Water meters

aligator_am

Ahoy squad,

Posting this in response to what a fella in work mentioned to me on Friday, he said that he owns (fully, not mortgaged or whatever) his own land just outside of Dublin, a couple of acres I think he owns and he has his own well, but apparently he will still have to get a water meter installed.

I can't really wrap my mind around this as I assumed that the water meters were to stop the resevoirs being depleted?

Not sure if anyone here lives on land which has a well, if they do then will you also need to install a meter? if this is true then it seems just another way for the government to bleed a few more quid out of the populace.

Senna

If you have a well, you cant/wont be metered.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Well well well, water we have here eh?

orourkeda

Well well well

Min

If you have your own private water supply you will not be metered.

Dyr

Not sure if anyone here lives on land which has a well, if they do then will you also need to install a meter? if this is true then it seems just another way for the government to bleed a few more quid out of the populace.

although it's hard to divine what form this legislation will take, I'd say its dowsed his enthusiasm for having his own water source

aligator_am

Senna wrote: »

If you have a well, you cant/wont be metered.

Well, I'll have to say this to the guy in work tomorrow, sea what he has to say.

ninjasurfer1

Wasn't there some mention recently of the Govt bringing in an EU Water Quality test for wells? (Think it was about €250 per year?).

Edit: It was actually Septic tanks that they were proposing to test.

Kojak

aligator_am wrote: »

Well, I'll have to say this to the guy in work tomorrow, sea what he has to say.

You must have water on the brain, seeing as you think sea (i.e. the ocean) can be used as term of vision.

Min

ninjasurfer1 wrote: »

Wasn't there some mention recently of the Govt bringing in an EU Water Quality test for wells? (Think it was about €250 per year?).

It doesn't cost that much to get water tested.

Needler

ninjasurfer1 wrote: »

Wasn't there some mention recently of the Govt bringing in an EU Water Quality test for wells? (Think it was about €250 per year?).

There was something like that about septic tanks.

aligator_am

Kojak wrote: »

You must have water on the brain, seeing as you think sea (i.e. the ocean) can be used as term of vision.

Yes, I suspect you may have missed the pun in my post

Bullseye1

I cannot see these meters going ahead. It would be cheaper just to have eveyone pay €200 a year. Installing meters would be too expensive. They would be better off spending money locating the leaks in the public infrastructure and repair/replacing it.

Chuck Stone

There's a guy across the road and he washes his car about 9 times a week.

Awful waste of water imo.

Senna

Chuck Stone wrote: »

There's a guy across the road and he washes his car about 9 times a week.

Awful waste of water imo.

If i told you once, i told you a million times, stop exaggerating.

galwayrush

Bullseye1 wrote: »

I cannot see these meters going ahead. It would be cheaper just to have eveyone pay €200 a year. Installing meters would be too expensive. They would be better off spending money locating the leaks in the public infrastructure and repair/replacing it.

Too late for that, they are being installed nationwide atm.

Chuck Stone

Senna wrote: »

If i told you once, i told you a million times, stop exaggerating.

I think it was only about 750,000 times in fairness.

starbelgrade

It costs the taxpayer around €1 billion a year to upkeep water treatment facilities. If the charges are for usage, rather than a flat rate charge, then I think it's a good idea. Water charges reduce the amount of water people use & the cost of supply.

However, as over 50% of water that is currently being treated is lost through leaky pipes, that means that half a billion euros worth of water is going down the plug hole.

If the government plan to charge us - on top of the billion we already pay for water - then they really need to get the leaks fixed first.

noxqs

If the temperature drops to near 0, there's thousands of braindead people who will run the water all night to prevent the pipes from freezing. Even in apartments which wouldn't freeze even at sub 20 degrees.

Metering would make that form of pure stupidity quite expensive I hope.

aligator_am

The thing that annoys me with the whole leaky pipe situation is that it's been known about for years, why wasn't this issue resolved when the country was swimming in money?

Daegerty

starbelgrade wrote: »

If the government plan to charge us - on top of the billion we already pay for water - then they really need to get the leaks fixed first.

They'll most likely copy England in this case, where people are being charged through the nose for water all while half of it is leaking away

starbelgrade

noxqs wrote: »

If the temperature drops to near 0, there's thousands of braindead people who will run the water all night to prevent the pipes from freezing. Even in apartments which wouldn't freeze even at sub 20 degrees.

Metering would make that form of pure stupidity quite expensive I hope.

