Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with utilities

What is a good source of Android games and app reviews?

One Hand Slowclapping — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:30:26 -0800

Getting a Nexus 7 tomorrow. I need good review sources for Android app reviews: both games and utilities. My young son, thanks to my generously buying it for myself, is giving me a Nexus 7 tomorrow. I noticed that metacritic doesn't have an Android game section. I've also found a sea of sort-of review sites for games and apps, but haven't found anything that I'm certain is independent.

Any suggestions?

Should I stay or should I go?

munyeca — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:48:42 -0800

My roommate situation is becoming untenable. Should I ride out the storm or leave? What is the best way to bail? Snowflakes inside. My roommate and I have been living together for over a year.

Things have been tense for most of our time together. She's very unpredictable; I never know what mood she's going to be in when I come home. Sometimes she's friendly and we have lovely, mutually supportive conversations; sometimes she ignores me for days. She's been generally resentful of my romantic partners and seriously dislikes my current boyfriend (with whom I am very serious); she originally told me that she didn't want him over at all, and eventually relented, but he still feels uncomfortable in our living space.

She plans on moving to another state in May, but also plans on being gone for somewhere between 6 weeks-1 month in the winter, and has made it clear that she does not want to split the utilities 50/50, nor does she want to sublet her room. She's also requested that I put the oil heating bill in my name. This bill is very, very expensive in the winter.

Relevant details: we aren't actually even on a lease right now, because our landlord never asked us to resign, so I technically won't be breaking the lease if I decide to leave. (Right? I'm not clear on this--will I get my security deposit back??) We share many mutual acquaintances and attend the same graduate program.

I'm thinking of throwing caution to the wind and moving into my own place in January. Does this sound like a reasonable course of action? If so, when do I tell her and/or my landlord that I'm planning on leaving? Am I obligated to find a subletter even though I'm not on the lease, or can I wash my hands of the whole situation?

If I decide to stay, what are reasonable expectations involving shared utilities?

How do I deal with this money related situation with an ex-roommate?

penpenne — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:23:04 -0800

How to deal a money issue with roommate who has just moved out- never contributed to household cleaning/supplies and did not clean after moving out their things. Roommate who just moved out has utilities in their name- they are expecting to be paid around $50 this coming Friday.

I'm very reluctant to pay them because there has been such an imbalance in the household chores and buying of supplies. They have also used detergent that did not belong to them and was plainly labeled, thrown out food that was not theirs/expired, and left their pet's urine in the house for weeks before cleaning it up. I've cleaned up after their pet several times a month (it even pooped in the house- potty trained but severe separation anxiety) and done the bulk of the household chores.

I've addressed all of these issues with them and have never been able to come to a resolution with them. Usually they would say that they'll clean and help out- so I'd put off cleaning (sweeping the floor/taking out the trash/spraying down BR) until the house would reek and be unbearable to live in. I'm not OCD- the other roommate feels the same and knows for a fact that there has been no change/attempt to help out.

Most times they would give excuses saying that they're too busy/tired/no time to do anything. I told them plainly that it was a matter of prioritizing and asked that they help out with a few items around the house before they moved out. In the least sweep up the dirt/debris that would be tracked into the house when people would come to help move furniture/boxes.

I came home last Friday and saw that they had family/friends help with the move, they finished by mid afternoon and left without sweeping any of the floors. Our landlord allowed them till Monday to complete the move so the new roommate would be able to begin moving in/painting. So I thought I would also wait till Monday to see if they'd return to grab a box and sweep up the dirt.
I should mention that I had asked them to clean prior to that Friday, written a note after the move (And I know for a fact that they received it) and texted them with specific concerns after the note went ignored. Their fern had shed all over the floor and when they moved out their table there was a dried pee puddle that their dog had left. No clue how long it's been there.
I texted them on Sunday to confirm whether they would be back to the house for a final haul (and clean up after that) but they told me that they had gotten all of their belongings out of the house. So I asked if they would be returning to clean up and got no response.
I sent another text alerting them that I would be charging them a cleaning fee- whatever my portion of the utilities would be. With a new roommate moving in and simply having to live in the house I couldn't wait around with leaves, dirt and pee littering the house. I waited till the end of the day and cleaned the house after 4 days of waiting.

