Latest news with #watermeters
Times
18-07-2025
- Business
- Times
‘Getting a water meter cut my bill in half'
Soaring water bills led more than 100,000 homeowners to request water meters in the first four months of the year. Some suppliers said they had two or three times as many applications as they had in the first few months of 2024. Water bills are based on an archaic system that hasn't been updated since 1990 and many customers find that switching to a meter can cut their costs in half. United Utilities, which has 8 million customers across the North West of England, said there had been 44,640 applications for water meters between January and April, up from 23,176 last year. Wessex Water, which has 2.9 million customers across the South West, said it has had 8,000 applications since sending out annual bills in February — double the number it had between February and July last year. The Consumer Council for Water, a watchdog, said that three other big suppliers had almost 75,000 meter applications between them from January to April, up from about 42,000 last year. The council has a calculator on its website that allows you to work out if a water meter will save you money — 312,630 used it between February and June, up from 111,763 over the same months last year. Tim Clarke from the Consumer Council for Water said: 'Suppliers appear to have had unprecedented interest in water meters as customers look for ways to combat the largest increase in bills since privatisation.' Average annual water and sewage bills went up 26 per cent in April to £603 — the biggest rise since 1989, according to Water UK, a trade association. And bills are set to keep on rising for the next five years after the heavily indebted water companies struck a deal with the water regulator, Ofwat, to fund infrastructure improvements. There is unlikely to be any respite even after that. Water companies are under huge pressure from politicians and campaign groups to cut down on sewage leaks that have led to pollution of rivers and seas. The Environment Agency said there were a record 2,801 pollution incidents caused by water companies in England last year, including 75 which posed 'serious or persistent' harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health. This was a 60 per cent rise on the 2,174 in 2023. With a water meter, you pay for the water you use, and some fixed charges for sewage and infrastructure. If you don't have a water meter, your bills are usually, and rather bizarrely, based on your home's rateable value — an estimation made some time between 1967 and 1990 of how much it could be rented out for. Once you have a meter, your bills are based on your previous year's usage. If you think you have been overcharged, you can challenge your direct debit payments. As with energy bills, you should not need to always be in credit because your usage can vary throughout the year. • Water companies 'to impose surge pricing' in summer Households with a meter use about 29 per cent less water than those without one on average, according to Discover Water, an information site run by industry bodies such as Water UK and Ofwat. This is probably because those who choose a meter use less water in the first place and are then more conscious of their usage. The general rule of thumb is that you will save money having a water meter installed if there are more bedrooms in your home than people. The Consumer Council for Water said that those whose bills were lower after getting a meter saved an average of £150 a year. If your home is suitable, it costs nothing to get a water meter and your supplier has to fit it within 90 days. You usually have the right to switch back to unmetered bills within two years, but this varies between suppliers. Victoria Larkou hadn't given much thought to getting a water meter until her supplier, Affinity Water, suggested it, but 18 months after switching her bills have halved. Larkou, 50, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, had a meter put in to her four-bedroom house where she lives with her husband Athos, 47, and daughter Tillie, 21 in 2023. 'We probably wouldn't have done it of our own volition,' said Larkou, a saleswoman for an anaesthetic company. 'Maybe it's through being too lazy, but it's the sort of thing you put off because you think it will be a pain.' Before the meter was installed they paid £58 a month, £696 a year — £248 more than the average bill in 2023-24. In 2024-25, their first full billing year with a meter, they paid £29 a month — saving £348 a year. They used 278 litres a day, 6.4 per cent below the 297-litre average for similar households, according to Affinity. 'I'm not going to be going on holiday with the savings, but it's the sort of thing that you think was definitely worth doing,' Larkou said. The share of households with a water meter in England and Wales went from 58.4 per cent in the 2020-21 financial year to 62.7 per cent in 2023-24, according to the Consumer Council for Water. Most of those households without a meter are likely to be on the rateable value system. If you cannot have a meter fitted, because you live in a block of flats with a shared water supply, for example, you can ask to be moved off the rateable value system to an assessed volume charge. This is where your fixed bill is based on how many people live in your household and how big it is. In the past, water companies have pushed their customers to have meters installed because they say they can help to detect leaks and encourage lower usage. If you are a high water user, you probably shouldn't get a meter. Tom MacInnes from the charity Citizens Advice said: 'Switching to a water meter can be a great way for people to only pay for what they use, but it isn't always a practical or cheaper option. While water meters can help some to save money, they are not a silver bullet and we know many people will find it hard to afford their bills regardless.'
