TOPIC:

We have until 2011 but with a water meter destined to be fitted in every house[/url:at5fa45f], many of us will probably have to look at how much water we use on a brewday.

This is Ireland, it won't happen in our life time. It will be fudged.

But to answer your question, I'd imagine it won't change much. The most obvious way to save water is in wort chilling but even that probably only uses a bath full of water. Presumably they couldn't charge more than a few cents for that much water.

It really depends on how much the charges will be.

As Diablo has said, wort chilling would be the main wastage culprit. I must actually see how much water I use when chilling the wort on my next brew day.

I would say the main affect the charges will have will be to make people think twice about leaving a tap running and wasting unnecessary amounts of water.

Be interesting to see how this initiative is going to be rolled out and managed, and also how easy it will be to bypass the actual meter if one was inclined to do so, not that I'm suggesting that for one minute.

Will be very interesting to see how they plan to retrofit meters to existing houses, especially in apartment blocks etc where there's probably a very centralized main water feed which would be difficult to tap into to add the meters.

I have a spring for my water supply, so am not on the mains. They will meter that spring over my dead body.

"Taf":2bw8ncyp wrote: I have a spring for my water supply, so am not on the mains. They will meter that spring over my dead body.[/quote:2bw8ncyp]

It only applies to local authority water supplies. Private supplies or group water schemes will not be affected.