Now they're upset because we had never come to an agreement. I know that it's not a nice thing to do. But I've been trying to have house meetings and have had several conversations where i request that they help out with a chore/buying TP/anything! My share of the utilities if $55.
I know it won't break their bank, and feel like it would cover the costs of the supplies they used around the house.
Am I just too resentful to see the situation clearly? I've always been a pushover and have had a difficult time with confrontation so the level of communication and persistent talks I've pushed on the topic has surprised me.
Help me figure out what to do! I'm not friends with this person and am perfectly happy to never have to speak to/see them again. I'm just glad they're finally out of the house. Sorry it's so long and jumbled!

We have individual leases with the landlord for our rooms and each have a utility in our own name- they happen to have the electric/water (which was shut off and is still not on because they did not communicate with us about transferring the service). The landlord was very clear that the utilities/other household day to day things would be between the roommates.

Force-hide menus and status bar in a Mac app?

kalapierson — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:01:21 -0800

A Mac app in which I want to force-hide the top menu bars and bottom status bar (not possible natively within the app): what third-party utilities or UI-hacking tools could help? App is Sibelius 7 (a 2D graphic program for music notation); OS is Lion.

Sibelius 7 is based on very different ideas about screen real estate and UI than previous versions. There are three horizontal bars that apparently can't be hidden via the app's preferences:

1) a Microsoft-style Ribbon that takes up a standard menu bar's height even when minimized;
2) the tab row of a tabbed document interface, always present even if there's only one tab; and
3) a non-useful and visually distracting bottom status bar.

The app's "full-screen mode" is almost meaningless, only hiding Apple's own system-level menu bar and still displaying all three of these bars!

Being able to force-hide any or all of the three bars would be exciting. Any tools that can do this?

Utility costs for commercial rental space?

14580 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:24:55 -0800

I'm working on the business plan for a "Maker Space" we're trying to start in Rochester NY. I'm trying to estimate utility costs (heating, cooling & basic lighting) for different size spaces (5,000, 10,000 & 20,000 square feet) that we might rent. I know that asking what you pay may not be too helpful because utility rates, climate, building construction and use can vary greatly. But that's what I'm asking -- how big is your building or rental space and how much do you pay on the average each month for utilities? I'd also like to know if there's a good rule of thumb to use or if there is some other way to find out what we need to know.

Roommate from Hell

taiscape — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:06:28 -0800

Roommate has lied about paying her share of the bills and has not paid last month's bills. She's been unreasonable and refuses to talk about bills. Her lease ends in 3 days. She owes hundreds of dollars. Can we pursue legal recourse? (part of the lease posted inside) note: I'm not the one who is actually living with this person. My friends are the one living with her. She took my room when I moved out (found her on craigslist) because she seemed pleasant and responsible. This is not the case anymore and I feel partly responsible.

Robyn is the girl who has not been paying her bills. For the past month, my friend Heather who lives with her has repeatedly asked Robyn to pay her share of the bills because she never paid up (this is for June). Robyn has been increasingly closed off and refuses to talk about the bills. She always tries to flee the house or will slam the door in Heather's face.

Heather has just found out today that Robyn has lied about paying her share of the bills for previous months when she received late charges and checked online accounts. So now Robyn really does owe a couple hundred dollars in unpaid utilities.

The issue now is that we are afraid Robyn will just jump ship since her lease ends in 3 days and get away with not paying hundreds of dollars.

I found this bit in the lease for utilities:

UTILITIES
Where applicable, Tenant must pay fuel charges, electric, water sewer use, telephone, cable and any other utilities for the premises as and when the same become due, and make all required deposits. Additionally, Tenant is responsible for trash removal charges if that service is provided by a private hauler and the facility is not located in a County collection district. The tenant agrees to furnish a receipted water bill for the above premises to Landlord/Agent at termination of the Lease, extension or renewals thereof.

