Power/heat Consumption

[realfortin]

As we all know, when tenants pay for their own heat and electricity they tend to conserve energy a lot more than when it is included in the rent. We`ve surely all seen the apartments with heat on and windows open.

For those of you that have units that heat and electricity are included, what strategies have you tried to get the tenants to waste less? Have you supplied energy efficient light bulbs etc? How was that received? Did it make much of a difference?

Has anyone tried incentives to get the tenants to save?

Real Fortin
Victoria BC

 

[mark186]

My reply is not specifically in respect to heat or hydro but rather water. You can get a type of flow restrictor for faucets and shower heads - they just screw on and are supposed to reduce water consumption around 30%. I got them for free from the local gas utility (Union Gas, in my parts) but you can get threm cheap at any hardware store.

 

[invst4profit]

I have tried all sorts of things over the years with very little positive results.
In the end I swore off ever buying any rental property with utilities included.

I can`t even get my wife to keep the bedroom window closed in our own home
in the winter so trying to get a renter that dosn`t pay the bill to care is mission
imposible.

 

[realfortin]

QUOTE (invst4profit @ Jun 3 2008, 11:39 PM) I can`t even get my wife to keep the bedroom window closed in our own home
in the winter so trying to get a renter that dosn`t pay the bill to care is mission
imposible.

Have you considered making your wife pay for the utilities? <grin>

I just remember getting the feeling as a renter, and watching other renters is that with utilities included there is definitely no need or incentive to save power. Did you know that a desktop computer left on 24 hours a day uses over 20$ a month of power?

I`d compare it to an all you can eat buffet. Who ever goes to an all you can eat buffet and has small portions? Gosh, I remember as a student not eating the whole day so I could get my money`s worth out of that buffet.

Asking them to save power so you can save a little cash won`t work, it never does. Renters automatically default to not liking a landlord until shown reason to feel otherwise. Hopefully most landlords here have renters that like them. There are many great tips and tricks on here to ensure that the owner/tenant relationship is solid.

What about this strategy: You have a house with students. You show up with a case of beer or a coupon for 40$ worth of pizza at the local pizza joint. "hey guys, your heat and electricity bill has been lower over the last few months, I just thought I`d pass a little of the savings on to you" If it`s a couple with a few kids, give a gift certificate for toy-R-us or something. If it`s a single guy, give him a Canadian Tire gift certificate or something. I`d even be tempted to do it even if the power bill was the same. They don`t track how much energy they use. Gosh, I get my own bill once a month and even though I know if I have tried to save or not it`s always like a scratch and win ticket, never sure how much the bill is going to be.
Am I crazy? Is my thinking too radical? <grin> I`m aiming to buy a couple tri-plexes in the summer, is my thinking going to send me to the poorhouse?(will I have to move into my own units? ha!)

If you bought a couple cases of energy efficient light bulbs at Costco, would the tenants be receptive to their use? PS they are really cheap at Costco.

Thanks for the replies so far

Réal Fortin

 

[Thomas Beyer]

We installed low wattage bulbs in hallways with good results.

We are using www.stratacon.com in 3 of our buildings to sub-meter heat !! they measure water flow and bill tenants directly. Good results so far, albeit poor initial admin and rollout issues. Expect an overall 20% lower gas bill, high tenant turnover, much complaining, but 50% lower gas bill as 30-40% of gass bill is paid now by tenants, some little .. some LOTS. They do it only for larger urban centers and for larger buildings. Other companies exist and technology exists to sub-meter GAS consumption / hot water flow including water consumption !! Investigate it !

 

[willy]

I saw a show a while back about a new student residence they were building (can`t remember where). As part of their "Green Initiative" they installed all the windows with switches connected to the thermostat. Open a window, the heat shuts off.
No idea of the cost of this type of installation or of how tamper resistant the switches are.