all our kids(a long time ago now), I'll have to think about metering. Guess I'll have to also get some extra large water butts beneath my two sheds, for the lawn next summer! thanks. ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 6875d

We have two waterbutts Gerry, no1 feeding no2, and it certainly saves a bit in that aspect of things. Incidentally we have a water feature, that in the past we have filled with tap water. The water gets a green scum on it very quickly. However, when we just allow it to fill up with rainwater, no scum appears. Anybody got any ideas as to why this should be?

Colin Vaughan ● 6875d

Over to the biologists on site, Colin.

Gerry Tan ● 6875d