Everyone at the house has signed the lease with that clause.

They live in Maryland.

if this is relevant: there are four people who live in the house. Robyn, Heather, and two other girls. Everyone but Robyn has been paying the bills in full and on time.

They have a long list of bills that Robyn has not paid. The bills are in Heather's name I believe...so this has been ruining her credit score.

My employers need an electrician. I need advice on hiring one!

aecorwin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:03:42 -0800

Hooray! I got my employers' approval to get some electrical work we've badly needed for a long time in our lab/office suite done. I have no word-of-mouth recommendations of local electricians to go on, so I'm checking around online and trying to get quotes. As such, I have a few questions on how to most effectively screen for quality, recognize a fair price for the work, and deal with the etiquette aspects of the quoting process. [Background]: As a hardware engineer at a smallish (but growing) biotech lab, one thing I often end up dealing with is the matter of where and how to plug in various pieces of equipment. We've been in this building since 2010 and are really outgrowing the space at this point -- but as long as we're here, we need to be able to operate our various fridges, incubators, fume hoods, and centrifuges reliably and safely. The problem is that this suite was not originally constructed to be lab space, and thus, we've got entire rooms where ALL the outlets along a wall go to a mere 1 or 2 circuit breakers. Which means that the more equipment we get, the more we end up with tripped circuits.

Anyhow, yesterday I got permission to seek and hire an electrician to run some additional lines from less-loaded circuits to a few new outlets in the lab area. I contacted one company (which had a decent number of good reviews on Angie's List) this morning and while he definitely sounded like he understood the nature of the job, he can't come out to look at the site until next Tuesday.

...but all that said, herein lies my question: I'd really like to get at least 2 or 3 quotes to compare, but as I've never done this sort of thing before, I'm a little nervous about the etiquette of potentially having to tell the first or second guy, "sorry, we decided to hire someone else".

I'm really good at being blunt and straightforward and not overly worried about offending people, but I DO want to make sure I go about this professionally as I will be speaking on behalf of my company in this matter. Any tips there would be appreciated.

I'd also be very interested in tips folks might have for, in general, what factors aside from word-of-mouth recommendation tend to indicate "this is a great electrician who will do awesome work!" Like are there certain pointed questions I can ask? Thanks!

Thinking of switching electrial provider and need some tips.

lampshade — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:23:59 -0800

I am considering changing my electricity provider and I have never done this before. What I want to know are what things should be considered before making a switch such as this. My basics reasons are cost and that Comed, the local provider has treated me like crap over the years and I am tired of their corporate doublespeak and crappy service. So yeah, Illinois, check my profile for the town. Dupage county. I rent an apartment downtown. Anyway, Comed has always been nasty to me making me pay for deposits that were totally unnecessary and frankly the service sucks. While I understand that another energy supplier won’t be able to fix the blackouts during windstorms and such, at the same time as long as I am getting crappy service, I may as well pay a little less for it.

So the questions are these:
- Who of the myriad of alternative energy suppliers have a better record than others?
- Can anyone give me the straight answer on what, if any, deposits are required?
- How difficult is the change over to an alternate provider from the current one?
- I have checked this website, Plug In Illinois, but can anyone point to pages that may be more useful than others or websites that have more information?

Finally, any answers don’t have to be local to Illinois. I am trying to get an idea of the whole alternative/green energy delivery picture so examples from other locations are welcome. It is also possible that your local provider also has a presence in Illinois.

Help me make an informed choice! Thanks!

Cheapest, fastest internet in the emerald city?

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:39:30 -0800

What are my options for broadband residential internet in Seattle? We're moving from out of state at the end of June. We don't have an exact address nailed down yet but we're looking at large apartment complexes in Queen Anne and West Seattle. I assume this rules out anything like satellite or WiMax that requires hardware installation on the exterior of the building.

