EverHopefull Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Hi, I have been looking at various ways to reduce the outgoings on our new build that will pay back over a long term. Insulation is obvious, heating and solar gain awareness is another but my current item under scrutiny is waste water. I read through my water bill for the house I am living in and notice that two thirds of the bill are for handling waste water the other third is surprisingly for sparkling clean drinking water! At the bottom of the bill it mentions that a reduction of the bill would be possible if waste water was handled with a soak away. What currently are the general thoughts about this? Is is a major expenditure to prepare the build groundworks for this way of working? As it stands I can see substantial savings to be had over the years but think to myself have i missed something obvious that makes it not worth while investigating further? Your thoughts and experiences welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 You need to be more specific. Are they billing you for waste water or surface water drainage or both? We only pay for mains water. If sewage were available, that would cost more than mains water. As mains sewage is not available here, we have a treatment plant. That uses 2KWh of electricity per day and costs £150 for a pump out every other year. So this is cheaper than mains drainage would cost if it was even available here. There is an air blower pump to maintain that seems to be a new diaphragm every few years at most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EverHopefull Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 OK, Southern Water say that "Wastewater is charged at 92.5% of water used" Waste Water rate 245.60p per cubic meter Fresh water supply 137.20p per cubic meter. The current property was built in 2003 and I have plans showing that a soakaway was specified 5M from the property and all surface water down pipes to be linked to that soakaway. I believe this should qualify for the "rebate" mentioned on the bill itself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 "Wastewater" in that context is foul drainage, not surface water drainage, as it's the standard percentage of drinking water supplied. Your surface water will be going to the soak away, so isn't included, or being charged for, by the water company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 I'm interested in this, as I believe we pay a specific component for surface drainage despite now having a soakaway (house we knocked down had downpipes connected to the sewer). We did start a conversation with our water supplier a while ago but I completely forgot to take it back up again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 and i am guessing that when you say your surface water is going into your soak-away they will tell you that it eventually ends up in the river ,so you still have pay something. commercial is different in scotland as they calculate total roof area roof and any tarmaced area on property and make an charge on that area for surface water . then foul water is a percentage of fresh water usage . I would leave well enough alone if i were you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 2 hours ago, jack said: I'm interested in this, as I believe we pay a specific component for surface drainage despite now having a soakaway (house we knocked down had downpipes connected to the sewer). We did start a conversation with our water supplier a while ago but I completely forgot to take it back up again! If this is you, it says you can claim back to 2015. https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/get-help/one-bill/surface-water-rebate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 2 hours ago, scottishjohn said: and I'm guessing... Your guess is wrong. The last point we got to was them agreeing to take off the charge, but we had to prove the water was now going to a soakaway rather than the sewer. It wasn't at the top of our list at the time and it's fallen off my radar due to everything else in the meantime, but I'll get back onto it shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 1 minute ago, Ferdinand said: If this is you, it says you can claim back to 2015. https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/get-help/one-bill/surface-water-rebate That's exactly us! Thanks for the link. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Just now, jack said: That's exactly us! Thanks for the link. Might even pay you back for the Dartford Warblers, if you are in that SPA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragg987 Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 We had no issues on getting a reduction due to soakaway, for rainwater. Thames Water just checked a plan while I was on a call and agreed it, plus refunded this portion on the first bill. It is a smallish amount, maybe around £30 per year. I don't know what plan they had access to, did not query it, but my guess would be our planning application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 (edited) probably different as you have private water companies .in scotland we don,t I know once upon a time if you had your own well and sewerage system and no gutters --there was no water charge in the rates bill of any sort now there is an amount that all pay no matter how you deal with sewerage +surface water. and water meters for domestic are few and far between here Re the council rate charges+bands https://dumgal.gov.uk/article/15261/Council-tax-bands-and-charges Edited June 6, 2019 by scottishjohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 The key thing here is whether or not the bill actually contains an element for surface water drainage via a combined sewer. If the "wastewater" element of the bill is defined as a percentage of the drinking water supply, then that's the deemed foul drainage element, not the surface water. They work on the principle that the majority of the supplied drinking water ends up as wastewater that they then have to treat, so they charge for that percentage. To be able to claim a rebate for surface water drainage, you have to show that you don't have a combined sewer and that your surface water goes to a soakaway or drains to a watercourse. At our last house every bill had the line about being able to claim a rebate if our surface water went to soakaways, but when I checked we were already getting that rebate, as if they had imposed a charge for surface water removal it would apparently have been shown on the bill as a part of the service (but not itemised as a separate charge). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Ferdinand said: Might even pay you back for the Dartford Warblers, if you are in that SPA! We're just outside the Thames Basin SPA - close enough that it had me a bit worried about the potential impact on planning until I looked into it a bit more closely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 (edited) We have no main drainage. The wcs go into the cess pool. The gutters go into a soak away one side of the house, I know roughly where it is. The other side of the house the gutter down pipe disappeared into the concrete path. When I dug the path up the down pipe just stopped in the ground. A few hundred yards down the road is T junction with a fenced off soak away, a big one. Must check our bill. Edited June 6, 2019 by Onoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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