Moral Dilemma - shared house bills

CrabPaste

A 1KW fan heater running constantly, would use 1 unit of electricity in one hour. Typically 1 unit would cost between 9p and 17p. Obviously electricity prices vary by supplier and tariff.

So, find out your unit price (on your electricity bill) and multiply it by the wattage of your heater. 1000watts = 1 unit

Fan heaters are fairly directional, in that it's possible to have the heat directed at one area (your housemate at his PC) without actually heating other rooms or areas of a room (though heat will build up in the room it's used in).

Many fan heaters have a thermostat, so the heater may not be running constantly, depending how you set it. You could use a plug in electricity monitoring device to keep a track of the usage.

Daisies

I had a similar problem a few years back with a housemate who used the tumble dryer for every single load of washing (even through the summer - we did have a clothes line in the garden!). She was genuinely clueless about how much electricity it used (she was very clueless about a lot of things, and I still remember having to explain "overdraft" to her!) so the only way to get through to her was to explain what a difference it made to the electricity bill. So, if you can sit him down and reach an agreement about splitting the cost more fairly, that would be great.

Otherwise, don't know where you are, but if it's possible to move into a hall of residence or something it does work out cheaper. A lot of unversity cities have private accommodation managed by a big landlord, where all the bills and broadband etc is included in the weekly rent.

jennifernil

Oh dear Snow Angel, you do indeed have a problem! Heating does seem to be a bone of contention in many shared houses. In second year 3 friends of my daughter got a flat together. Unfortunately the CH boiler was in one of the bedrooms and was noisey, so the girl in that room kept switching it off and used an electric fan heater instead. So the other 2 were freezing in their rooms, while she was nice and cosy and they were paying the large electricity bill!!! She left soon after that!
I must say the house does not sound to have much going for it. Big, old, and north facing is the worst possible combination. Ours is big but modern and south facing, so holds the heat well.
I would agree that your only options are to get him to agree to pay more meantime, and look for a better place for next year.

TOBRUK

This brings back a lot of memories having shared houses during uni days, aswell as some of my working life. It is difficult because the shared bills, when you feel it is unfair when one or more is using more than you, but you are footing the bill! All this causes stress and tension and as it builds you become extremely unhappy.

I am now sharing this 4-bedroomed house with one other person. Which obviously means bills are shared between 2 and not 4 as I expected.

Is it possible to get another two people in to share the house - it would bring the cost of the rent down as well as the share of electricity/gas bills.

It is also unfortunate that you have found yourself sharing with someone who spends the majority of his time indoors, unlike you - this is causing an obvious feeling of unfairness with regards to heating bills quite naturally. Unless you can sit down and try to get him to see your point of view, and see whether he agrees to paying a larger portion of the bills, I don't see that you can do anything about it.

Personally if I found that it was getting me down and was unable to resolve the problem I would look for somewhere else to live.

Snow_Angel

Beate wrote:

IMHO you are not heating this place enough for it to be really nice to be in anytime during the day. I can understand that you don't want to pay for heating you don't use but I can also understand your housemate for wanting the house warm when he is in it. And you can't really blame him for not being as outdoorsy as you are! So basically, as you cannot afford to heat the house properly, he either has to pay a lot more for the time only he uses the heating, or you will have to find another place to stay where you share with people who have the same approach to keeping the place and themselves warm.

And a last point - check whether you couldn't be with a cheaper utility supplier!

I'm not blaming him for being unlike me! But it is a bit frustrating having someone around literally ALL the time! I'm sure if I do explain things to him he'll understand but I'm a bit annoyed at the moment so don't want to make things worse by losing my temper.
Too much hassle changing the supplier for the sake of 6 months ; 4 in his case.

Daisies wrote:

Otherwise, don't know where you are, but if it's possible to move into a hall of residence or something it does work out cheaper.

Absolutely no way!!! :rotfl: I was a warden in my first year and I hated halls. As I said, I'm a mature student (32) and well past that.

jennifernil wrote:

Unfortunately the CH boiler was in one of the bedrooms and was noisey, so the girl in that room kept switching it off and used an electric fan heater instead. So the other 2 were freezing in their rooms, while she was nice and cosy and they were paying the large electricity bill!!! She left soon after that!
I must say the house does not sound to have much going for it. Big, old, and north facing is the worst possible combination. Ours is big but modern and south facing, so holds the heat well.
I would agree that your only options are to get him to agree to pay more meantime, and look for a better place for next year.

I cannot believe that girl - shameless :eek:
Actually the house does have a lot going for it - I look out over the river and in the summer the back yard does get the sun for 6 hours a day - and we're in the SW so summer is like being on permanent holiday
Next year I qualify and into the big bad world of the NHS :eek:

TOBRUK wrote:

Is it possible to get another two people in to share the house - it would bring the cost of the rent down as well as the share of electricity/gas bills.

The house is still advertised and TBH it is pretty attractive to people. the rent is cheaper than a lot of places, TV licence and SKY included as are water rates. Even halls are empty this year - the government's top-up fees have seen to that!