I finding myself really worked up about this issue. What would you do? Housemate is almost always home as they do not work. They always use the aircon and I am panicking about the bills during summmer. I would rarely turn it on, only if it's really hot. We are probably affected by the heat differently. I am way too shy to ask if I can pay less but I don't think it's fair.
Aircon use in houseshare
LSilly-sausage88 on 21/11/2019 - 17:26
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Or put a snow jacket on to emphasise the use of air con.
Sounds like OP already does.. His flat mate is obviously too shy to say anything so they are using the AC hoping OP gets the message & puts some clothes on..
How did heating go?
tell them since u have the aircon on all day u can pay for 60% of the electric, totally fair. if they disagree eat their food as compensation through the night
stop being shy, and boss it…otherwise you will get walked over
Be careful, stories of psycho housemates
Ditto to the flatmate
If they go ape shit they are unreasonable be better off departing from their life , and not by death :)
Had this with a mate a few years ago. He would run the household aircon (ducted and central so the whole house would get cooled) on 10’C nights because he would sit in his room with his giant tv, a computer, a laptop and an Xbox all running at once obviously making it hot. I asked for him to pay more of the power bill and he stopped talking to me, moved out without notice (taking a bunch of our shares possessions making us think we had been robbed) and never spoke to me or the other housemate again. What a douchebag.
better off without dic?heads like that in your life
Before asking him to pay more did you have a proper discussion first? Communication is key
Communication doesn't make any difference with a lot of people that lack common sense out there.
I hate it when people make out as if these airy fairy crap works every time.
What would you do?
So, what's the point if you're too shy to take action? ozemotionalsupport.com.au
I'll be your emotional support animal op
We believe in you OP!
Switch it off at the fusebox, and hope your housemate is too stupid to realise why it no longer works.
I am way too shy to ask if I can pay less but I don't think it's fair.
You just need to be assertive. Besides that, there's nothing we can do for you; there's no deal on a magic device that'll perfectly split your power bill.
Well in my house I communicate with my housemates.
Communication is vital in ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you do in life.If you aren't talking to someone you're living with you're living with the wrong people and it generally doesn't help with your mental health.
If you're the primary tenant with strangers the best way around this is to charge Rent+Bills at a set rate and always have yourself covered for this sort of stuff.
If you're sharing with friends and not in it to make any money and make your life cheaper then split it evenly everyone is at home during different times and spends different amounts of time using utilities, there's no simple math's to solve your problem.
This is an issue with communication breakdown and what you're comfortable with in your life and you're clearly not that comfortable if you're letting this get to you.100%
Difficult to get this process started, but unless you communicate your house will descend into a den of passive aggressive notes
Random passive aggressive notes sounds fun!
When you say the bills, you won't feel shy anymore!
So better think about you hard earn cash and forget your shyness!
say the bills
Bills… Said it. Phew!!!
Opppps Typooooo hahaha :)
Bill Stickers is innocent!
I don't think anything consumes more electricity than AC, pretty much everything pales in comparison.
Agree with what conye said 100%
The electromagnetic railgun developed by BAE Systems uses 25 megawatts. I think that's slightly more than the majority of air-conditioners.
Shite, I've got one of those in my share house and the unemployed guy in the top room is always firing it off.
My housemate keeps firing up the large hadron collider when I'm out. Drives me crazy
But a railgun is energised for maybe a few milliseconds, whereas OP's AC is running for hours at a time.
We need to know how many shots are fired per day to do a proper comparison ;)
Water heater uses way more. AC actually doesn't use that much power.
You're saying a 3.6kW electric water heater uses more power than a 5kW Split unit AC or a 13kW ducted AC?
Lol you obviously don't understand how the kw rating on a/c works.
@trex: The aircon kW rating is the output power, not the amount of electricity it uses.
An aircon will have an energy efficiency ratio (EER) for cooling which for a new aircon will be well over 3. The actual amount of electricity used will be the kW rating divided by the EER. So a 5kW aircon will usually use about 1.5kW of electricity depending on the exact model.
