Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Allocating Common Costs by an Algorithm e.g. based on # adults and sq. ft.

[Ken Winter (ken]

Yes.  I hope the article addresses the one-time and ongoing effort-and-$
costs, as we experienced them, of submetering systems for utility billing.
As RPD said, your results may differ.

On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 1:42 PM R Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> I think the closing sentence of my third paragraph was supposed to be
> referencing the additional cost and effort of sub-metering.  As was my
> final paragraph.  Sub-metering is definitely one of the technical options.
> Is it worth it?  To whom?  (No reason for everybody to come up with the
> same answer …)
>
> Thanks,
> RPD
>
> > On Mar 10, 2021, at 12:26 PM, Ken Winter <ken [at] sunward.org> wrote:
> >
> > The third alternative is submetering of unit utilities.  See
> >
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kO0ncu6-G0W_qJKJqsjxXT9xYAotIWSXGhqTK1aF0c/edit?usp=sharing
> > for more.
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 11:35 AM R Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L <
> > cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> >
> >> I here detect some alternative philosophies about cost sharing in
> >> cohousing.
> >>
> >> The most communitarian is all-in-together, w/ each dwelling unit or
> >> household paying an equal share, one-for-one.  The popular variant of
> this
> >> approach is that all common expenses are split in proportion to unit
> value,
> >> for which unit square footage is seen as an acceptable proxy.
> >>
> >> At the other end of the scale, we have pay-per-use.  Separate utility
> >> metering is popular for those who advocate pay-per-use — partly because
> the
> >> frugal don’t want to pay for the extravagances of those who “waste”
> power,
> >> water, etc, and partly because many believe that wastefulness is more
> >> likely if no measurable financial penalty accrues to the profligate.
> But
> >> it is usually true that one common meter will deliver utilities at
> >> significantly lower cost all around than many individual meters.  After
> >> committing to one common meter, it’s a matter of how much additional
> time
> >> and money one wants to spend recapturing the data lost from, and
> >> re-assigning dollar costs to, the individual households.
> >>
> >> There are odd gray areas between these two extremes.  Some communities
> >> have a per use charging system for common laundry equipment, and in
> other
> >> communities, laundry machines are provide as a “free” amenity available
> to
> >> all, just like the common kitchen or toilets.  I’ve never heard of pay
> >> toilets in cohousing, but it’s kind of the logical end point of the
> >> pay-per-use model.
> >>
> >> Speaking as the Treasurer of a community which has fairly complex
> >> pay-per-use protocols, my general advice is:  Be sure it’s really worth
> it
> >> to you.  You can end up with pretty elaborate accounting challenges.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> RPD
> >>
> >>> On Mar 10, 2021, at 11:05 AM, Ken Winter <ken [at] sunward.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I'd strongly urge you to build in a system where each unit pays for its
> >>> actual, measured usage of water, electricity, and gas.  You can get
> >> actual
> >>> measurements for each unit in two ways: (1) each unit has a meter
> >> provided
> >>> by the local utility and pays the utility directly, or (2) the local
> >>> utility has meters on each building and the community has submeters for
> >>> each unit, the community pays the utility and each unit owner pays the
> >>> community for that unit's usage as measured by its submeter.  At
> Sunward
> >>> Cohousing, after 20 years of "we all pay for everything", we have
> >>> retrofitted submeters into our water billing system.  For what we did,
> >> why,
> >>> and how, see
> >>>
> >>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kO0ncu6-G0W_qJKJqsjxXT9xYAotIWSXGhqTK1aF0c/edit?usp=sharing
> >> .
> >>> This article is a quite incomplete work-in-progress, but the "why"
> >> section
> >>> is pretty solid.
> >>>
> >>> ~ Ken Winter, Sunward Cohousing, Ann Arbor MI
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 7:51 AM Jim Bronson <
> jimbronsonashland [at] gmail.com
> >>>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Dear Cohousing Communities,
> >>>>
> >>>> River Song is planning to break ground soon.  We are thinking about
> >> having
> >>>> one electric meter per building and one water meter for the whole
> >> community
> >>>> to save costs - which may be as much as $600/month compared to having
> >>>> meters for each unit.
> >>>>
> >>>> When we are up and running our HOA will allocate common costs monthly
> or
> >>>> quarterly.  We have heard from other cohousing communities that they
> >> have
> >>>> evolved a way of fairly allocating common costs using an algorithm
> >> based on
> >>>> # of adults and square footage for each unit.
> >>>>
> >>>> For our planning, I have attached a one page MS Word doc that shows an
> >>>> example of how we think this could look for the simple case of a 4
> unit
> >>>> cohousing community.  I would appreciate hearing from communities
> >>>> experienced in using algorithm allocation for common costs about what
> >> they
> >>>> have learned.  Also, I would like to know how their algorithms may
> allow
> >>>> for individual variations, for example a private unit having their own
> >>>> solar pv, having a hot tub or an electric car charging station, etc.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks for sharing what you have learned.
> >>>> Jim Bronson (for the Design Team)
> >>>> River Song Cohousing Community
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> >>
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