Communal lights question

Duffinya

So it turns out the 2 communal lights are wired into one of the 3 flats in the house.

How have people dealt with communal electricity?

Can we install a 4th meter in the freeholders names?

I will not happily pay a portion of their bill as we don't know how much the 2 lights cost. They are on timer switch, not on all the time.

Any one have this issues or can think of a valid solution?

Many thanks

happenstance

cheapest is to buy LED bulbs from china they use virtually no energy and give a decent light. With timer switches to go off after 30 seconds and the other flats each pay 3kw a year.

Nada666

But if they are on a timer switch then you do know how much they cost.

And if they are on a timed 30s switch then you are talking, for three households six double triggers per day of two 60 W bulbs, about 50 pence per year each.

Shock horror! The resident with the bulbs may receive a subsidy of a few tens of pennies if you pay an approximate notional amount of a pound per year! Clearly, the two of you should demand to only pay two thirds of several hundred pounds to put in a sub-meter and/or isolate the bulbs on a separate circuit.

misterbarlow

ask the landlord for £5 a year off your rent!

Andy_WSM

Even if you each put a fiver a year in a kitty to pay for replacement LED bulbs and the electricity to run them, the flat who has them connected to their supply would never be out of pocket.

Having a sub meter installed would cost hundreds of pounds and is never worth the cost.

Surely you can all agree to pay the flat owner a fiver a year and make an agreement whereby they replace bulbs with LED and pay to run them?

superbigal36

If you really are that tight take the bulbs out full stop.

Duffinya

Thanks very much for both the helpful and sarcastic replies.

Obviously if I knew how little it costs or how expensive a new meter would be or didnt think helpful opinions would be of benefit I would not have writen on this forum.

I will advise the other owners how little it would costs and suggest the contribution amount advised.

Thanks again

matelodave

For the hassle involved I'd be happy to contribute an LED bulb, get one of the other flats to do the same and then let the bloke who's paying keep paying (is he actually complaining, or is it one of those petty disputes that get out of hand for the sake of £5-10 a year)

Even 2 x 11 watt CFLs on for 12hrs a day, 365 days a year would cost less than £15 a year at 15p/kw. I bet you waste more than that by leaving a computer on

deshepherd

Duffinya wrote: »

So it turns out the 2 communal lights are wired into one of the 3 flats in the house.

How have people dealt with communal electricity?

Can we install a 4th meter in the freeholders names?

I will not happily pay a portion of their bill as we don't know how much the 2 lights cost. They are on timer switch, not on all the time.

Any one have this issues or can think of a valid solution?

Many thanks

My first flat (~25 years ago) was in a house that had been split into 4 flats. We had a communal hall/staircase (though as I had the "garden flat" I had a seperate door and only used the front door to pick up post!) and there was an electricity meter for the lighting there in the name of the management company which in turn was "owned" by the 4 flat owners. Only issue was the electric usage on this bill was small and dwarfed by the standing charge! Result was that one of the other flat owners decided to get the staircase lighting wired into his meter as the full electicity charge was less than his share of the standing charge - n.b. he worked for SWEB and had checked up on the details of getting the communal account closed + that this change could be reversed it could be reinstated later if necessary.

So maybe you are in the same situation as this - given that billing seems to be going back to standing charges (as dual rate tariffs are apparently impossible to understand) then the "share of standing charge if we had a seperate supply is more than all the actual electricity you are paying for" argument may apply again.

[Deleted User]

I ve seen many landlords supplys for the lights and security, they all have had a seperate meter. Its a bit cheeky asking tenants to stump up. The big outside security lights would nt be cheap to run neither.

Andy_WSM

sacsquacco wrote: »

I ve seen many landlords supplys for the lights and security, they all have had a seperate meter. Its a bit cheeky asking tenants to stump up. The big outside security lights would nt be cheap to run neither.

As a meter reader you are bound to be in favour of keeping a separate meter, but the standing charges which out strip the cost of the electricity used don't make this feasible for the tenants. The tenants will pay one way or the other, so they may as well ditch the meter and sort it out locally themselves. Less work for you though, sorry