An regular 3.6 kW electric water heater will use 3.6kW since it's a resistive element.
@twadds: Thanks. Learnt something new today :) Didn't realise until now that kW rating is the output.
@twadds: my split system air-con is rated like 3.6kW but actually uses more like 1kW on full load - then switches off when it's at the desired temperature - I think in my place (a small 2brm brick/concrete unit with good thermal mass) it costs me an average of $1 a day - and that's only when I use it - during peak heat waves and reverse cycle heating in winter.
of course if it's on 24x7 blowing out open doors and windows in a freestanding uninsulated fibro shack, it might cost $5 a day - as a rough guess. YMMV.
@twadds: Correct, but deceptively so. Because what we care about is not the energy consumption, but the total overall cost.
AC runs all day, primarily in the peak period.
Water heaters are usually wired to run offpeak period, when power is cheaper.For my area during summer, peak power is 44c per kw, while offpeak is 15c per kw.
@outlander: You honestly think an a/c is pulling anywhere near the rated power after the room/house has cooled to the set temp?
@brendanm: Nah. The compressor flicks on and off as needed. But it really depends on the temperature delta. If its 35c outside, which it is for much of summer, and you've got it set to a frosty 16c, and you live in a leaky weatherboard house, you better believe the duty cycle is going to be 80%+
@outlander: Inverter a/c units don't simply cycle on and off anymore. Also if you have your a/c set on 16 you deserve high power bills.
@brendanm: I think you're forgetting the conditions set out by the OP. Its a sharehouse (likely old) and dumb people don't know about thermostats. They think setting it lower, makes it put out colder air.
@outlander: I'm just responding to the guy saying a/c is the biggest power sucker in a household. I've already offered to be ops emotional support animal, not much else can be done for them, short of ingesting a cup of concrete.
@twadds: I wish my ducted aircon only used 3.6KW. My power metre clocks it in at 5KW…
10KW of solar helps during the day thank god (or science).
@trex: An average split system costs about 60 cents per hour to run.
Source: https://www.canstarblue.com.au/appliances/how-much-electrici…
@baebee: To be clear it's about $1/hr for a large sized room for a split system, and $3.50/hr for ducted reverse cycle.
@baebee: I have a fairly old window aircon set to temp "4 out of 10" (enough to comfortably cool a medium room with a hot pc) low fan speed it was averaging 12c an hour. Just set the aircon to 24c and not a stupid <18c like a lot of people do and it will be cheaper to run.
@trex: Honestly is it that difficult to use Google? Typical 7-8kw unit will draw 2000-3000 watts at absolute max when operating at full capacity. An inverter a/c is rarely operating at full capacity.
@brendanm: You're comparing one split system vs a whole house water heater?
Is that a fair comparison?
@brendanm: How did I make a blanket statement when I clearly said think
What was incorrect and silly was your comparison
pretty much everything pales in comparison
No, not doesn't. It does if you work on the ASSumption that a 7kw a/c uses 7kw of power I suppose.
@brendanm: Mate what are you on about? We are talking about power consumption not power draw. My toaster draws more than my tv but what ends up on my bill more because I run it more? The tv or the toaster.
Context is important. Op said housemate runs the AC all day, are they also taking a hot shower all day?
I had two six ton units out in the desert, and a gas water heater, even if I did have an electric, there would be no way it would consume what the AC units did… But anyway, we aren't talking about my situation, that's why context is important
The aircon is likely to cost much more.
My ducted aircon has a cooling rating of something like 18kw, although it's power draw is 7.4kw/h. When it's cooling it doesnt mean it will draw to its max, but if you dont have any temp sensors (my unit doesnt) then it wont be able to step down to a lower power and keep cooling at 7.4kw/h constantly.
The water heater will draw 3.6kw/h but doesnt heat constantly, only when it notices the temp drop below a certain level.So in summary, AC will likely always draw the most in your house.
Split system on the wall are about 1/3 of that power draw, but only cool 1 room.
@dimitryp: It's almost as if everyones situation and setup is different and there is no correct answer.
but if you dont have any temp sensors (my unit doesnt)
Most aircons installed in the last 20+ years have temp sensors so it is safe to say your example is not common.
