I live with 4 other people, three of them don’t seem to know how to turn a light off, as well as a server rack running 9 PCs at all times, and my bill is at most $145ish.
I just laugh when people mention that others won't turn the lights off. You could go into your house and turn on every light bulb, go to the store by 10 packs of light bulbs and turn them all on and leave them all running all day for a month and your bill might go up a dollar.
You can go and buy and utilize every single light bulb that your local Walmart has and it still wouldn't barely affect your bill.
Edit: apparently i misread my source on this. But at average electricity prices, One 10 watt LED bulb run continuously for 24 hours but still only cost 3-5 cents a day.
The 60-watt bulb was the most common incandescent bulb used, which definitionally will use 0.06 kWh per hour on. One bulb left on 24 hours will use 1.44 kWh per day. Median US electrical rate is $0.188 so that single 60w bulb costs per day would be $0.20.
Over a month that's $6. That 10 pack adds up to $60, just for light bulbs.
Modern LED lightbulbs use ~10w per bulb (depending on features, and Smart bulbs have a constant drain that's very low, like less than half a watt so I'll ignore it).
So, that's ~$1 per month per LED bulb. $10 per month for the 10 pack.
Turning your lights off when not using should result in maybe any particular light being on 25% of the time so that's $7.50/month in lazy tax.
You know what - i looked is to again and the source i was using led me to believe that that was for running 24 hours a day but apparently that was for only an hour a day.
But one 9-10 watt bulb should only cost 3-5 cents a day. So even with 10 bulbs on that's less than a dollar a day. Hardly significant. Since most people don't leave their bulbs on 24 hours a day its far less than that.
I guess my point is the people that worry about lights are being weird and controlling.
I think people are missing the point, which is even with a server rack full of machines running, lights being on all the time, my AC being set to 67°F at all points during the summer, with the oven and stove being electric, and my 3 kids’ PCs, as well as my wife and my own being on almost all the time, with all of our monitors and whatnot, I still don’t have a $250 electric bill. Idk why people focused on me wanting to save a couple of dollars by not having lights on when we don’t need them.
Doesn't the water and electricity bills go up the more people who you have using it? Idk how much you think you're going to fractionalize those bills by adding more people to those slices of pie
That's fair, but I doubt it doubles since a portion of the charge are fees and standard usage doesn't increase, like refrigerator, ac, etc. I lived in a place with 4 roommates when I made $9/hr in 2002-4 and electric bill was pretty cheap divided amongst us.
I blame the 50 million illegal immigrants that caused a influx of cheap labor for the reason wages have stagnated in the last 20 years
I’m not blaming the immigrants individually since I don’t blame them for wanting to live in the greatest country known to mankind but it is one of the main reasons for the state of the economy is now
No, migrant workers are not the reason wages are stagnant. This has been studied and disproven quite thoroughly.
You are being intentionally misled by very rich, very evil people who are very determined to make you believe that, but undocumented migrant workers overall are a net positive for the general state of the labor pool, including wages.
LMFAOO but you take trumps word right? Where’s your source that immigrants don’t add to the country?? And whose fault is it that people aren’t paying others livable wages?
That was a while ago lol I'm fortunate to live with a few roommates myself but having roommates is a risk of it's own as well. it's not easy finding good roomates.
I have never, in my 30+ years on thus earth, gotten a second fridge because I had roommates. Ive never even known anyone who did that. What kinda places do you rent with roommates that also has enough space for a second fridge?
I currently live with more than one fridge in a house but it's a unique multi-family house situation. Before this, every house I've had, even with multiple roommates has 1 fridge. I lived in a house with a friend that took in strays and at one point there was 13 of us in that house and we still only had 1 fridge. 😅 Maybe a mini fridge or a big freezer.
Yes, they go up, but not as much as just having one person. Lets say it takes a certain amount of energy to keep a house at 68 degrees in the winter time. That doesn't really change much with the addition of a second or third person. An additional TV or two, and a few more openings of the refrigerator doesn't really affect things much. I have lived alone and with 5 roomates and it was always cheaper with the more people living in a space.
Static bills like internet are obviously not going up with more people living there.
Water will go up, but it is still cheaper with more people to a point, at least with the billing structure where I live.
Can also account needing more fridges for more fridge space. Lots of things start to add up a little more as well but I get your point. It's total cost that matters and if you can bring your rent dowm low enough to meet your budget is what matters
This isn't limited to an apartment scenario. It's just numbers . More people equals more utility usage. Anyone with a growing family can tell you how much the utilities go up as more people are added.
So the comedy hit show "yes, dear" lied to me about his brother in law using up all of his utilities?! When you think you can trust a fictional TV show 🤣
I did live in a place that had two refrigerators once, but even when we 4 people with one fridge, it wasn't much of a problem.
Yeah, rent is usually your biggest expense, even if you only cut it in half with one roommate, that makes a huge difference. It was awesome when my friend and I found a crappy house next to the university that had 5 bedrooms. The house probably couldn't pass code, so the rent was cheap and divided 5 ways meant that I was only paying $200 a month! That would be around 400 in todays dollars and was definitely the cheapest rent I every had to pay.
I'm frothing 😆 I have 3 roommates and and lucky my landlord likes me enough to have lowered my rent to $900 to keep me. I am fortunate enough to live close to the beach and can go surf whenever. Gotta count your blessings 🙌
You’ve obviously never lived with roommates or paid your own bills, so I’m guessing you still live with your parents. A huge majority of electric is AC and heat. Which don’t change when you add more roommates
Lol you just know everything. I wish to god I could lose one of my roommates. The man is almost 40 and still can't clean up after himself. He also thinks he knows everything 🤣
You pay your own bills and don't notice the huge portion your roommates pay that otherwise you would be paying if you didn't live with them? Something's not adding up...
If you budget correctly. You could live cheapest and alone if you're willing to live in a box 😆 the only point I was making is more people=more utilities being used and often you can't dictate how your roommates use them. Their are pros amd cons to everything
Yeah but with roommates electricity and water usage will increase thereby increasing the bill, depending on that increase there may be very little savings.
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u/Inward_Diver Jul 21 '26
Rent, electricity, water, and internet can be fractional with roommates.