The summer water bill arrived today. I'm not overly happy with this one.
I used 67 cubic meters in 112 days. That works out to 158 gallons a day which is a 3% increase in usage from the same period last year but is still a decrease from my first 2 years here.
It was a long dry summer and it's still hot and has barely rained. My understanding is we're now breaking records for lack of rain over the summer. I didn't however water my gardens very much at all. I gave up and let them go wild after the long wet spring started our growth so late and then the heat and drought cooked everything a few weeks into the good weather. So most of this usage has gone to the kids slip and slide and other water related activities in the back yard. I'll need to figure something else out for next summers cooling activities. This was just way too much waste.
Also of note it looks like our water usage is in some sort of reverse tiered system
Last winter I used 39 cubic meters, in the spring I used 35 cubic meters. This worked out to $1.71 and $1.68 per cubic meter. Over the summer I used 67 cubic meters and it worked out to $0.96 per cubic meter. THe more I used the cheaper the price per unit got. Not good for conservation which is what they are supposedly pushing for... Now the question is do I complain that our bills are too low in the summer because they're not billing in a reasonable manner and risk them going up or just leave it as be.
<edit>
I think I've found why the billing is so weird on the water usage. We're not actually in a reversed tier system. From the document on how to read my bill..
Quote:
Typical winter consumption might be:
1 or 2 occupants 100-200 gal/day
3 or 4 occupants 150-250 gal/day
5 or more 250 plus gal/day
Lawn and garden watering, sprinkler systems, pools and car washing can all increase water consumption considerably.
|
So to start with my summer usage is close to the bottom of the "typical" users winter usage. My winter usage is half that of "typical" Also I'm not just charged by usage. There is a flat rate daily charge associated with the water. $0.44904 per day. so on my 112 day $64.15 summer water bill $50.29 was flat rate billing and I actually paid $13.86 for usage... In the winter my 137 day $66.98 bill was $61.52 in flat rate so $5.46 in actual usage... The basic connection charge is so overwhelmingly large that actual usage makes almost no difference.
There is basically no financial incentive to conserve. Having said that There will be hell to pay if I catch anyone wasting hot water and running up my electric bill
</edit>