Is fiber to the home available anywhere in the city? I'm looking for a fairly high amount of bandwidth (I'll be working virtually and need it for remote desktop connections). How's the cable and DSL out there? I'm really burned out on the big ISPs like Comcast and CenturyLink, so info about alternatives is welcome. Cost is also a factor. My wife and I have mobile data plans with Verizon, so we'd be interested in any package deals we could take advantage of to keep expenses low (yes, I realize they are also a "big ISP" and we'd get away from them if we could keep our iPhones!).

Windows Speed Demon

jasondigitized — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:54:05 -0800

I need to be as efficient as possible when using Windows 7, using Office, browsing with Firefox / Chrome, working with files, etc. etc. What are your best tips for being a Windows speed demon? Answers to this question will include keyboard shortcuts, utilities, how you use your taskbar, command-line, whatever. I am looking for how you get the most out of Windows.

What are these pointy, yellow street utility poles?

jjjjjjjijjjjjjj — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:44:18 -0800

What is the purpose of these yellow, columnar, pointy-topped utility structures found frequently on the streets of St Louis: [ex. 01 ^[gmap] || ex. 02 ^[gmap] || detail]? There are several dozen of these that I've seen all over St. Louis. What are they/what do they do/how do they work?

The structures look quite a bit older than the solar panel/antenna that's mounted to them; I suspect that these power/transmit status information that was once gathered by hand.

I thought I smelled a faint odor of natural gas from these two that I photographed close-up; though this might be my imagination. Many thanks for your help.

The electric bill is too damn high

dixiecupdrinking — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:55:30 -0800

How much are your Con Ed bills? Help me work through some issues with my electricity bill in NYC. I recently got a bill from Con Ed for about $1,100. I called and they told me that they just got their first meter reading in about 15 months and that was the balance I owed over and above the estimated charges. I hadn't really been paying attention, but apparently my bills had all been estimated charges since June of 2010 or so.

My bills have averaged around $35 a month, year-round. I live alone, in a small one-bedroom, am out of the house a normal amount, run A/C in the summer, and don't pay for heat or hot water. In retrospect, $35 a month, especially in the summer, seems low and I don't doubt I owe something. However, pro-rating that $1,100 over the relevant time period would mean that I was actually using something like $110 a month in electricity. This seems wrong to me.

So, question #1: What is a reasonable electricity bill in NYC for someone in my situation? I really don't know, I've only ever lived with roommates in bigger apartments before.

Question #2: I rent in an owner-occupied brownstone. I have a suspicion that my meter might accidentally (let's say) be rigged to something I shouldn't be paying for, like the common area lighting. What are my options for investigating this? This question has both a technical element and a human element; I'd like to know both what I can do, legally and physically, to determine whether I am being charged correctly, and how to go about doing so without alienating my landlords, who after all do live in the building and have been pretty decent to me.

Question #3: Are there other ways I should be following up on this that I am not thinking of right now?

Thanks folks

What's the deal with ConEd's "Level Payment Plan"?

ocherdraco — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:02:51 -0800

Are utility company "level payment plans" worth it, or are they a scam? Our electricity bill this past month came in pretty high—not too much of a surprise, since we've been running two air conditioners for most of the month. The bill is $178, which we can pay. However, the bill (from ConEd; we're in NYC) says that if we pay "the exact LEVEL PAYMENT AMOUNT of $66.00 this month instead of [the] TOTAL AMOUNT NOW DUE" they will automatically enroll us in the "level payment plan" in which payments are evened out over the year. Every four months they'll review our usage and adjust the rate.

Is this a good idea? Would our payments end up being roughly the same as they would otherwise, or will we end up cumulatively paying more than we would normally?

