Water meter or not?

[rary]

Fortunately the water up here isn't metered though I do have a couple of water butt's to collect rain water off the greenhouse, I had a problem with my conservatory roof in November so I had run a temporary gutter off the roof and placed a butt below this to catch the water it was only in place for three days till the roof was sorted though I left the butt sitting with no feed into it, I started emptying it a couple of weeks ago as I want to reposition it at the greenhouse it was actually overflowing, so that gives you an idea of the rain fall here, that info doesn't answer your question, but does indicate why I rarely need to water the garden.
As for an answer, you have costed digging a lagoon and mentioned the dangers, I would consider digging a pit, fit a liner into it run all the rain water into it, place a water pump into it, run a water pipe to where required then cover with decking, or make it a feature by building a structure that looks like a well on the decking and just pull the water out as you require it that way its safer for children and no electrical power required
As an additional safety measure, is a lid fitted to a well could be locked

[quanglewangle]

Thanks rary . I think only only difference between my lagoon and your pit is depth. We would have to have a fairly wide shallow lagoon because the bedrock is quite near the surface. A compact, deep, covered pit like you describe is an attractive option but we couldn't go do deep enough to get the volume. Dynamite is less easy to come by nowadays than it was to previous occupiers of our house.

It's probably going to be IBC tanks. Ivy, which is rampant in this climate, will cover them in five years.

[Nicos]

Q….are you going to connect all the tanks in a line?
Our joint between two of them failed last year and needed repairing. Access was fairly easy by removing the heather screen. Had it been ivy , it’d have taken some hacking back, and then taken time to cover them again.
Just something to think about.

[quanglewangle]

thanks Nicos . My attempts at plumbing usually cause mrs quanglewangle great amusement and the inevitable cry of "Stop that! I'll get a man in"

I was planning to use a water butt to collect and an easily movable submersible electric pump connected to regular garden hose to periodically pump into an IBC tank for storage.

Then use same pump, dipped in IBC tank, at watering time.

[Compostman2]

As signed up to plan with electric co till end of June do I need to do a meter reading on 31st?

As for water pumps I use a bilge pump (£12/£15) with an old 12v car battery for plot watering.

Had a 4 bedroom house with two of us went over to water meter did not make great saving due to waste/sewage charge.

[Bren In Pots]

Had a 4 bedroom house with two of us went over to water meter did not make great saving due to waste/sewage charge.

We're the same and have been thinking about a water meter.

[greenishfing]

My mother who lived alone and who used very little water went over to a water meter about 20 years ago. It was a total fiasco. I don't know what actually happened in the end but she was vastly overcharged by tbe water company and the problems went on for years.

[quanglewangle]

My mother who lived alone and who used very little water went over to a water meter about 20 years ago. It was a total fiasco. I don't know what actually happened in the end but she was vastly overcharged by tbe water company and the problems went on for years.

That's awful. Hope she got it sorted/money returned.

Not all water companies are the same though: my daughter had her water co get in touch to say her readings were too high, there must be a leak. They waived water changes completely back as far as the most recent normal one and repaired the leak without charge.

Must say I was gobsmacked.

[Plot70]

I have on many occasions seen water leaking out from under meter covers in the pavement.
I think they are beginning to improve now.

[ameno]

That's awful. Hope she got it sorted/money returned.

Not all water companies are the same though: my daughter had her water co get in touch to say her readings were too high, there must be a leak. They waived water changes completely back as far as the most recent normal one and repaired the leak without charge.

Must say I was gobsmacked.

A similar thing happened to us when we switched to a meter.
We worked out that we had a leak fairly early on, as we could see the meter turning even when nothing was running, but it took a while to fix it as they had trouble locating it. It turned out that the main pipe leading from the water main into the house ran up inside the cavity wall, and the leak was inside the wall. Obviously it was impossible to precisely locate and fix such a leak, so they had to lead a brand new pipe into the house (straight through the wall this time, rather than up the cavity), bypassing the leaking section altogether.
They worked out how much they owed us by measuring our water usage over the course of two weeks after the leak was fixed, then using that as an average to work out how much we ought to have used during the leaking period, and then reimbursing us for anything in excess of that.

[rary]

When on a meter are customers not responsible for water pipes after the meter?

[quanglewangle]

When on a meter are customers not responsible for water pipes after the meter?

I thought so too but see my earlier post about my daughter's experience - on her side of the meter and fixing the leak needed trench dug but no charge.

ameno seems to have had a similar experience.

[quanglewangle]

Meter being installed as I type this.
Will report on (I hope) savings.

[Babru]

Your original post made me think quangle. I grow veg in two quadgrows, each holding 30 litres, with a header tank holding 25 litres. There are usually seven tall tomato plants and one cucumber, so thirsty beasts. When fully growing, I find I need to fill the header tank every eight days, giving an average of just over 10 litres of water each day.

For those of us who like a few figures.

[bikermike]

Slightly tangential, but we keep our water use down by grey water reuse.

her ladyship has first shower with the plug in, and then I have shower, and then I use a pump to pump out the resulting water into a waterbut. I make sure I use it within the week, as it can go stale - it shouldn't be kept.
Ditto, any paddling pool use goes in.

I'd think that would be ideal to just pump onto the lawn as there's no risk of it building up in your food crops.