Peter94, maybe you could have the electric company do some sort of test to see if there is a problem.

Contact them and tell them your dilema.

And just buy the dam privacy ****, and when you done renting with them, switch back the other one and keep the one you bought; just in case.

 

If you have an electric water heater and you have a leak or even a steady drip on the hot water side of your faucet it could run up your electric bill as well.

 

Okay, here's my electric bill info.

$10 for an account charge, probably hookup or something.
Then, there's 3.37 basic charge.
Usage was $80.33, 1269kWh at $0.06330/kWh.

Plus taxes, came to $101.10

Now, this was only for 27 days. The regular billing cycle is 2 months.
That $100 bill is on the high side of average for 2 months, in our old town house. So, needless to say, I'm gonna have to rein in our power consumption. Then again, I guess it will be about the same as what my mom pays. Either way, bigger house equals bigger bills.

And another thing, about what I posted about my brother's place. It's 600 square feet, and he's paying $875, not $750 like I originally posted.

 

Thats some high rent.

Our water heater is gas. I've contacted the electric company. They sent someone to do a second reading on the meter and to see if maybe it was bad or something. I've heard nothing. The guy said that they would only call if they found something wrong.

 

> i'm a poor college student trying to get an education.

Go to www.freecycle.org or www.craigslist.org for your city/area and see if you can get a free one by posting a wanted ad. I am sure someone will have one.

Many people toss locksets and ***** when remodeling, sometimes along with the complete door. Your wanted ad might prompt someone to save one for you. I know I have seen "wanted" posts and saved stuff I was just going to toss because I thought noone would want it.

Being on a tight budget it is a good place to pick up free furniture and furnishings for your apartment too. I would skip free beds though. For furniture, just put everything in plastic garbage bags for a few days, taped up tight. That kills any bugs. You can throw in some mothballs or flea powder if you have any concerns.

Then when you move, instead of paying to move stuff, just give it away for free too. Saves you money and helps someone else. Lets you be more mobile without getting tied down with material stuff.

I saved a few locksets from the apartments I did, then when I bought my new house, rekeyed them all for $5 a piece at Home Depot and saved quite a bit of money over buying new. I know I have tossed quite a few bathroom ***** because I had no use for them and still have a few keyed locks and deadbolts "saved" for future use. So, if I saw an ad, they would have been recycled.

My whole living room set is "free" stuff, I just do not have money to spend buying couches and stuff when I know my kids will destroy it.

If you have an electric water heater, long showers could do you in. It takes 1.5-2.0 hours to refill an empty tank. If you have a dish washer, turn off the heated dry and just open the door to let the dishes dry once it is done.

It costs a lot of up front money, I would take them with you if you moved, but, fluorescent bulbs end up saving quite a bit in long term electric use. Save the receipts for the seven year warranty. My whole house is done with them. $10+ a month savings adds up quickly.

Probably overkill for you, except maybe where you spend the most time. Kitchen lights are often left on for a while, so that is the best place to start.

 

Yeah lol, allready got the flourescent thing underway. Bathroom and bedroom. Main kitchen/lving room light is a fluorescent "shop light" style with the 4 foot long bulbs. Only thing that is not fluorescent is the little light above the kitchen sink, and thats like a 40 watt we only use in the morning when everything else is too bright, lol. We're really good about shutting off lights too. This is why i'm kinda shocked at our bill.

 

Good look with the new bulbs, I cannot imagine that will drop your monthly electric bill to $ 30.00 like the landlord said but it may help a little.

The 3 main electric eaters in a house or apartment are: water heater, clothes dryer, stove. You might check out the water heater & elements if it is electric, & the clothes dryer & stove are pretty simple to figure it out. The more you use it the more electric is needed.

I went on a website awhile back about electric consumptions of water heaters & typically it costs $ 30.00 per month to run a 50 gallon water heater @ the average temperature setting.

 

Yeah, just an update. Last couple of bills have been around 40$ a month since we havent been using the a/c. I can see the a/c units on the top of the building, and some look kind of new, and others are all green and rusty. I"m guessing i have a green and rusty one that is probably 10 years old or so.

Good news though, I helped one of the grounds crew guys at my complex put new ball joints in his car, (the shop that discovered the problem was going to charge 400$. i got to ball joints for $60). So if i ever need anything, its no problem, the day after we did his ball joints he came and put a new lock on our door, fixed a leaky tub problem, and helped fix a few other things around the apt. I think i'll ask him to go up and take a look at our a/c unit and see exactly how old it is.

 

My electric company has a pre-pay power program. When you sign up you get a display unit that plugs into a wall outlet and you get some power cards that you take to the company and put money on the card and then you put the card in the display unit when you get home and the unit sends the info to the electric meter. The display unit will tell you how much power you are using by the day,month or even by the minute. This can really let you watch your money and see what it cost you when you use different appliances and lights. It also tells you how much money you have left and when you will run out. When your money gets low you take a card in to the company and have more put on the card. It really helps some people conserve because you can look at the display unit and see in real time how much power you are using and how much its costing you.