There's also a lot of people who will run their taps to prevent them freezing, because they freeze at sub zero temperatures.

It's an expensive option, but less expensive than having to deal with the damage caused by burst pipes, never mind the inconvenience of having no water supply for prolonged periods.

Daegerty

People will still leave the taps on for fear of burst pipes

Only change is, the Government will be laughing next time it gets cold with the extra tax intake to send to Mr. Rehn

Chuck Stone

starbelgrade wrote: »

If the charges are for usage, rather than a flat rate charge, then I think it's a good idea.

But does that not punish people who have more kids?

Maybe they'll have a per person allowance and if you go over it you get charged.

.. hmm maybe not - too bureaucratic probly.

OPENROAD

starbelgrade wrote: »

It costs the taxpayer around €1 billion a year to upkeep water treatment facilities. If the charges are for usage, rather than a flat rate charge, then I think it's a good idea. Water charges reduce the amount of water people use & the cost of supply.

However, as over 50% of water that is currently being treated is lost through leaky pipes, that means that half a billion euros worth of water is going down the plug hole.

If the government plan to charge us - on top of the billion we already pay for water - then they really need to get the leaks fixed first.

As you say the water leakage figure is probably huge, though haven't seen any figures, I know they looked at it in London and it was huge.

As far as I'm concerned though, whatever the charge, I will just recoup that charge by not spending in the retail sector.

Ditch

starbelgrade wrote: »

50% of water that is currently being treated is lost through leaky pipes, that means that half a billion euros worth of water is going down the plug hole.

Hang about ..... Doesn't it need to come out of the tap, to reach the plug hole?

You're wrecking my head here.

galwayrush

noxqs wrote: »

If the temperature drops to near 0, there's thousands of braindead people who will run the water all night to prevent the pipes from freezing. Even in apartments which wouldn't freeze even at sub 20 degrees.

Metering would make that form of pure stupidity quite expensive I hope.

Indeed, much better to force people to suffer burst pipes and the severe water damage they can cause to their homes.:rolleyes:

Stinicker

noxqs wrote: »

If the temperature drops to near 0, there's thousands of braindead people who will run the water all night to prevent the pipes from freezing. Even in apartments which wouldn't freeze even at sub 20 degrees.

Metering would make that form of pure stupidity quite expensive I hope.

Well considering the former government made absolutely no attempts to enforce any type of building regulations I don't blame people for running taps, I'd wager the majority of new homes have flawed piping which is not buried deep enough and when we get a fortnight or three weeks of -15c weather as we have had the previous two winter you get a permafrost starting to develop which sees the ground freeze down freezing and often bursting the pipes which were installed too shallow and without insulation.

Of course enforcing building codes would have cost Fianna Fail's pals in the building sector more money so it wasn't done and as a result the majority of Mac Mansions build by developers on an industrial scale are built to terribly low standards and would not pass most European regs total cowboy stuff is all the boom delivered, over priced sh1t quality houses of the lowest tack.

Suzie Sue

Irish water meters = Irish Scam

600 million for private companies to supply, install, read, and maintain their own private meters, that we will have to rent, so they can bill us for our own public water, that we already pay for in taxes. 50% of water is lost in the mains before it gets a single house, what's the point of putting on a meter at the end of the line after all those losses ? GIVE THE COUNCIL THE MONEY TO FIX OUR FCKING WATER MAINS, NOT THE BANKERS AND YOUR PRIVATE SECTOR GOLDEN CRONIES

Wake up Sheeple, its another Golden Circle Scam.

starbelgrade

Chuck Stone wrote: »

But does that not punish people who have more kids?

Maybe they'll have a per person allowance and if you go over it you get charged.

.. hmm maybe not - too bureaucratic probly.

The original allowance - as suggested by John Gormless - was 40 litres of water per person per day. The current minister plans to increase that to 60 litres per person per day. So, unless there's an allowance for children, it probably would cost those with kids more for each child.

Suzie Sue

Stinicker wrote: »

Well considering the former government made absolutely no attempts to enforce any type of building regulations I don't blame people for running taps, I'd wager the majority of new homes have flawed piping which is not buried deep enough and when we get a fortnight or three weeks of -15c weather as we have had the previous two winter you get a permafrost starting to develop which sees the ground freeze down freezing and often bursting the pipes which were installed too shallow and without insulation.

Of course enforcing building codes would have cost Fianna Fail's pals in the building sector more money so it wasn't done and as a result the majority of Mac Mansions build by developers on an industrial scale are built to terribly low standards and would not pass most European regs total cowboy stuff is all the boom delivered, over priced sh1t quality houses of the lowest tack.

