tl;dr
Non-requested heater installation in boiler room halfway through lease is causing the considerable portion of a gigawatt hour increase in my electricity bill.
Is it reasonable for me to be expected to pay any non-negligible part of the energy usage of this heater?
Long version:
I found this sub yesterday after looking for ideas as to what might've caused a 3-4 fold increase in my electricity usage $75 to $208 and $320.
| Date | Usage |
|---|---|
| 02/17 | 1500 kWh |
| 01/17 | 1200 kWh |
| 12/16 | 420 kWh |
| 11/16 | 400 kWh |
Our 5-month winters are survived with gas heating, but we do have an electric stove/oven we've been making better use of lately. I also purchased a 55" television that my girlfriend makes far far better use of than I do. So I considered maybe it's possible we consumed that much more energy.
I managed to get Home Depot to price match Amazon on a KillAWatt, and was about to work through the advice given here:
Then I ran into one of our apartment building's office manager in the parking lot. It turns out that several weeks ago during some emergency maintenance, due to another apartment's frozen pipes, they installed heaters in each individual apartment's boiler room (it's worth noting that we're not allowed a key for this door). They requested copies of my last few electricity bills, and told me to expect a credit of some currently undetermined size on my account in the next couple weeks.
While I appreciate their straight-forwardness, I also pay $20/month for basic cable television that I don't watch and apparently can't opt out of, $4/load for laundry, a "2.3 bedrooms" share of the water despite having closer to 1.5 bedrooms. I'm already being nickled and dimed elsewhere so I plan on not letting slide any potion of an additional $375 expense over two months.
Is it reasonable for me to be expected to pay any non-negligible part of the energy usage of this heater?
February 17, 2017 at 12:44PM
