Gas & Elec. costs in a flatshare - how much is reasonable?

untranslatable

I have been sharing a house with three other people since November. This means I moved in right at the beginning of the cold season.

In summer, before I moved in, they used to pay each about £20 per month for elec & gas together. At the moment the three others are paying around £35 each; I pay £45 because I work from home and use the central heating more than them, in addition I have a little radiator which is running almost non-stop (that Argos thingy with 450W).

Recently there have been some bad vibes wavering around the house: They obviously feel that I should pay more because I use the heating more than them. I feel that the extra tenner is enough,
a) because I spend about £5 per month on household and cleaning stuff,
b) because I have to clean up after them almost every day - they are the kind of people who simply don't care if the whole kitchen feels sticky and grimey
c) I don't use the tumble-dryer very often - they do.
d) One of them is also at home 24 hours a day, cooks pizza every day, has the telly and a computer with two monitors and some more equipment running non-stop.He is often awake all night and has the lights on. He doesn't use the heating a lot, but my reasoning is that his attic room gets second-hand heating from my room which is right underneath.

What do you think: Is our overall energy consumption reasonable for this time of the year or too high?
And do you think I am paying my fair share or should I pay more?

chris1973

in addition I have a little radiator which is running almost non-stop (that Argos thingy with 450W)

Sounds like a complete waste of money to me if you have a room space already heated by GCH!, I had one of those Bambino things which was rated at 700w, it barely raised the room temperature of an average sized bedroom by 1c or 2c after several hours, and I quickly learned that I may as well just sit outside and burn £5 notes.

These heaters are ok for keeping the frost from killing plants or freezing up your washing machine pipes in a porch or a small greenhouse, or your water pipes from freezing in a static caravan, but they simply don't have enough output to be a primary room heating device or make a room comfortably warm, and its not what they are designed to do.

Enter your room / living space dimensions into a room heat calculator such as http://www.flickeringflame.co.uk/tech_detail/tech.htm

I wouldn't be surprised to find that even a small bedroom would need 1.5kw + to heat it, some larger rooms may even need a couple of thousand watts, if poorly insulated and its -5c outside, 450w isn't even going to scratch the surface at this time of year.

In comparison, even a medium sized single central heating radiator will output 2.4kw - 3.3kw if working correctly and the air is bled out of it on a regular basis. If you have a radiator fed from the central heating why do you run the 450w heater 24/7?, a decent sized radiator in a bedroom should easily make it comfortable without having to resort to additional electric heating

You do realise that gas is around half the price of Electricity? and is probably the most cheapest, economical form of heating for a household?, and on some tariff's it can work out that its nearly 3 times cheaper to use Gas than Electricity.

If your GCH heating radiator can't adequately heat your room to a comfortable temperature, then something is wrong, call the landlord and get it fixed

I'm not surprised that there is a bad vibe, your 450w heater will use nearly 1 unit of Electricity for every 2 hours that its switched on, so running 24/7 it will use anything up to 12 units per 24 hour Day, so at an average cost of 12p per KW/H for your Electricity that heater will be costing the household anything upto £1.44 per day, or £10.08 per week, just for the one 450W heater!.

When you also add, any share of the other Electricial appliances that you run, and any Gas usage for the CH and Hot water plus the fact that you are the only one of two people in occupancy during working hours, i'm pretty sure you are certainly a contributor to any increase in bills.

a) because I spend about £5 per month on household and cleaning stuff,
b) because I have to clean up after them almost every day - they are the kind of people who simply don't care if the whole kitchen feels sticky and grimey

Not really adding much to your argument, what has this got to do with energy usage?. Do you drive to the shops in an Electric Car which then needs recharging?. I'm not really getting the connection between energy bills and £5 of cleaning equpment. It sounds a little bit childish "tit for tat" to me, you have an Electric Heater which is little more than a novelty device, running night and day using over £10 a week all by itself and you somehow think that the odd bottle of CIF, and pack of J-cloths is fair compensation?.

