Saving Water Saves Money

There was an interesting point raised on the award winning thisismoney.co.uk - a consumer had ‘emailed in’ to complain they had carefully saved water by recycling it but their water company did not reward them with a lower bill. This does raise a question people often ask - does saving water really mean your bill will be lower? For example, you can clearly see how saving electricity or gas would mean lower bills, but most people are not aware of the ways in which saving water could indeed help keep more of their pounds in their pockets.

The consumer’s complaint hinged around the fact that they were using less water by collecting it to recycle for use in the garden. However, their water company didn’t cut their bill in response to a letter pointing this out. I felt the website tackled the question very sensibly, by explaining how to ask your water company to take steps to reflect your careful water use.

It pointed out you can simply contact your water company and ask to have a water meter fitted - for most households this would be free of charge. Your water bill would then be a vastly more accurate reflection of how much you actually use. There are some homes where it is impossible to have a water meter fitted - for example, some very densely built apartment blocks. In this case, ask for an ‘Assessed Charge’. The water watchdog Offwat have some very good information on this type of billing - again it can often reduce your bills.

Some small water-saving changes are cheap, fast and money-saving, even before you've changed to a meter or assessed bill. The H20 water bottle filters out impurities, and avoids unsuitable re-used plastic bottles leaching any chemicals into the water. It also means you or your child can have a healthy bottle of filtered water for approximately 1 pence per bottle- compare that with shop bought plastic bottles, which tend to sell from 35 to 70 pence in the shops! Another of my favourites is the Eco Showerdrop. It tells you how much water you’re using and just how long you've been in there! At the very least, you could probably save on the cost of hot water by using one of those.

Then there are water butts to catch rainwater for re-use any time you need water but it doesn’t have to be of drinking quality. They range these days from compact space saving designs like the mini butt kit, or you can go the extra mile by filling up more and more 183 litre tanks of the modular Rainwater HOG.