Question About Living With Others

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am currently living in an off campus apartment with about six people living together </p>

<p>with two bedrooms, one living room, a kitchen, and one bathroom in each room.</p>

<p>I am just curious (since I don't really have the knowledge of) about the problem with electricity bill.</p>

<p>I understand that living with many people is really a pain (YES, A PAIN!) </p>

<p>There are always some roommates who complain this and that, especially those who want to draw a fine line between the use of utilities.</p>

<p>One of the roommates always (I mean ALWAYS) complain about the use of electricity when he wakes up and sees someone staying up using lights and laptops.</p>

<p>His justification is that lights are for everyone to share and not for one person to use freely staying up at night, which I partially agree, however, his justification about the increase in electricity bill does not make much sense to me. He says that everyone will need to pay for that person for using excess electricity just because he stays up at night.</p>

<p>He: "It is like taking showers five times a day. Isn't it unnecessarily and causes the increase in water usage?" </p>

<p>Me: "So you saying we pay separately for water bills?"</p>

<p>He: " (pause).... no, I mean I am just making a comparison. It is the same thing!!"</p>

<p>Me: "Okay........" (awkward moment)</p>

<p>Therefore, I am just curious about whether or not staying up and using lights really does cause an increase in electricity bill. Isn't electricity already included in the rent I pay? Why should I worry about the use of electricity?</p>

2

<p>^ Lol @ your conversation.</p>

<p>I don’t know if you are billed directly for electricity or if your landlord pays it for you. Most of the rent contracts I have seen had a clause allowing the landlord to pass the full cost of utilities on to the tenants. If your electricity bill suddenly tripled, you’d probably pay extra.</p>

<p>That being said, keeping a light on is not a big deal at all. Running a 60 Watt light bulb for 6 hours a night every single day of the year would cost about $15 per year if you pay 12 cents per kWh (national average price in 2011). I’d rather pay $3 per year on behalf of my roommate than put up with conflict.</p>

<p>Next time your roommate complains, hand him $10, explain to him that this covers all of your late-night/early-morning light use for the entire year and ask him to mind his own business.</p>

3

<p>Exactly. Having lights on is not going to up your bill that much, especially if you are only paying 1/6 of it. Running low efficiency appliances (window unit air conditioner, for example) can really cost you a lot though. Easy ways to save energy can include unplugging appliances when not in use, like toasters, etc–maybe observing some of these energy saving tricks would make your roomie feel better. It is ridiculous for a roommate to complain about someone using electricity when they need it. Now if someone is leaving lights on when nobody is home, that is something to complain about.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate it. Yes I do think it is a ridiculous conflict and I am not sure what is going on in his mind. He himself games all day long but complains about the excess use of lights. I guess he is just simply annoyed by others using lights when he is sleeping.</p>

5

<p>Sounds like a cheap SOB, which is why my landlord just charges us each $100 for utilities.</p>

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<p>wow $100 sounds like a bunch!! I am not sure about my case but I am pretty sure I am paying for utilities at a set rate. It usually ****es me off when people don’t bother finding out the truth and instead complain about this and that, in the case between me and my roommate. So he himself using up electricity for bathroom and in his own room gaming all day long but complains about other people using up electricity because he will have to “pay” for them? It is called cheap and stingy.</p>

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<p>He gets $600 total since there’s six of us in the house. I figure internet + TV adds up to about $120 a month. Water isn’t too expensive here but with six people it adds up. We don’t have gas though, and electricity is somewhat expensive in this area. Especially when we have cold winters.</p>

8

<p>Holy cow, $100 a PERSON for utilities? That seems outrageous to me. Internet is about $50 a month, if you get a huge cable TV package it’s probably around $100 a month, and I’ve been paying $20 a month to the electricity company for TWO of us in this apartment (this being in California where we have fairly high electricity rates, too).</p>

9

<p>Yeah it does seem a bit high. But we live in a pretty big house. He likely makes a killing in the Spring and Fall but gets nailed in the Summer and Winter, since we run the A/C at like 72 (and summers in DC are very hot) all the time. Especially since, as I said, we don’t use gas for heating. Electric heat is fine in more moderate winters but a typical DC winter is too cold for electric heat to be cheap.</p>

10

<p>Having lived in places both hotter and colder than DC I’m pretty certain this guy is padding your rent with the utilities bill. ;)</p>

<p>That said, if rent’s reasonable then there’s no reason you’d be getting ripped off in general. I know I’ve gone with a slightly more expensive apartment since it came with everything covered versus going somewhere cheaper where I have to do it all myself.</p>

11

<p>$100 is RIDICULOUS. We pay about $10-15 each a month (there are 3 of us) for utilities. Our bills are usually around $30.</p>

12

<p>Oh I’m sure he’s keeping a little extra for himself, but it sounds like y’all live in apartments. I’m telling you this house is quite big. Even with the utilities charge, I only pay $800 a month for rent in total. That gets me a pretty damn big room, a bathroom I share with one other person, a big house with a backyard and porch, a big living room/kitchen area, a game room, no other loud tenants, no RAs or “community facilitators” like in some of the student apartment complexes, and that’s still cheaper than a lot of the nice student apartments (where you’re looking at $900 a month for a four bedroom with small rooms).</p>