CBC
11-06-2025
- CBC
New water meters coming to Winnipeg next year will read themselves, send data to the city
Social Sharing New water meters slated to installed in Winnipeg residential homes next year will read themselves and transmit encrypted water-usage data to the city, city council's finance committee was told Tuesday. Winnipeg's water and waste department plans to embark on a five-year, $135-million water meter upgrade in 2026 that will see approximately 221,000 analog residential water meters replaced with new "smart" meters capable of monitoring water usage in real time. Most of Winnipeg's existing analog meters are old — in some cases, 50 years old — and underestimate actual water usage by approximately five per cent, said Duy Doan, a water and waste project manager. Replacing the old meters will generate more revenue for the city, allow homeowners to be alerted to leaks or faulty readings more quickly, and create more fairness in residential billing, Doan said. Newer homes that already have digital meters do not underestimate water usage, he noted. "As meters age they degrade and they start underreporting. So right now we have kind of an equity thing: Anybody who gets a new meter is kind of subsidizing a person who gets an old meter," he said. "It is good practice to try to replace these meters every 20 years." The City of Winnipeg has not met this target. The replacement program aims to modernize residential water meters across the city by 2030. Water and waste director Tim Shanks said the replacement program will pay for itself in approximately 11 years, mainly because of the additional revenue the city will receive from more accurate readings. His department also won't have to conduct manual readings once the new meters are installed. Neither will homeowners or residents. The new meters will use radio waves to transmit data to the city. How often they will transmit the data has yet to be determined, Doan said. The water and waste department also is not certain how much detail it will glean from the data and share with consumers. Several Canadian cities use this technology to show customers when they're using the most water. Winnipeg home water meters slated for upgrade 1 hour ago Duration 1:23 Winnipeg's water and waste department plans to embark on a five-year, $135-million water meter upgrade in 2026 that will see approximately 221,000 analog meters replaced with "smart" meters capable of monitoring usage in real time. City council finance chair Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said he hopes the city will show residents water consumption data in sufficient detail for them to make decisions about how and when they use water. That could tell people, for example, "how much does it cost to maintain my vegetable garden, or how much does it cost on Sunday when I do all the laundry," said Browaty. "You'll be able to actually quantify some of these things, if we go to the level of granularity that the technology could potentially provide." The city has no plans to replace several thousand existing digital meters, which do not transmit data to the city directly, Doan said. Most existing new meters are read by water and waste personnel who visit the neighbourhoods in question and collect readings using electronic receivers in their vehicles, he said.
CTV News
08-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Chelsea, Que. to bill for ‘excess' water consumption
The Municipality of Chelsea, Que. says it is implementing new measures to conserve water, including reduced lawn-watering frequencies and additional bills for 'excess' water consumption. In a release Thursday, the municipality said the new measures are meant to achieve a provincial target of reducing drinking water consumption by 20 per cent. Chelsea says following the installation of water meters in 2023, the municipality now has the data to bill users based on water consumption, and residents will now be limited to 260 cubic metres per unit. Exceeding that total will result in a special bill at the end of the year to cover the excess. A cubic metre of water is equivalent to 1,000 litres. Chelsea says, in 2023, the municipality's estimated water consumption was 358 litres per person per day, or approximately 130.7 cubic metres per person in a year. That's compared with the Quebec average of 253 litres per person per day, or approximately 92.3 cubic metres per person per year. 'The target under the drinking water conservation strategy is 184 L/person/day,' Chelsea says. To enable residents to monitor their consumption and modify their habits, if necessary, a statement showing their average consumption will be sent mid-year, well in advance of the final billing statement, the municipality says. Reduced watering frequency Chelsea says automatic watering schedules for lawns will be reduced to once a week from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. The permitted day is based on the address: Tuesday for occupants of dwellings with addresses ending in 0, 1 or 2 Wednesday for occupants of dwellings with addresses ending in 3, 4 or 5 Thursday for occupants of dwellings with addresses ending in 6 or 7 Friday for occupants of dwellings with addresses ending in 8 or 9 Sprinkler A lawn sprinkler is seen in an image from Shutterstock. 'Mechanical and automatic watering schedules for gardens, shrubs and trees remain unchanged, with the exception of the hours allowed, which are now from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., one hour longer than before,' the municipality says. Similar measures are in place in Gatineau. 'By using our resources more efficiently and ensuring that everyone contributes according to their usage, we are collectively protecting our environment and managing our resources in a sustainable and responsible way,' said Mayor Pierre Guénard in a release. 'These measures also ensure continuity with our strategic plan and our environmental commitments. Together, we have the power to adopt sustainable habits that will benefit future generations.'
