Wasting water

Here's a concept - stop me if you've heard it before - how about you only pay for what you use? Those clever folks at the electricity and gas companies have been at it for years: install a meter and then charge your customers for what they actually use. Clever idea really. Much like the woman (or man) at the supermarket checkout that totals up your bill when you're paying.

Well, in recent years, those tardy folk at the water companies have decided to get in on this act. Water meters (!) - what a great idea. You can almost see the eureka moment when someone thought that they would charge for what people were using... So now, you can move from an estimated bill (the water 'rates' system) to an actual 'pay for what you use' bill. As you're going from a fixed rate to a variable rate, then (assuming your water use doesn't change) your water charges could go up or down. It would all depend on how much water you used compared to the rated estimate. Ofwat (the regulator) have a water usage calculator that allows you to compare your usage on a meter with their rated prices (but frankly I found the uswitch version to be more user friendly - and worked more reliably)


Anyway, we thought it would be a good idea to get a water meter. My reasoning is this: even if it means we pay more for our water, at least we're paying for what we're using. As such, it means we'll understand how much we use and waste - and help us reduce our water usage. Seems to make sense to me.

Apparently Ofwat and the Environment Agency agree. Apparently studies show that houses with meters use between 5 and 15% less water than those without meters. This seems to make sense - as soon as you realise you're paying for what you use, you'll probably use less. However, trawling through Ofwat reports and the internet, I haven't been able to confirm this - though the Environment Agency refer to this report by the UK Water Industry Research. Unfortunately, at £70, I wasn't buying a copy. Anyway, seems like a good idea to me - though so far, not that many people have jumped on the boat. Ofwat said that only 25% of Thames Water customers would be metered in 2007-8.

Anyway, so we had a meter installed (piccy above). This nice chap came along and told us how much money he makes installing meters. Only has to do a few a day (think it was 4) to meet his minimum target, then gets paid loads for any extra ones. He took all of about 15 minutes to do it, then was gone - though only after making my builders envious of his easy job and good money. Then a few hours later, we had a look at the meter, and yes, there was water dripping from it. Mr Overpaid not-a-real-Plumber managed to install a leaky meter. Well, actually, it's not the meter's fault - it's the way it was all installed. Builders were suitably annoyed that he's overpaid and can't do the job properly. Luckily, my builder is a plumber, and is going to fix the joints so it doesn't leak.