greetings all, I have been looking for apartments lately and I found a nice one, but gas and electric are not included in the rent. so my questions is: what will heat (gas) and electric add to the rent each month? to give a better answer you will need to know that it is located in Michigan, and is a house that has been converted into apartments. it is a relatively small (700 ft^2) one bedroom. I am not really sure what the cost of electricity and gas/heat will be because I have always had it included in my rent. Thanks, Cato
well, it was remodeled into apartments this summer, so nobody has lived there in the winter yet. also, I don't know them. I guess I could just go knocking, but I figured I would ask here first. I am just looking for a ballpark, nothing exact.
That's an easy, easy question ......ask the power and gas compay! You can ask and review general prices and conditions and even some past records. The other thing you should do, if possible, is get some of the contracts for the remodeling ...they'll show whether or not insulation, etc was added or not. Most older homes have very, very poor insulation and if they didn't upgrade it, you're in deep, deep shit!! But the interesting thing here is .....are the gas and electric companies the only ones in town? By the way, here in Texas, we have some of the highest electric rates in the nation and for my house in the heat of the summer, 100s!, I paid less than $8 per day for all of the cooling. That should give you a little idea, tho' it's far from accurate as a judgement factor. Baron Max
this won't work. all they can tell you is how much they charge per cubic foot or kilowatt hour. there are too many factors that affect an accurate estimate of utility bills.
Well, I don't know why you can't ask some area residents who live in similar homes, then divide it up by how much area estimates you can guess. But if you can't afford something like $8-10 per day, then I don't think you can live anywhere! Think about it ....you probably make something like $10 or more per hour, so one full day of heat is going to cost you less than an hours' work. You pay more than that to go out to dinner and a movie ....but I'll bet you scrape up enough money to do that, right? Baron Max
lol, everyone is giving round about answers =]. I am just looking for within like +/- $25/month. does nobody on here rent?
I rent out a basement flat in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. We have no gas service here so everything is electric. The basement tenant pays 1/3 of the total utility bill for the whole townhouse. That averages about $100 for electricity, $20 for water, $5 for trash pickup (no municipal service), and $50 for cable TV/internet. It's a typical tiny townhouse with a 500 sqft footprint so your place will use more energy for climate control. Not being an end unit it has only two exterior walls so you'll lose more winter heat and absorb more summer heat than my place. Your Michigan winters are much colder than ours--it rarely drops below 20 here at night--so you lose out there as well, and I don't think your summers are a whole lot cooler than ours, which typically hit highs around 90. Also, I spent the money to replace every lightbulb in the entire building with a screw-in fluorescent which saves 75% on lighting. (Since we seem to be cursed with high voltage they burn out way ahead of schedule and it has not proven to be an economical course of action.) The upstairs tenants are from Florida and don't like their A/C turned down very far, and the basement is subterranean on the south side so that tenant usually shuts off the A/C ducts and just leaves the northern exposure door and window open. On the other hand, gas is a much more economical way to heat your living space and your water supply than electricity. All in all I would guesstimate that you'll pay something like $125-150 for energy. Of course that depends a lot on how they divide up the entire building's bills, how well the place is insulated, how profligate the other residents are, whether they've converted from incandescent to fluorescent, etc. etc. Also not every landlord is as scrupulous as I am and they may sandbag you. So don't shoot me if I'm wrong, but I believe my estimate is close enough for you to use for planning. You should be able to get a sense of this by talking to other apartment tenants in the region even if they're not in the same building.
thanks rocker, the gas, and I assume electricity, is split up and individually metered. nobody will be living with me, and I will spend a lot of time at either work or school, so I can turn everything off when I leave. until December I will spend about 7 hours at school, after that I will be working 8 hours a day. I should be able to keep the heat way down. also, later in the semester I will likely be spending more like 12 hours a day at school (junior design project).
I'm looking to rent an apartment out too, one preferably with many naked woman that throw panty parties.
wow, that was helpful Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! anyway, maybe I should just go with a studio. I can find a lot of studios for cheap with utilities included.
does anyone know how much energy you can save by turning your heat of for 8 hours? I mean, you must save some, the rate of conduction depends on the temperature differential, so even though you have to heat the place back up, there should still be savings.
We used to not cut on the gas for heat during winter. The house would drop down to 54 degrees and it sucked... but at least we had some money. Though 2 months into it I got pissed off and moved. No one wanted to turn the heat up to AT LEAST 60. I wasn't going to do it because they would benefit and I would be the one paying for it.
Mine averages $50 a month for 10 months , and around $100 per month a couple of months in winter. I have a one bedroom apartment.
thanks sam, thats what I was looking for... and afraid of. I think I am going to try and get a studio. I can find a studio for prolly $25 cheaper per month with all utilities included. p.s. Godam, sam, I have been here for like 3 years and you more than doubled my post count.
If you don't mind company, its also really cheap to share. Still works out to close to 30 a month and you can divide the heating in winter. Studios are claustrophobic; at least in a shared apartment you get a separate living space and kitchen. I'm too fussy to share, so I shell out the cash. PS. don't feel bad, I've always been an overachiever.
I don't really want a roommate, and oddly enough for a guy about 7ft, I don't really mind a small place. sure a 1 bedroom would be nice, but I like my cash more =]. p.p.s. I have always believed that it was the content of posts that mattered more than quantity. but to each their own. I will try and be a bit more polite than leo, I think "post whore" is a bit strong =]
Yes it was your height I was wondering about. Well you might want to try a six month lease in case it gets too close after a while. I've done it and could not take it, guys are usually more adaptable though. PS. Thanks but I don't really care much about the opinion of people I know only online, so you can be as impolite as you wish. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
