'Free' Water reality check

A question about : 'Free' Water reality check

My ultimate goal is to have a comfortable, worry free life and with that in mind I was considering how to reduce or remove my utility bills. I have various options with the gas and electricity bills (PV, insulation, etc.) that I've put / I'm putting into practice and now I'm turning my attention to the water bill.

Our metered water bill is currently Ј52 per month for 5 adults and one child. I've done as much to reduce the amount of water we use by fitting water saving devices and now I'm looking at reducing the payment to zero.

I have worked out that I can reduce the bill by a half by fitting a rainwater harvesting system for a maximum of Ј3.5k (this gives us a payback period of just over 11 years). This will reduce my monthly utility bill down to Ј26pm.

The plan is to then buy shares in the water supplier (United Utilities) to cover the Ј26pm / Ј312pa via dividend payments. At today's shareprice, I would need to invest Ј10k in UU shares which would provide an annual dividend of Ј334.00, covering the cost of the utility.

Essentially I would not have to think about the water bill ever again, I'll have done my bit for the environment by reducing flood risks from flash downpours and stopping using drinking water for flushing toilets and I'll also have capital gains from any increase in the 11,000 shares I'd hold in United Utilities.

Thoughts?

Best answers:

• Hi
  Water usage for 6 would be pretty high, I'd guess that you'd be looking at something in the region of 5-10 tonnes of storage, so that's excavating/moving somewhere near a possible 15cubic metres (45tonnes ?) of soil from under your lawn and finding somewhere to dump up to 30 tonnes of it ... that's probably a couple of lorry loads and some heavy equipment hire or ~10skips to hire if you can't find somewhere in your own garden ... I'd guess that a basic high end 6.5tonne system would cost around Ј3.5k delivered, not installed, so you really do need to look at specialist installation services, equipment hire, ancillary materials such as tubes/pipes and plumbing materials ...
  When you've got all that done, there's the run-off to consider. In order to reduce your bills you'll need to disconnect all surface water drainage & convince the water company that there'll be no run-off which could enter their system ... that might mean intercepting any possible run-off and diverting it to a soak-away on your own property. Once this is done you'll naturally inform the water company in order to get the reduction, and of course, they'll immediately invoke their right to separate metered water delivery from disposal and re-assess your sewerage disposal payment ...
  Of course, you could significantly reduce the cost of the installation be specifying above-ground storage tanks (heat/algae/ice?) or using IBCs (same issues), but for 6 people it's going to take up a considerable area and possibly look a little out-of-place.
  HTH
  Z
• I quite like the rainwater system supplied by this company:
  https://www.rainwaterharvesting.co.uk...h-5099fl-duk4/
  It seems to tick all the boxes. I'm looking for a 'fit and forget' solution with all of the products I install at the house and this fits the bill. It has a tank in the loft so it's not running the pump every time we flush a toilet, it's approved by water authorities due to its separation of rainwater and mains backup and the loft tank drains down if unused for holiday periods, etc.
  The price including VAT is a couple of hundred pounds down from my estimate, which I can use to buy fuel for the digger and some ancilliary pipework. The tank is quite shallow too, so I don't have to dig as deep as I first thought.
  Has anyone on here ever used this company?
• With United Utilities the charge for Surface Water Drainage(SWD) is Ј75pa(2014/15).
  To reduce your bill by 50% even allowing for SWD deduction, I calculate you will need to use approx. 95 cubic metres of rainwater pa. That is also assuming that you don't intend paying the sewerage charge of Ј1.264/cubic metre for rainwater you are diverting into the sewer via your house
  I am a little puzzled why you need to store rainwater, when it would surely be easy to divert/pump water from your stream to a tank?