This month, I'm going to go ahead and pay the full amount, but I'd like to know more about this kind of plan (especially from those who've used it) before next month's bill rolls around.

water meter question

uni verse — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:36:03 -0800

Who should I call, if at all, to get a water meter installed? Our new condo didn't come with one, I have heard it normally sits on top of the hot water heater, and there is nothing there. I got a letter from the water company to the effect that since we don't have one we are being charged a 'high' flat rate in lieu of it. I wonder if I could do it myself, but I have little home fixing experience. I will probably only live here a couple more years so I'm not sure its worth it, if its very expensive! 2 people live at home.
Thanks.

What's in your virtual toolbox?

Lyn Never — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:56:07 -0800

System/network/desktop admins, what tools and utilities do you keep in your virtual toolbox? I had to un-retire an old desktop last night for a temp coming in this week, and as I was burning a fresh copy of my "Misc Stuff" CD to clean the nasty thing up I started wondering if there was a curated list of those sorts of tools maintained somewhere, or failing that what the IT Persons of Metafilter keep on hand for workstation and server utilities.

For example, I've got the obvious: Malwarebytes, Firefox, CCleaner, the contents of Bootdisk.com, Hijack This, several free anti-virus and anti-spyware products, UnHide, Wise Disk Cleaner, WinRAR (because our Chinese colleagues always .rar things, so I install it on all new workstations), and several Sysinternals tools.

What do you consider the best and most useful tools in network/Windows (we have a few MacBooks, including my personal one, but they don't cause much trouble aside from needing an FTP client to use our weird FTP site) administration and support? Help me build a better Misc Stuff CD.

Average energy/water use of adults vs children?

PardonMyFrench — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:06:04 -0800

I live in a house shared amongst 10 tenants, including 2 children, aged 12 and 8. We're trying to figure out a fair way to divide electricity/gas/water bills. Specifically, how much less utilities should the children be charged for, and until which age? I've searched facts and figures on this topic, but have come up very empty handed, with only stats available being on a per capita basis...
My gut feeling/daily observation tells me that the kids actually look like they're using a lot more energy than most of the adults, since they require a lot of laundry being done/leave the lights on all the time/are actually at home a lot more often than most of the adults with jobs.
The parents of the kids are now paying half price for the children, and would like to keep it that way... indefinitely?
Their oldest turned 12 this year, which looked to me like a good cut-off mark.
I'd like to back up my arguments at the next house meeting with good sources or figures, or at least what the "industry standard" is for these type of issues?
For instance, in most restaurants here, the kids menu is available for children under 12...
I'm in Amsterdam, NL, if this is relevant. Thanks!

How do I compare rents w/ or w/o utilities included?

arveale — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:25:42 -0800

Is there a way to estimate the cost of utilities (heat, electricity) in a given city or region? I know that these things vary considerably (size of apt., season, desired room temp.) but I am looking for an apartment in Hartford, CT and know that Connecticut has some of the highest energy costs in the US. Is there a way to estimate what my utilities may be?

I am trying to figure out a good way to compare different rent prices including offers that include utilities.

I want to be able to compare say, $800/mo plus utilities and $1050/mo utilities included.

Copying over a large DMG backup

antgly — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:26:57 -0800

What is the best way to copy files out of a 140 GB dmg file from an external USB drive that is a backup from a previous Mac? It seems to take way too long to copy the whole entire dmg. Trying to mount it has issues as the file is really big. All I want is to extract out a couple of folders from the dmg.

Is there anyway to deal with dmg files at a much more detailed level? Also there is a chance that the dmg file is corrupted, however doing a Disk Utility Verify Disk shows that the volume is OK.

So I'm not sure how to deal with this file as I'm not sure if it's worth waiting for the entire thing to copy (9 hours to copy) to know if I will be able to mount it once it's copied over. Is there a way I can deal with large dmg files in a much more efficient manner?

Heat in New York apartments--what is the landlord responsible for?

thelatermonths — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:35:54 -0800

I know New York housing laws mandate that landlords keep apartments heated under certain conditions--does this mean they must keep the apartment at that heat, or does it mean that they have to make a heating option available? I recently moved in to a new apartment in New York, and now that it's finally winter, have started to think about turning on the heater. Here's the issue: the apartment, without heating on, is about 45 degrees at night and in the morning, which is clearly under the temperature that New York laws allow. We do have individual heaters in each of the rooms, but they add to our gas bill.

