keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Jan 17, 2024 15:20:29 GMT
My OH and one of her friends have both had water bills this week, in both cases despite the balance increasing over the period Welsh Water are proposing a 20-25% increase in payments.
they've both rung up and got the same answer I got in October when they wanted to increase mine.
"it's to create a safety net for you, so that if next year or the year after you have financial difficulties you can reduce your payments without falling into arrears"
both of them as I did have told them that our financial circumstances are nothing to do with Welsh water and can they please put the payment back to what it was before, both had to push quite hard to get this put right but how many customers will just let it happen.
If I paid an extra 20-25% on all my bills every month to create a safety net I'd manage, but I can envisage that if this was done over lots of bills many people especially those on low incomes would find themselves in difficulty because of it
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Post by bernythedolt on Jan 17, 2024 17:17:41 GMT
Nothing to do with Welsh Water creaming off the interest on the 20-25% figure being over collected then? Must be a nice little earner for them.
I settle my Welsh Water bill on a six-monthly in arrears basis. That way, I receive an invoice for the amount actually consumed and pay (by direct debit) what's due there and then.
I'm glad to say nothing gets added on as a contingency against what might happen in the future, because I wouldn't pay it either. It's almost tantamount to writing them a blank cheque to overspend by up to 20-25% with impunity. Better they control their spending and have to explain themselves if they don't, rather than grant them upfront the temptation to overspend.
Six-monthly billing is presumably an alternative option to consider for your partner and her friend and it avoids all this negotiation hassle.
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
Posts: 4,586
Likes: 2,617
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Post by keitha on Jan 17, 2024 22:40:22 GMT
for info you should get a £10.60 credit in December 23 this is a penalty they were ordered to pay for lying about leakage levels, however the regulators don't seem to realise that if they are made to pay us money back then they will have to cut somewhere as a not for profit company won't make a loss, so will recoup it in higher charges
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archie
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Post by archie on Jan 18, 2024 7:33:11 GMT
We're with Affinity rather than Welsh water. Water meters can be cheaper depending on your usage. Our bills are currently 43% of the pre-meter charge. 
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Post by bracknellboy on Jan 18, 2024 8:19:25 GMT
We're with Affinity rather than Welsh water. Water meters can be cheaper depending on your usage. Our bills are currently 43% of the pre-meter charge. I moved us over to water meter probably about 11 years ago. Our water bill is still 40% of what it was before we made the move. We (well particularly me......) are water conscious though (for environmental reasons not cost). Water meters are now compulsory provided they are able to be fitted to your property. Affinity were busy in our street a while back. Some people will be in for a bonus and wonder why they didn't do it sooner, and some may be in for quite a shock.
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Post by overthehill on Jan 18, 2024 9:28:00 GMT
We're with Affinity rather than Welsh water. Water meters can be cheaper depending on your usage. Our bills are currently 43% of the pre-meter charge. I moved us over to water meter probably about 11 years ago. Our water bill is still 40% of what it was before we made the move. We (well particularly me......) are water conscious though (for environmental reasons not cost). Water meters are now compulsory provided they are able to be fitted to your property. Affinity were busy in our street a while back. Some people will be in for a bonus and wonder why they didn't do it sooner, and some may be in for quite a shock.
So you don't turn on the shower 15 minutes before you get in like the young generation ? Interesting fact most people with combi boilers probably don't realize is if your running any hot tap or mixer shower in the house then no hot water goes to your radiators. Not ideal with a large family.
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Post by bracknellboy on Jan 18, 2024 9:47:09 GMT
I moved us over to water meter probably about 11 years ago. Our water bill is still 40% of what it was before we made the move. We (well particularly me......) are water conscious though (for environmental reasons not cost). Water meters are now compulsory provided they are able to be fitted to your property. Affinity were busy in our street a while back. Some people will be in for a bonus and wonder why they didn't do it sooner, and some may be in for quite a shock.
So you don't turn on the shower 15 minutes before you get in like the young generation ? Interesting fact most people with combi boilers probably don't realize is if your running any hot tap or mixer shower in the house then no hot water goes to your radiators. Not ideal with a large family.
