How is a metered water bill worked out?

Where water is metered, you pay for the volume you use, measured in cubic metres, at your council's price per cubic metre, sometimes with a fixed charge on top. One cubic metre is 1,000 litres.

How much water does a household use?

Use varies widely, but a rough guide is around 150 to 200 litres per person per day, more with a garden, pool or long showers. This calculator lets you enter litres per day to estimate your bill.

How can I lower my water bill?

Shorter showers, fixing leaks, efficient appliances and careful garden watering all cut usage. Because a metered bill is directly tied to volume, reducing use translates straight into a lower bill.

Water Usage Cost Calculator

This New Zealand calculator estimates a metered water bill from household use. Where water is metered, you pay for the volume you use at your council's price per cubic metre, so usage feeds straight into the bill. You enter your daily use in litres, the price per cubic metre and any fixed charge, and the tool shows your yearly and monthly cost, useful for budgeting or seeing what cutting back would save.

People in the household

Litres per person per day

Price per cubic metre

Fixed charge per year

estimated water bill per year

Per month$0

Litres used per day0

Cubic metres per year0

One cubic metre is 1,000 litres. Prices, fixed charges and whether wastewater is charged separately vary by council; check your provider. Estimate only.

How it works

The calculator multiplies the people in your household by the litres each uses per day to get daily use, scales that to a year, and converts litres to cubic metres by dividing by 1,000. It multiplies the cubic metres by your price per cubic metre and adds any fixed charge to estimate the yearly bill, then shows it per month. Because the bill tracks volume, you can test how cutting daily use lowers the cost.

Worked example

Three people using 175 litres each a day is 525 litres a day, about 192 cubic metres a year. At $2.20 per cubic metre that is about $422, plus a $250 fixed charge, for around $672 a year, or roughly $56 a month.

Related calculators

Electricity Cost Calculator: power costs.
Property Rates Calculator: council rates.
Home Running Cost Calculator: running a home.
Budget Calculator: your budget.

If you've found a bug, or would like to contact us, or learn more about James Graham and Calculate.co.nz.

Calculate.co.nz is partnered with Interest.co.nz for New Zealand's highest quality calculators and financial analysis.

All calculators and tools are provided for educational and indicative purposes only and do not constitute financial advice.

Calculate.co.nz is proudly part of the Realtor.co.nz group, New Zealand's leading property transaction literacy platform, helping Kiwis understand the home buying and selling process from start to finish. Whether you're a first home buyer navigating your first property purchase, an investor evaluating your next acquisition, or a homeowner planning to sell, Realtor.co.nz provides clear, independent, and trustworthy guidance on every step of the New Zealand property transaction journey.

Calculate.co.nz is also partnered with Health Based Building and Premium Homes to promote informed choices that lead to better long-term outcomes for Kiwi households.

Calculate.co.nz is hosted in Auckland via SiteHost new Zealand.

All content on this website, including calculators, tools, source code, and design, is protected under the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). No part of this site may be reproduced, copied, distributed, stored, or used in any form without prior written permission from the owner.