So here's the main question: when New York laws state that the landlord must provide heat up to a certain level, does that mean that they have to keep it at a certain temperature, or does it mean that they can provide a heater that's capable of doing that for us?

And a secondary question: do riders to leases override state housing laws? One of the riders we signed says this: ALL UTILITIES, "INCLUDING HEAT, COST WILL BE INDIVIDUALLY METERED TO THE TENANTS APARTMENT. ALL PAYMENTS FOR THESE COSTS ARE THE TENANTS RESPONSIBILITY."

Is this a problem?

Thank you all so much!

I Liked It Better When I Had No Choices

amicamentis — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:24:28 -0800

Where can I find clear information about setting up utilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? I have recently rented a house in zip code 15224. Hooray! I am going to be responsible for gas, electric, and water utilities. I thought that there was just one option for each and thus no worry. However, now I see on the Duquesne Light website that there are several available, like PALMco, that are cheaper.

How do I know which is the best value for my house? I am concerned about saving money but do not want to do so at the expense of reliable utilities. Do you have a preferred gas/electricity/water provider? What makes it the best?

In addition, any information regarding energy-saving initiatives offered by these companies (such as discounts on compact light bulbs) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Who's paying for the heat?

pavane — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:23:02 -0800

Help me figure out whether the landlord is really paying for my heat. I moved into my current apartment last spring, when heating was not necessary. As it gets colder, I examined my heating apparatuses more closely and realized that they are all electric (baseboard-type) heaters (I'm used to central air, so no, this wasn't immediately obvious to me). My lease states that the landlord will pay for heat, but that I pay for electricity.

Given that I have electric heaters, is this possible? Are apartments ever wired so that just the heaters are on a separate meter?

Is there a way to assess whether I am paying for heat other than seeing how much steeper my electric bill is at the end of the month? I know the easiest answer seems to be "ask your landlord", and I am pursuing an answer that way, but communication is a bit slow as it's through a large company rather than a single person. And anyway, I'd like a way to test their claim if they state that I'm not paying for the heat.

More info: two of the heaters are controlled by dials right on the unit, but the two main units must have a switch on the wall (not on the unit) flipped to "heat" as well as a dial on the wall (not on the unit) turned to the required temperature. The wall switch has three settings (heat, off, and AC); the AC setting controls electrical power to a window AC unit plugged into a special outlet. Since I know that I pay for the AC power toggled by this switch, is it possible that the electricity for the heater routed through this same switch is on a separate meter?

Onscreen Caps Lock/Num Lock/Insert notification for Windows XP?

DakotaPaul — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:37:23 -0800

Is there a utility that runs on Windows XP that will give an on-screen notification when the Caps Lock, Num Lock and Insert keys are pressed? I'm thinking of something unobtrusive like the volume indicator on Mac OS X that would pop up and fade away after a second or two. Thanks!

Negotiating with the water company

xchmp — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:24:30 -0800

Water company is about to chase me for money - it's their fault they didn't contact me about this for a year. Is my strategy for negotiating this issue sensible? So, I moved in about a year ago. Prior to moving I called and informed the water company of my new address, which is also part of their supply area. They did a search and were unable to find the place in their records, so told me they'd have to do a full property search. I moved in and didn't think any more about this.

I got a letter yesterday asking me to supply information about when I moved in and set up a direct debit for the future. This was addressed to "The Occupier" and not me by name. I'm happy to pay for my water from this point, but I'm substantially less happy about the idea of having to pay for a full year all at once. So, I have a strategy for dealing with this. My goals are:

1. Pay the minimum possible amount for the year prior to them contacting me.
2. Avoid any hit on my credit rating.
3. Pay in full from this point onwards.