We have a cold water storage and hot water tank system. Probably unfortunately. Funnily enough, the one bit of energy and water saving that is a problem for me is the shower in the ensuite. It has a ridiculous long pipe run (from the h/w tank into the loft, across a 1/3rd of the loft, down to the garage to a pump, back up to the shower). Changing that would be difficult unless I switched it to a wall mounted pump in the shower itself. But having paid good money to replace the pump a few short years ago - without thinking through what we might have done instead - I'm probably not going to do it soon. Still, I partly compensate by at least making the shower itself fairly short, and not always every day.
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jonno
Member of DD Central
nil satis nisi optimum
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Post by jonno on Jan 18, 2024 10:33:08 GMT
So you don't turn on the shower 15 minutes before you get in like the young generation ? Interesting fact most people with combi boilers probably don't realize is if your running any hot tap or mixer shower in the house then no hot water goes to your radiators. Not ideal with a large family.
We have a cold water storage and hot water tank system. Probably unfortunately. Funnily enough, the one bit of energy and water saving that is a problem for me is the shower in the ensuite. It has a ridiculous long pipe run (from the h/w tank into the loft, across a 1/3rd of the loft, down to the garage to a pump, back up to the shower). Changing that would be difficult unless I switched it to a wall mounted pump in the shower itself. But having paid good money to replace the pump a few short years ago - without thinking through what we might have done instead - I'm probably not going to do it soon. Still, I partly compensate by at least making the shower itself fairly short, and not always every day. Have you had your monthly shower yet?
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Post by overthehill on Jan 18, 2024 10:57:17 GMT
We have a cold water storage and hot water tank system. Probably unfortunately. Funnily enough, the one bit of energy and water saving that is a problem for me is the shower in the ensuite. It has a ridiculous long pipe run (from the h/w tank into the loft, across a 1/3rd of the loft, down to the garage to a pump, back up to the shower). Changing that would be difficult unless I switched it to a wall mounted pump in the shower itself. But having paid good money to replace the pump a few short years ago - without thinking through what we might have done instead - I'm probably not going to do it soon. Still, I partly compensate by at least making the shower itself fairly short, and not always every day. Have you had your monthly shower yet?
I haven't had a bath for 20 years.
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spiral
Member of DD Central
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Post by spiral on Jan 18, 2024 11:37:54 GMT
I partly compensate by at least making the shower itself fairly short. I have to laugh at that Einstein energy advert which advises ways to cut energy consumption. One of them is to cut showers down to 4 mins. I suspect if I have the water on (with hot water flowing through the shower) for more than a minute, its a lot.
I douse myself in water. Switch off the shower. Lather myself with soap. Then rinse off. I'm not even in the shower for 4 minutes, let alone with water flowing. Even washing my hair probably only adds a further 15-30 seconds to hot water running time.
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on Jan 18, 2024 12:58:01 GMT
I partly compensate by at least making the shower itself fairly short. I have to laugh at that Einstein energy advert which advises ways to cut energy consumption. One of them is to cut showers down to 4 mins. I suspect if I have the water on (with hot water flowing through the shower) for more than a minute, its a lot.
I douse myself in water. Switch off the shower. Lather myself with soap. Then rinse off. I'm not even in the shower for 4 minutes, let alone with water flowing. Even washing my hair probably only adds a further 15-30 seconds to hot water running time. Spend time around campsite showers in some less-mainstream countries, and you quickly learn to minimise time and water use... I've come across showers run by tokens that give you a certain volume of water, timers, all sorts of ways of restricting time/water/energy use. One timed-token shower had a single box on an outside wall of a hut containing two cubicles, accessed from opposite ends. And no indication of which was next up. Herself tried to second-guess it, got in one cubicle and ready, and when I dropped the token in - the other cubicle started up... But the ultimate learning tool was one on a Montenegrin campsite... A large rose bolted to a wall, with a hoop and a yellow oilcloth curtain. An outside wall. Just next to the site owner's house, overlooked by an upstairs window. Pull the handle to operate - and it was all-or-nothing, full mains pressure cold water... Blimey, that woke you up! (And it was not the height of summer, either, but early spring - two weeks later, we were in snow in the mountains)
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