Has anyone saved money by having a water meter installed?

Definitely get one. You'll save £200-300 p.a even with loads of use. But also it makes you think about your use of water so I don't waste water by leaving taps running. But I absolutely don't cut down on what I want to use water for but I just take care not to misuse it. I also use a water butt for the garden. You can do something for yourself and for the environment. In the NW this year they have had a huge shortage of water and I love the heat of London so try to preserve water where ever I can knowing that it saves me money.

We don't have a water meter at present, but s there are only 2 of us in a council tax band C property we would almost certainly save money. However, we plan to have children in the next few years, so more people in the house and wanted to use as much as we wanted.

The savings depend on your council tax band, how many people in your house and how much you use.

Don't have a water meter here and it's great. I have two baths a day, leave the taps running and have the sprinkler on for three hours a day (the garden looks lovely).

In all seriousness though it depends how much water you use, if not very much then it could be worth it.

We have a water meter and we do save money especially as there is only 2 off us living in the house. We also have water saving items in the bathroom which i got from http://www.unitedutilities.com/SaveaFlush-orderform.aspx

hi there if there is only you in home then water meter is fine if not then dont have one. also depends if you have a garden or not

my fatherinlaw reports cheaper bills with a meter. however it causes him a little bit of stress when we visit and take long showers in his lovely new shower and bath the girls!

Absolutely. I've had one for 10 years. Before that I was paying a standard charge for about £29 a month. After installing a meter, it dropped to £11 a month and over the years I've received rebates from the water company for still paying too much. If you're living on your own, it's certainly worth considering.

Depends on how many of you live in the house, and how you use your water eg washing machine on daily, dishwasher on daily, baths every day, watering the garden etc. We can have a meter on trial for a year here in our area - if it doesn't save us money we can have it removed.

Yes I definitely did but there is only 2 of us in the house. I know as general rule of thumb they say that if there are less people in the house than there are bedrooms you will make a saving. Also it makes you so much more conscious of how much water you are using when you are paying for every drop you use, which is not a bad thing in my opinion!!

On a well known website they say that if you have more bedrooms than people living in the house then it's pretty much a no brainer - switch to a meter. You can still save with a number of you living together!

yes;... had a water meter installed 12 years ago and have saved a fortune ever since! After the installation of the meter our annual water charges more than halved from £400 to £180. (bearing in mind this was back in 1997/8). At this time our children were away at university, only coming home for hols, so most of the time there was just my husband and myself at home.

Because we were sceptical as to whether or not we would save money by having a meter, our waterboard installed the meter as a test and allowed us to run it along side our normal non metered contract for one year. During the test year we didn't change the way we used water so it would be an accurate comparison - we were pleasantly shocked at the amount of savings.

Even now, to this day, the total ANNUAL water charge for us is only approx £260 FOR A WHOLE YEAR!!...had we still been on the old non metered contract we would probably be paying about £700 per annum now.

If you have a small family, then a water meter will definitely save you money but it's worth having all your pipework checked before you go ahead. A small leak will add up to a big bill. I had a water meter for years until last year when I moved to a house without one. I don't use any more water than I used to, but as I pay on a fixed scale my water bills are approximately double what they were. I sometimes feel the urge to leave the tap on to get my money's worth! (I don't though, it's just an urge).

definately I pat £17.50 per month my neighbour is paying £40.

yes my billgs went down a lot i think its because you are much more carefull with the water and that can only be a good thin

We have a water meter and were really happy with how much we spend,it was £150 for 6 months. There's three of us two adults and a baby. So the washing machine is constantly on the go,and we take baths every day. We also don't waste water,the taps are off when were brushing our teeth and there's a hippo bag in the cistern. Every little helps.

Have had a water meter for years with several houses (from three bedroom to four bedroom semi detached to detached) and save money all the time. I paid for the first one to be installed (I think they are now free) and was told it would take two years to recover the cost, it took about 9 months. I don't cut down on usage - although to be honest I am not one for washing the car and for me I think that even without a hose pipe ban I should not be watering the garden - but I use the washing machine and the dish washer three times a week or more, shower when ever I want to and take a bath occasionally.

I currently pay about £200 a year for my water.

I can never understand why they don't just install them in all properties, no-one else pays for my gas and electricity and I don't pay for theirs. Why should I pay for other people's water consumption?

You can request a water meter installation for free from your water supplier and I believe you have the right to request to return to unmetered supply within 12 months if you want to (maybe if you don't like the look of the bills!). Some properties cannot have a meter fitted (shared supply pipes to a block of flats etc) and in these cases your water supplier should offer you an 'assessed charge' where they look more closely at the number of bedrooms and the number of residents in your property as opposed to simply basing it on your council tax band. I had this done in a flat 4 years ago and my water bill dropped to £100 per year.