If you don't like the personal habits of your flatmates, then look around for somebody else to share with. Some people like living in Buckingham Palace, others are content to live in a pig sty. In my student days, the 'laundry basket' was the space in front of the washing machine.......every month or so, somebody actually opened the door and switched it on!.

And do you think I am paying my fair share or should I pay more?

If I was in that situation, then you and the other person at home 24/7 would be paying a large percentage of the bill between you. Its hardly fair to expect people at work / Uni for 40 hours a week, to pay the same as those living there 24/7

He doesn't use the heating a lot, but my reasoning is that his attic room gets second-hand heating from my room which is right underneath.

Not from your 450w heater he wont!!!. I live in a one bedroom flat, with about 6.4kw of Storage heating, and right now its struggling to keep the various rooms at 15c!, so I have to run a 3kw convector just to warm the living area. There is absolutely no way a single central heating radiator, and 450w radiator would comfortably heat two rooms at this time of year!, especially not an attic room which probably has less insulation than a room with solid outer walls. If its a big deal, why not ask to swap rooms with him, and you can then take advantage of the heat he pays for, if you really believe that this is the case?

HappyMJ

I think you should pay a bit more. However, if you feel that you shouldn't then maybe you consider moving into a bedsit or a home of your own.

As far as the 450W radiator goes...I have a 800W mini oil filled radiator that I leave on all night to keep the chill off my bedroom. The thermostat turns it off and on and uses 400W of electric per hour. I woke up to 7 degrees in the bedroom this morning. It's cheaper than the central heating or the 2kw convector heater but isn't very good actually keeping the room warm.

untranslatable

Thank you for your insights, although I don't really like this accusing and belligerent style, Chris.

Yes, that radiator is not cheap, but

- it's not running 24/7, at night it's off.

- It is true that the central heating warms the room up in a much more effective way, but the room cools out again within half an hour. So if I put the central on, I pay 50p for half an hour of warmth, and then I sit in the cold again. The little radiator adds only one or two degrees to the room temperature, but these one or two degrees reduce my use of the central heating by approx. 50%.

And yes, I do think other household expenses I pay for should be taken into account - money is money, no matter if it is spent on the meter or on bin liners, washing-up liquid and sponges. And I don't care what it looked like in your student acommodation - these guys are not students, they are old enough to be expected to leave the communal areas in an acceptable state, and if they don't, I will charge for the time I waste - as a freelancer I am very time-conscious.

macman

untranslatable wrote: »

Thank you for your insights, although I don't really like this accusing and belligerent style, Chris.

Yes, that radiator is not cheap, but

- it's not running 24/7, at night it's off.

- It is true that the central heating warms the room up in a much more effective way, but the room cools out again within half an hour. So if I put the central on, I pay 50p for half an hour of warmth, and then I sit in the cold again. The little radiator adds only one or two degrees to the room temperature, but these one or two degrees reduce my use of the central heating by approx. 50%.

And yes, I do think other household expenses I pay for should be taken into account - money is money, no matter if it is spent on the meter or on bin liners, washing-up liquid and sponges. And I don't care what it looked like in your student acommodation - these guys are not students, they are old enough to be expected to leave the communal areas in an acceptable state, and if they don't, I will charge for the time I waste - as a freelancer I am very time-conscious.

Which, loosely translated means, 'I posted on a publlc forum and now I don't like the answers that I am getting'.
It seems to me that you and your flatmates are temperamentally unsuited to one another, and if you don't fall out over energy bills, then you will fall out over cleaning, or any other of many domestic issues. Maybe better to move on to somewhere more suited to you?
Without knowing your actual kWh consumption and more about the property, it's impossible to say whether it's reasonable or not-£'s monthly tell us nothing.
The heat loss in a room is exactly the same whether the input is by CH or by an electric fire.