Fitting a water sub-meter.

[AndreaB]

I need to fit a sub-meter to my water supply as my monthly bill has gone from £34 to £82, as we're getting a lot busier now. Can anyone give me some advice as to what meter to buy (lots on eBay), and how and where to fit it? Can I put it between my garage tap and my RO? I don't want to have to chop the fixed water pipes about. Many thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Part Timer]

I would've thought you'd need to speak to the company that supplies your water as you'll need a seperate invoice to claim for it. Don't have this problem so might be wrong.

 

[AndreaB]

I phoned Anglian Water and they suggested fitting a sub-meter, so then they can calculate a figure to take off the sewerage charge, as it's clean water that's going back down the drain. Just not sure how to do it though. I lived on a farm for many years, so never had to worry before as the water was in with the rent.

 

[spruce]

Agree @Part Timer . If your water authority allows any rebate at all, it will be on the sewage element of the bill if you don't send your waste water to the drain. If your waste water goes to the sewer, then you might be able to claim the sewage element of the pure you take away. Their response to your setup will determine where the water meter goes @AndreaB .
If you do manage to get them to agree to a sewage rebate, then you need to ask them what meter they will accept and the procedure you need to follow. I'm sure they will also send out an inspector to check your setup is correct.

I have a digital water meter fitted between my prefilters and r/o. I use it only to identify when my prefilters need changing. A water meter could be fitted just before the r/o on the inlet or on the pure output from the r/o.

Most household cold water meters have 15mm male threads. You would just need to find the relevant female hose barb tail connectors for your hose size.

 

[Pjj]

I need to fit a sub-meter to my water supply as my monthly bill has gone from £34 to £82, as we're getting a lot busier now. Can anyone give me some advice as to what meter to buy (lots on eBay), and how and where to fit it? Can I put it between my garage tap and my RO? I don't want to have to chop the fixed water pipes about. Many thanks in advance for any help.

If you are doing this to get a reduction in your water bill from the water company they have to come out and fit it , if you just want to know how much water you are using for business use then just buy a water meter think they cost £25-45 and fit it on your hose going int the van or filtration set up this will record what you use for work .

 

[Pjj]

I phoned Anglian Water and they suggested fitting a sub-meter, so then they can calculate a figure to take off the sewerage charge, as it's clean water that's going back down the drain. Just not sure how to do it though. I lived on a farm for many years, so never had to worry before as the water was in with the rent.

They don’t reduce the bill unless the waist water doesn’t go into their drains or they don’t down hear , when I set up mine years ago they sent out a guy to check ware the waist was going .

 

[Robt100]

Although not a personal experience, but my brother in law was with anglian water and from what I remember he could DIY the sub meter, though I think he needed to confirm make/model with them first and proof of calibration.
Another handy tip, make sure all your downpipes go into water butts, anglian water discount your sewage rate for that too

 

[AndreaB]

Thanks for all your replies, guys. I'm not sure that it's worth the faff, to be honest. I'll just claim it as a business expense.

 

[spruce]

Thanks for all your replies, guys. I'm not sure that it's worth the faff, to be honest. I'll just claim it as a business expense.

On a water meter you do need to identify how much water you use to produce the pure water you need to clean windows with. All you can claim as a business expense is the window cleaning portion of your bill. What you use household wise isn't tax deductible. So you need a separate water meter before r/o to do this.

We aren't on a water meter. Whether we use 1 litre a month or 100,000 litres a month, our household water bill is calculated on the band rate of council tax we pay. HMRC said that I couldn't claim a portion of our water bill as an expense because of this.

What I find annoying is that we have to pay sewage rates on the water we put on the garden. I appreciate that there is no easy way of monitoring outside taps, but it still doesn't seem fair.

 

[ched999uk]

What I find annoying is that we have to pay sewage rates on the water we put on the garden. I appreciate that there is no easy way of monitoring outside taps, but it still doesn't seem fair.

What about the pure you take away from home - that definitely doesn't go down your drain but you still get charged sewerage charge for that!!! Seems mad to me!!!

 

[Pjj]

Thanks for all your replies, guys. I'm not sure that it's worth the faff, to be honest. I'll just claim it as a business expense.

Depending how much water you use it is definitely worth it you will save over 60%

 

[Pjj]

What about the pure you take away from home - that definitely doesn't go down your drain but you still get charged sewerage charge for that!!! Seems mad to me!!!

No you don’t If on a sub meter

 

[ched999uk]

No you don’t If on a sub meter

Is that only if the waste goes into a soak away then you don't pay sewerage charge on 100% of water meter readings before the RO system? i.e. as none of the metered water going through the RO goes down the sewers.
I know different water companies deal with windys differently but most of the stuff I read was concerning reductions for waste water that didn't go down the sewer.
My waste goes down the sewer as I don't have a soak away so I thought I couldn't claim any discount from water company - United Utilities, but I could be wrong.

 

[Pjj]

No waist water is allowed to go into SWW drains . Mine works like this
If my main meter reading is 20 cubic meters , and my sub meter reading is 10 cubic meters I only pay the sewage charge on 10 cubic meters from the main meter , the sub meter reading I only pay for the water , hope this makes sense ??

 

[spruce]

No you don’t If on a sub meter

No waist water is allowed to go into SWW drains . Mine works like this
If my main meter reading is 20 cubic meters , and my sub meter reading is 10 cubic meters I only pay the sewage charge on 10 cubic meters from the main meter , the sub meter reading I only pay for the water , hope this makes sense ??

It seems to be down to each water authority in each area what they will and what they won't accept.

Instead of sending his waste water to sewage, one windie said he would dump the waste into the street to be taken away via street drainage into the river systems. That wasn't acceptable either. I thought it would be, but apparently the water authority is responsible for the water in those drains, even although the highways agency laid the drains and the local council clears the sediment traps in the road (every blue moon).

Not that I would want to dispose of waste water into the street, as I'm sure it would cause a major upset with neighbours seeing all that water being wasted. My neighbour is just aware of all the water I pump into my van's tank, she has no idea of the same amount of waste water that goes down the drain around the back of our house.