Thames Water Meter Installation?

[Jesbaa]

Good afternoon,

New listed property owner here, have a feeling will be checking in a fair bit over the coming days / months / years

First up, we're wanting to install a water meter (ideally smart) at our Grade II listed property as the house is currently on a much higher RV than our likely 2 adult, 1 child consumption. Any issues in getting a smart meter from Thames Water installed given the period nature?

Many thanks!

 

[Cubist]

Thames will always try to install the meter under the pavement outside your property and so shouldn't be a problem. If absolutely essential the meter can be installed indoors and usually next to the rising main which most people hide in a kitchen cabinet anyway and that should not be an issue for the CO/BC team.

 

[Flyfisher]

Given that the water company is only responsible for problems on 'their' side of the meter, I suspect they'll try to install it as close to the boundary of the property as possible. They'll then send regular junk mail pointing out that the householder is responsible for the pipework on the 'consumer' side of the meter and offer to sell insurance for any future problems.

I say that because our water meter is located about 100 yards along the lane to our house, though we're with Anglian Water so I can't really vouch for what Thames Water might do.

Coincidentally, Anglian Water recently swapped out the old meter with a new 'smart' one, so no more need to send out a meter reader and I can now check the meter reading via my account page on their website. They didn't ask if I wanted a smart meter though, just informed me of when they were swapping over to one.

 

[Cubist]

Oh, and from personal experience; best make sure they connect the meter to your house and not a neighbours! Such a mix up took more than five years to find and a hell of a lot of head-scratching and pencil sharpening to reconcile afterwards.

 

[Kearn]

It’s not an install that will worry and CO and you shouldn’t either.

As most say, this will ideally be at the mains incoming on the road or similar.

If it is in your house, it just sits inline with pipework etc at the entry point for your mains, where the stopcock should be.

 

[Kearn]

Oh, and from personal experience; best make sure they connect the meter to your house and not a neighbours! Such a mix up took more than five years to find and a hell of a lot of head-scratching and pencil sharpening to reconcile afterwards.

The old lady who lived in our place before insisted on a meter being fitted, roadside of course. Then constantly complained her water bills were wrong and the meter was faulty.

Turns out the supply was shared between our house and the 3 neighbouring properties!

So now we also have an internal meter as well, even though the supply is now only for our property!