I just got my first apartment 6 months ago. My gas and electric bill has been about $70 all the way up to December when all of a sudden it shot up to $130 (I live in the northeast where its cold).
Not cool... Esp since I programmed the thermostat, sealed off the windows and cracks under the door.
Two weeks ago my landlord accidentally let it slip that the heater in the hallway that leads to my apartment is on my gas meter (and the lights too i suspect). Side note: I feel like this is probably illegal to make a tenant pay for the common area of an apartment, and if I were planning to stay I'd do something about it, but I plan to bail the second my lease is up).
I felt really betrayed, so I bought a space heater and completely turned off my thermostat and bought a mini space heater to heat whatever room I'm in.
Long story short my bill showed up today and it was down to $100 from only 15 days of not using my thermostat.
TLDR- I wanted to post this in case anybody else in a cold climate was trying to figure out how to lower their energy bills. Sometimes its cheaper to just heat the room you're in rather than the whole apartment, and in my case the hallway outside of it..
January 30, 2020 at 08:53PM