+ 1 : Sure they get loads of taxpayers grant money now to put right all their greedy fckups.

noxqs

If your pipes are at risk of freezing before minus 15 degrees, the construction job is done wrong. Simply put the pipes should be dug deep enough (its only 30 centimeters) that the ground never freezes and the entry point be insulated. What do you think people in Canada/Norway/Finland etc do? Run their water from november to march?

starbelgrade

noxqs wrote: »

If your pipes are at risk of freezing before minus 15 degrees, the construction job is done wrong. Simply put the pipes should be dug deep enough (its only 30 centimeters) that the ground never freezes and the entry point be insulated. What do you think people in Canada/Norway/Finland etc do? Run their water from november to march?

What do you want?

A prize for stating the bleedin' obvious?

Daegerty

Stinicker wrote: »

Well considering the former government made absolutely no attempts to enforce any type of building regulations

Ah but this is where you're wrong. The regulations were there alright but they weren't to protect people from leaks and bad construction

The only purpose they served and ever intended to serve was to make life hard for people wanting to do their own building work or to get started in construction. All the incumbent construction fellas were nicely protected during the tiger while the regulations helped prevent the influx of newcomers

Tis a bit like how you can buy a Grid Tie inverter to sell electricity back to the grid - you need a special one that complies to an Irish standard installed and commissioned by a registered installer (a refurbished scumbag after a FaS course & a jobs for the bois scheme). Then when its installed you have to adjust the minimum cut-out voltage, essentially making it not comply with the standard anymore but then you're allowed to collect your subsidy on your overpriced Irish inverter

galwayrush

noxqs wrote: »

If your pipes are at risk of freezing before minus 15 degrees, the construction job is done wrong. Simply put the pipes should be dug deep enough (its only 30 centimeters) that the ground never freezes and the entry point be insulated. What do you think people in Canada/Norway/Finland etc do? Run their water from november to march?

They can even keep their roads open in tempatures way colder than here, we can't even manage after a small snowfall,:pac::pac:
Our water supply freezes before it even gets to our house at -2, i expect the mains to be re-buried deep enough before they send me a water bill.

Cherrycola

Are there still people who believe these water charges are to help us conserve water?!

Its to raise money, some government idiot on Matt Cooper said exactly that a few weeks ago. While waffling on about how water is an expensive commodity, blah blah blah, he then drops into the conversation 'its like this Matt, the government need to raise money, so we have to introduce water charges!'

Its a tax, full stop! As someone else posted previously, if water conservation was so high on the agenda, why wasnt it dealt with 10 years ago?! Because they didnt need the money then, or the hassle involved with trying to fix leaks.

So now we are going to pay extra for the same ****ty service, and no improvements will be made to pipes, cos all the money raised will be going to the EU.

If they could charge us for air they would!

And those with their own wells wont escape either, they will be a flat rate applied on every household in the country, you'll see.

Just call a spade a spade, and stop trying to blind us with BS!

Suzie Sue

Daegerty wrote: »

The only purpose they served and ever intended to serve was to make life hard for people wanting to do their own building work or to get started in construction. All the incumbent construction fellas were nicely protected during the tiger while the regulations helped prevent the influx of newcomers

LOL - Well looky what just rode in LOL



YEEEE HAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

starbelgrade

Daegerty wrote: »

Ah but this is where you're wrong. The regulations were there alright but they weren't to protect people from leaks and bad construction

The only purpose they served and ever intended to serve was to make life hard for people wanting to do their own building work or to get started in construction.

I have to disagree there. Building Regulations were introduced to bring in minimum standards to which all building should comply.

The problem with a lot of buildings constructed in Ireland is that these minimum standards were not adhered to, not enforced, or both.

Building Control - the section with the authority to enforce Building Regs - is virtually non-existent in Ireland.

Daegerty

starbelgrade wrote: »

I have to disagree there. Building Regulations were introduced to bring in minimum standards to which all building should comply.

The problem with a lot of buildings constructed in Ireland is that these minimum standards were not adhered to, not enforced, or both.

Building Control - the section with the authority to enforce Building Regs - is virtually non-existent in Ireland.

Why do you think they are non-existent? maybe because FF thought it would be good to let the developers do what they liked. They had to bring in the BER certs crap to appease the greens who were keeping them in power but most of that burden was loaded onto the consumer not the developers

Naikon

down with meters.