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Updated 12.48am
DRINK, BATHE, SPLASH, do whatever you can with water today, as from tomorrow charges will come into effect.
The price has now been officially set. The previous proposal by the Commission for Energy Regulation remains unchanged – €4.88 per 1,000 litres for households that use both water services and wastewater services, or €2.44 per 1,000 litres if you only use one service.
This is on top of the free allowance of 30,000 litres per household, with an extra allowance per child.
That might not last long, as it equates to seven flushes of the toilet per day, two five-minute showers, or 28 runs of the dishwasher per week.
The average annual bill is expected to be €238.
First, the basics, with water usage estimates from TapTips.ie. The two amounts refer to the two different rates, and bear in mind that these charges only apply outside of the allowance.
These are some of the fundamentals, but what about some of other issues you’ll encounter?
Leaving the tap running while you brush your teeth
Think of all the times you were told while growing up to just switch off the tap. A running tap will use an estimated 6 litres of water per minute. If you brush your teeth for two minutes, it will cost €0.03/€0.06. Twice a day for 365 days will end up costing €10.69/€21.37.
We’ll assume you have a 2 litre bottle, and will only use it during the two coldest months of the year – January and February. It will cost €0.29/€0.57 for those two months, excluding the cost of boiling the water.
Assuming it’s a metric cup of 250 millilitres, it’s not going to be too steep. It will cost €0.0006/€0.001. Three cups of day, every day, for a year would cost €0.67/€1.33.
Once? €1.33/€2.67 per year. Twice? €2.00/€4.01.
Needless to say, this will differ on the size of your car, how long you take to wash it, and, if you don’t mind us asking, the size of your hose. The average 1/2-inch garden hose will use around 34 litres of water per minute. If you spend 15 minutes spraying water on the car you’ll use up 510 litres and spend €1.24/€2.48.
A happy healthy pooch requires at least one ounce of water per pound of body weight (29ml per 0.5kg) per day – and potentially more depending on exercise and how warm the weather is. If you have an average 7kg Jack Russell, it would need at least 400ml per day, costing €0.001/€0.002 per day and €0.36/€0.71 per year. If you have a large male German Shepherd weighing around 40kg, he will need 2.3 litres per day, costing €0.006/€0.01 per day and €2.05/€4.10 per year.
Filling a paddling pool
These can vary greatly in size, so we’ve picked what seems to be one of the more popular ones in the Irish and UK markets. It would need 600 litres of water to be filled to the brim. That will cost you €1.46/€2.93 to fill. Definitely cheaper than an Olympic swimming pool, which would cost €6,100/€12,200.
Filling a water balloon
If you filled every water balloon with 500ml of water, you would need either 820 or 420 to hit the €1 mark.
Make some ice cubes
At around 50ml per ice cube, this would be too heavy a demand on the water system. The 8,197th or 4,099th would push you over the €1 mark.
Keep a goldfish
We’ll assume you’re keeping your goldfish in suitable conditions – at least a 75 litre tank, changed once a week. That will set you back €9.52/€19.03 per year.
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You’d actually miss Steve Jobs floating around the place, there’s a lot of charisma gone from the company. The man made a bug look like a feature.
I really like Craig Federighi, he’s a very different vibe to Jobs but his sections have been the highlight of the past few keynotes.
Yup, just what we need. More vacuous crap to excite the cult.
Ahh Jake, was wondering when you’d get here. Excited to see what Samsung will be releasing in 6 months?
It looks this article was initially posted a week or two ago but we now know for certain that the iPad Pro is being announced tonight. 12.9 inch display and much faster processor. And I agree David, Federighi has developed into a really smooth presenter.
@David, we already know what Samsung will announce, another android device giving people the ability to tailor their user experience to their wants in a great value piece of tech, often with groundbreaking invention.
I’ll say it now, the Samsung tab I received as a gift over a year and a half ago (costing my gf 220 quid) remains the most impressive tech device I have ever had for such a small price tag. I use it for 2 hours most evenings, charging it every 4/5 days. The screen is excellent, the processor fast. I’ve bounced it on tiles, carpet and wooden floors and though the back shows a thousand scratches the experience is unchanged.
There’s a difference between build quality and the feel of build quality. I feel Apple hits the latter.
an sd card slot, increased battery life, ah here get a grip on yourself!!!
Did anyone tell iPhone Joan about this
She’s sending some undercover gardai…
Technology wankfest.
There’ll be an announcement that the thing they announced as the GREATEST iTHING IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE a few months ago is now an outdated peice of rubbish that everyone will laught at you over. But you can avoid that laughter by paying even more money for the new GREATEST iTHING IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. Pay someone to start queueing now!!
iDrones… so predictable
Rose gold is auspicious to the Chinese hence the watch colour.. Pure marketing ploy..
Belfast it is :)
Or parcel motel :)
A massive circle jerk
Did you not get your invitation?
what’s the point !!
Animated backgrounds and motion sensor remote. Give us micro sd slots in phones and a browser for Apple TV
SD slot will never happen when they can get a monthly fee for iCloud.
Sigh.
When you think about it, both those things would be more of a hindrance than a help.
No matter what platform you use, cloud storage is the way forward, and using your TV to browse the Internet, is that really a good way to work?
Just a hyped up outdated product announcements which are based on proprietary outdated technology and too expensive. good marketing job though.
Yeah, big swingin’ Mickey !
Please, please let it be a iPod wheel in-place of a keyboard
You people are crazy if you don’t think that would be greatest invention of the 21st Century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
My phone is better than your phone woooo me! I am winning! Im going to make you feel inadequate about your phone because my phone has some particular features I use that you dont need. Whats that you have? An iPhone? Seriously? You know Samsungs are better right? OH MY GAWWWWW
Since when is a pic with windows 10 an apple product ?
Shut up and take my money.
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