With retirement on the horizon I've been looking at ways of economising on our outgoings.  I recently succeeded in having our Council Tax reduced and I'm now looking at our water bills.  I had a chat with Welsh Water and, after answering a few questions, it seem that having a water meter installed would cut our bill by approx £200 per year :)  There's no charge for installing the meter and you can change back to the unmeasured system at any time during the first 12 months.
Obviously a meter would not work in everyone's favour but I think it's worth considering for small households - people who live alone or couples.

I'm from California and was shocked to find homes didn't have meters here. As I'm a water saver I wish we had one. Of course I'd have to get the British OH to start turning the tap off when he brushes his teeth (8 years and I still can't get used to that extravagance). I know everyone in the south is suffering from drought but it's hard to tell where my pond stops and the lawn starts here in the soggy North East. I've got some extra you can have :-D

I've heard this before that for small households water meters can save a lot of money.  I still have a teen in the house and another one likely to return so probably not the right time for us yet - 2 minute showers?  That's 2 minutes times 10 for teens isn't it?

I have had a water metre for 3 years now and pay under £12 a month,when I first got it I would have been paying over £35 per month. I live alone,have bag of grit[supplied by the water board]in my loo cistern and invested in 3 water butts to water the garden with.I continued to use the water as normal for the first year to see what it was like and how much it cost and the cost only went up a few pence. I use 15 cubic metres per 6months,the metre is read twice a year and the bill comes with any alterations to the payments.

For a small household I would highly recommend it.

Excellent, Rhodap - just what I was hoping to hear ! :)

This might be useful.  It compares what you're paying now with a meter so that you can decide if it's beneficial for you. http://www.uswitch.com/.  As a single person with a small home, I'm better to stay as I am aa my water rates are very reasonable.  Wish I could have a meter for my council tax though!

I'm surprised that you wouldn't benefit from a meter, Val, if you are a single person household.  I used the uswitch site to do a comparison and the result was almost a 50% saving and there's two of us in our house. 
I know what you mean about the Council Tax though

It told me to stay put!  My water and sewerage is only £220 pa - £4 per week!

We have a water meter (by choice) :) There are two adults and daughter who lives here when home from uni - say four/five months a year - plus son and girlfriend who visit. We were paying £16 per month - but it's been reduced to £10 per month as we were too much in credit :) Definitely worth it for us as we were paying over £400 a year (can't remember now) a few years ago when we switched.

Daisy

We have one too and think it's great. It does make you think twice about wasting water and it works out cheaper than it did when we paid water rates.

Val

I have just been on the uswitch website and by switching to a water meter it says we would actually be £178 per year worse off.  I am quite surprised by this as there are only 2 people in the household.

It told me to stay put too, maybe because I use a dishwasher, water pots, bath dogs, frequently have visitors etc.

Jazzywoo - it might be worth contacting your water supplier to check.  They don't ask for as many details as the uswitch site - ( I found it a bit difficult to calculate the number of times the loo is flushed every week and how many times the tap is left running for washing hands and cleaning teeth).
We currently pay £500 for water and sewerage and I was told that the estimated useage on a meter would be £300.

I was just curious more than anything, its not worth switching now as we are moving soon.  I guessed on the flushing the loo,water running for teeth and hands.  I like to think that as a household we are not wasteful with water though.  Maybe mine came out higher though because we have a dishwasher and i do at least 2 loads of washing per day.

I'm not convinced dishwashers do use much more water than hand washing. We used to waste a bowl of water just waiting for the hot water to come through. The dishwasher water is recycled during the wash. There are only two of us so we only use it every other day, handwashing we used to do a few times a day - either that or leave dirty dishes out all day. Also, the dishwasher (most I'm sure) are cold filled and heat the water rather than taking all the hot water from the tank which then needs to be heated up again.

Just found this about dishwashers - worth a read

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1605710,00.html

We're fairly economical with the dishwasher - we only run it once a day in the evening and I never rinse anything before putting it in the machine - I don't do the stopping the drying cycle, as I tend to run the machine when I go to bed ..... :D

Daisy

wow

it says I will make a saving of £194 if I switch to a metre