shared house-unequal use of electricity

StudentPoverty

Hi, my friend and I have recently rented a room in a shared house and are having a problem with the existing tenant. Basically we are on a tight budget this year and so want to keep costs low. He on the other hand seems to eat electricity! The electric and gas are both on pre-pay meters which we thought would make it easier to keep track of what we were spending. Soon after we moved in the landlord installed a tumble-dryer (at said tenants request it later turned out). The problem now is that the tenant (who is also incredibly lazy) sees this as permitting him to wash clothes on a pretty much daily basis due to the ease of drying them. The dryer is in use almost every day, usually on for around 2hours even for a few items, and since it has been installed the amount of money spent on electric has doubled- a top-up sum that used to last us 10 days now runs out in 4.5. We have never used the dryer and don't intend to except in emergencies, not least because we can't afford the bill to become even bigger. The inequality is really becoming frustrating-my friend and I use the amount of electric 1 person would between us as we share a room and cook together etc, yet as we all pay the same we are covering two-thirds of the cost whereas he uses two-thirds of the electricity and pays a third. I know we can't tell him what to do, and that paying according to use would be impossible but there has got to be some way of broaching the subject and reaching a compromise. Has anyone been in a similar situation, and if so what did you do? The landlord is aware that the other guy is the only one to use the dryer but we havn't spoken to him about what a problem it is. Is there any way that a coin meter could be installed on the dryer so that he alone pays for it? Sorry about the length of this post, any advice would be much appreciated though!

simongregson

I would speak to them, they probably don't realise how much electricity the dryer uses. Perhaps if both of you do this, they will get the point and offer to put a bit more onto the electric or use the dryer less

As a rough calculation, our dryer is 1600W = 1.6KW
2 hours drying = 1.6 x 2 = 3.2 units of electricity. We pay about 11p a unit, so it would cost 35p for a 2 hour dry cycle.

Perhaps if you all agree to put 40p in a pot whenever you use the dryer, and add the extra cash onto your electric card?

Other than negotiating, there isn't really a lot you can do!

londondulwich

Take the fuse out of the tumbledryer plug.

He'll get the message.

tomstickland

No, he'll put the fuse back in and think the OP is a knob.

40p per 2 hour dry isn't enough to explain why the money is only lasting half the time in the meter.

roses

Has he got an electric heater as well?

I hate people like this

Is there an option for you to move out? People like the OP describe never change their ways.

Chester_Draws

Would one of these energy monitors, which will show exaxctly how much it costs to use, be of benefit ?
Available from LIDL as of 08/10/07 for £6.99.
.



Energy Monitor
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Monitor the amount of electricity used by your appliances

<LI type=square taggedByMe="true">By programming the rate per hour, see the total cost of your consumption at a glance

Smiley_Mum

My tumble drier is a small 3kg one, with a vent which I put out the window. It's a Creda Autodry and uses around 2125 watts on a high heat load. Running it for 29 minutes uses 1kw of electricity. Keep tabs on the tumble drier usage, and locked moneybox to put contributions towards the electric bill each time it is used, 50p a load I'd say. If the guy isn't happy about it, tell him to go to the laundrette and see what they charge. I would be seriously p'ed off about subsidising someone else's extravagance etc, when it comes to utility bills etc. Keep daily meter readings too and watch any large jumps, if possible. I shared a flat several years ago with someone like that and in the end, I moved out. Good Luck!

http://www.jla.com/products/dryers_home.htm