@serpserpserp: And if comparing costs to a hot water heater in an older house or unit, it's more than possible that the hot water is on an off peak tariff which could be 2/3 the cost per kWh of a regular tariff an ac is on.
How's that for a single sentence.
@dimitryp: Ducted systems are so unnecessary. Running a ducted system would be the equivalent of running an instantaneous electric hot water system but leaving the tap on all the time.
Austalian homes simply aren't designed to keep heat or cooling in.
It takes more energy to heat than to cool, but I am not sure how much more (eg energy required to keep a room 5 Degrees cooler for a day vs energy requied to keep a room 5 degrees warmer for a day).
Never underestimate the effect of the weather upon human mood and behaviour. Singapore greatly improved productivity by air conditioning work places.
That can't be right. In an ideal world it should be the same, but with what we have today cooling is way less efficient than heating (which is basically 100% efficient).
It takes more energy to heat than to cool
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics would like a word with you. I think you have it backwards.
Check the specs of a random reverse-cycle AC unit, heating power is higher than cooling power.
Are you kind of dummmmm?
No, but with that response it sure appears you are.
hey, I found my doppelganger! :)
I dunno, tumble dryers and fan/oil heaters would be up there too?
At least A/C has COP/EER or 3-5 or so, fan heaters/tumble dryers - basic ones, are just resistive element.
At least A/C gives some benefit, I really cringe on people using tumble dryers when it's 24 and sunny with a nice breeze outside. What a complete waste of electricity.
The reverse cycle air con is surprisingly efficient, during summer my bills may increase $10 a month compared to spring with liberal usage in Melbourne.
OK get them to log in to ozbargain and we'll sort this out for you, that's what we're here for.
This is the only way.
OK that's going to take me a while to read that one, not sure how I missed it! Thanks!
I am way too shy to ask if I can pay less but I don't think it's fair.
Ok then, thread closed. Nothing you can do if you don't want to raise the issue.
a normal and common behaviour for some -
rather than actually think about, choose and do the effective action to fix the problem, one chooses instead to whinge and complain about it until the cows come home to anyone who will listen
(it's not about 'fixing' the problem - that would be like - ooh, what can I complain about now - it's more about getting attention for my personal drama - so I feel like I exist - otherwise I am nothing)
my downstairs neighbour is like this
If your housemate is not employed how can they afford to share a house and pay 50% of bills food etc? Unemployment benefits don't cover sh^t.
It is in your written agreement with share flatmate that all utilities are shared at least 50%? As other have mentioned if the flatmate has the ac on all day (6+) hrs 4 times per week then when the bill comes in calculate their share based on daily previous usage in non ac use period against new figures and bill the flatmate the excess or get rid of them
I live with 4 people in a 4 bedroom house and I can still have $100 a fortnight leftover from unemployment benefits, pretty decent and I have the freedom to do what I want with my life
But that is a different scenario to the op, sharing that kinda wy is probably the only way in your case, I'm thinking op is just sharing with one inconsiderate person who will bleed off anyone they can to enjoy being "entitled" maybe that's what they were allowed to do when living at home with family?
Get a job
@[Deactivated]: Why? Because 30% of my pay every week goes to people like you. You don't have to be a slave to society, in fact you still are funnily enough. If you don't want to be a slave to society, don't have Medicare or any form of welfare, and go and live free.
@brendanm: I wish I could have sovereignty or self ownership, the most basic of human rights doesn't exist and charging for land? something that was here long before humans and will be here long after is also silly
Kinda sad how money takes the humanity out of people like yourself and controls you too much to cast judgement, how can one be holier than thou?
@[Deactivated]: Kinda sad how hypocritical it is to take all the good things from society but not contribute to it in any way. No one is stopping you from going and living off the land.
Holier than thou because one is supporting the other.
