Forums

Forums
Sustainable Living
Your Home
Does anyone have ex...
 
Notifications
Clear all

Does anyone have experience of a smart water meter?

 
Your Home
5 Posts
2 Users
0 Reactions
12 Views
RSS
Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
Famed Member Moderator
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 898
Topic starter 18/08/2025 2:56 pm  

I've just received a letter from my water company saying that the region in which I live is classified as "seriously water-stressed", giving the water company legal basis to perform a compulsory installation of a water meter. In fact, this happens to coincide with my doing a bit of research that suggests we may be financially better off with a water meter, so I'm not fundamentally opposed to the idea much as I dislike having something forced upon me. However, I have heard several people believing anecdotally that there are issues with the accuracy of a smart water meter and, obviously, I have no intention of allowing the installation of something that is not fit for purpose.

With all that in mind, I've tried researching and have found very little mentioning the accuracy of smart water meters. Although still rare, I can find more articles on the increased accuracy of bills but if the meter's not accurate I'm not sure that's relevant - garbage in, garbage out. Nonetheless, my instinct is that if there were an endemic accuracy problem with water metering it'd be all over the Internet like a rash and it's not.

Does anyone here have any experience of a water meter? And, in addition, is it a smart water meter? If so, any information you can give about living with one would be much appreciated.

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"


   
Quote
Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Illustrious Member Contributor
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2049
18/08/2025 4:19 pm  

Major, we have a water meter (fitted some 20 ish years back), not smart AFAIAA but, with our property being classed as 4 bedrooms and just two residents, we reckon to save compared to Thames Water charges based on non-metered properties of this size. Strangely enough, postal codes about 2 miles away as the fly crows have a hose pipe ban but we do not as yet. Regards, Toodles.

This post was modified 2 hours ago by Toodles

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
ReplyQuote
Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
Famed Member Moderator
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 898
Topic starter 18/08/2025 5:03 pm  

Thanks, @toodles. And how, if you are able to tell, does the volume of water you're billed for compare with what you believe your usage to be? How accurate do you feel the meter is?

I suppose I'm trying to get a feel for whether there might be an overly high reading for consumption (and therefore overbilling) that is hidden by the far greater saving inherent in metered readings vs estimated standard rate for large house but with few occupants.

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"


   
ReplyQuote
Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Illustrious Member Contributor
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2049
18/08/2025 5:22 pm  

@majordennisbloodnok I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue Major Humph! I suppose that unless we had a second meter in series and that it was a calibrated device at that, we don’t really have any way to agree or dispute their readings really. All I know is that our very first reading once we had had the meter fitted, showed our bill was lower than previously. I suppose we have to take Thames Water on trust. (In the light of more recent revelations, perhaps this was not a prudent move!!!)

Having said that, we did have an electricity meter that continued to show energy was being consumed even when the isolator was opened! In that case, we came to an agreement with Southern Electricity as it was then as neither side had any certain way to calculate how much we had been metered for that we hadn’t consumed. Regards, Toodles.

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
ReplyQuote
Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
Famed Member Moderator
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 898
Topic starter 18/08/2025 5:38 pm  

No worries. Still useful info, so thanks.

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"


   
ReplyQuote
Forum Jump:
  Previous Topic

Currently viewing this topic 2 guests.

Recently viewed by users: Majordennisbloodnok 12 minutes ago, Toodles 35 minutes ago.



Share:

Join Us!

Login   Register

Podcast Picks

Latest Posts

Click to access the login or register cheese
x Powerful Protection for WordPress, from Shield Security
This Site Is Protected By
ShieldPRO →