Water companies in the UK cannot cut people off for non-payment, so this isn't a concern.

So, in order to achieve this, I'm thinking about doing the following:

1. Call the water company, give them the information they want - dates I moved in, etc. State the following:

* I do not expect to pay anything for the time between the date I moved in and the date they first contacted me about this (yesterday). They are at fault for not contacting me after I informed them of my change of address.
* I will be willing to set up a direct debit to pay going forward as soon as the issue around the previous payment is resolved.

2. I think the response to the above will be that I'll have to pay the full amount. I'm going to escalate the call as far as I can until I get someone who's willing to negotiate and has the financial authority to do so.

3. If the answer's still no, which I suspect will be the case, I'll offer to pay 25% of the total owed. I'll state that this is the maximum amount I can afford to pay at once, and if more is needed we'll need to discuss some kind of payment arrangement.

4. If this offer is rejected, I'll take this to a formal complaint, advising them that if I cannot get a satisfactory outcome via their internal complaints procedure, I'll take this to the consumer council for water.

5. Escalate as above.

I've not really tried to do this kind of negotiation in the past, although I've had some training in negotiation via my job, so I'm interested in what people think of this strategy and what you'd do differently. (Having seen how similar questions have gone in the past, I'm not interested in being told that I have a moral duty to pay the whole amount because I've been using the water - yes, I've been using the water, but this is about negotiating the best possible outcome around that obligation.)

One point I haven't thought about is what to do if they ask for a payment arrangement for the full amount - how much should I offer to pay per month for this? I also think its probably best to deal with this issue as soon as possible rather than waiting for further chasing letters/investigation, but I'm open to suggestion.

We are sure you will be pleased with this agreement.

porpoise — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:10:35 -0800

What is a fair way to estimate, over an entire year, the proportion of an electrical bill that is being used for electrical heating? (Previously) The management company got back to me, is this a fair estimate of electrical use for heating? This is based on one hydro/electric bill for the months of April and June.

BC Hydro provided us with the following, approximately 40% of the BC Hydro bill owing is from Electric Heat, as well, they provided a appliance calculator to further determine an approximate amount:

You can find attached the appliance calculator reference, which shows the following:

Watts: 1500
Quantity: 4 heaters
Average hours per week: 14(approximately 2 hours a day)
Kwh:4368

Dollars per year: $262.00 (Dollars per month: $262.00/12= $21.83/month)

Based on what the BC Hydro representative mentioned, 40% of the bill being electric heat, the calculation would be:

40% of $96.28 =38.52 / 63 days = $19.26/month

We have averaged out the two approximate monthly costs for the “electric heat” of the BC Hydro bill, and offer the rent at a reduced rate by $20.00/month.

We are sure you will be pleased with this agreement.

Although intuitively it feels like they're lowballing me, I'm inclined to take this settlement as a compromise between lawyering up and not receiving any concessions. I fully realize that the summer months do not require heating (oh do I realize that), but is heating during Winter going to be exponentially more than late Spring?

Somebody's in hot water (sadly, not us)

baxter_ilion — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:45:29 -0800

Apartment is without water until July 6th due to circumstances described below. What kind of compensation should I ask my landlord for? My girlfriend and I live in a basement apartment that was added onto the building recently. When the apartment was built, it was not connected with gas. Our heat is electric as is our stove. The water in our unit is heated using another unit's gas. Unfortunately, the tenant in this unit has not paid the gas bill for several months and the gas has been shut off, leaving us without hot water.

Our landlord cannot compel the tenant to pay the thousands of dollars that are owed on the account, nor is our landlord in the position to pay the amount owed, so she has decided to switch the gas account to her name. Unfortunately, the gas company will not switch the account until July 6th. We are without hot water until then.

This is affecting our ability to bathe and wash dishes without major inconvenience.

I will be looking over our lease this evening, and contacting our landlord to discuss this situation. We believe that we should be compensated for the inconvenience this has caused us. What sort of compensation should we ask?