@brendanm: Like I said, there's no self sovereignty or ownership, it's illegal to live off the land in Australia unless you're indigenous otherwise I would've a looooooong time ago my guy
@[Deactivated]: You've obviously never left Melbourne/Sydney or wherever you are. There are a million places you can go in Australia where no one will ever bother you. Continue living like a child with mummy and daddy supporting you, you are a literal slave to the taxpayer.
@brendanm: You seem so triggered, I guess mummy and daddy support me the same way you do, via taxes…
UBI is coming, its inevitable so it won't be your issue eventually, you're a slave to me at this current point in time, keep doing what you're doing, thank you :)
Country WA also@[Deactivated]: Not triggered, just amused that you suckle on the teat of society while claiming that it's terrible. An absolute hypocrite. Doesn't want to contribute to the society he takes from, also doesn't have the skills or ability to live off the land, and blames it on everyone else.
I'm also from country wa originally, you should well know that there are plenty of places you could live happily and no one would ever even find you, yet you are much happier to have your hand held with all the modern conveniences le evil society provides you.
@[Deactivated]: Hey @Conye, not having a crack at you but just curious how you maintain the dole life? I spent a brief time on it and while I agree it was more than enough to live on, there were a great deal of hoops to jump through and it seemed like the longer you stay on it the harder the hoops become. I even seem to recall that after a year you basically start doing menial labour work to "gain experience" and earn the dole.
I'm also curious, if you're happy to be open here, to hear how you find day to day satisfaction. I'm a pretty simple person that hates having to work, but I still went bonkers on the dole in no time for two main reasons: I had no day to day sense of accomplishment, and I had no money for travelling which is basically what I work for now.
Interested to hear though, everyone's different.
@900dollaridoos: Owning your own business, using profit/loss statements running an 'urban farm', if they get onto me about not making money and want me to go to job appointments i just go to the local markets and sell some goods and they leave me alone for another year.
Most of my time is occupied by Basketball, Skateboarding, Reading, looking after my plants, video games, going for walks and exercise + Volunteer work. I travel around Australia quite a bit, I do this via the cheap bargain flights and have met friends in most states just from video games so I stay with them for a week or two when I travel.
I've spent most of my life working until I realised I don't have to, the hoops to jump through are nothing compared to working a menial job wasting my time so I can get cash
@brendanm: So the entirety of your tax payments goes to support dole payments?
How do I direct my taxes that way?
If your not going to confront them then it’s just going to fester. Been there done that.
Try emailing or writing a note.
Also change to monthly billing. This will help see increase and may give you some motivation to talk to them before it’s a whole summer of air conditioner.
Get a meter put on the circuit the AC is on, and bill accordingly.
Get one of those smart power draw measuring things, and use the readings to split the power bill.
If your AC plugs into the wall, this is likely the easiest and best solution. Those plug-in meters are cheap and effective and can even tell you exactly how much $ has been used.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AU-Plug-Power-Meter-Energy-Consu…
My electricity company has an app that breaks down electricity usage in 30 minute blocks, presented as a graph (probably common, at least if in a state that has the smart meters installed everywhere). Having actual numbers when the aircon is running to compared to when it's off will help you to understand how much money is involved (ie. how much your housemate is costing you).
That in turn may give you more motivation to talk to them if it's a big cost. Which if you're talking about something like a central ducted system (especially older ones) can be significant.
Also having actual numbers helps make the discussion you're avoiding be a rational one, whereas only having a vague understanding that aircon can be expensive to run can make the conversation feel dramatic or confrontational.
Waitin for a name
Origin Energy.
https://www.originenergy.com.au/app.html
I've never used them but from the pictures you can break it down to hourly.
I use Powershop
https://www.powershop.com.au/why-powershop/powershop-app/
The app breaks usage down to 30 minute intervals.
They also have a usage over time function in their online tools. Creates a map showing usage at all time of day for a 4 or 12 week period or for a full year.
I use Photoshop.
Don't have a smart meter but housemate doesn't know it's needed to get these fancy graphs.
Calculate how many hours the AC is on, multiply by roughly 60 cents and then ask the roomie to foot the bill for the AC running cost.
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Walk around naked, say you had to sell your clothes to pay the last power bill