Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Metering costs

[Janet Murphy (janetmusicrn]

When we built 12 years ago we didn't separately meter gas and water in our
new buildings but we did separately meter electricity, thinking correctly
that electricity use is much more variable (AC, refrigerator size,
electronics...).
I regret that decision now. My electric bill runs between $28-$42 a month;
$20 of that is for fixed metering fees. Collectively we 29 units pay $7000
in electric metering fees per year. I would rather put that back in our
pockets, and if some of us pay a little more for electricity than we use
through condo fees, so what? It will never be as much as the metering fee.
As for trying to control over-use of resources (gas/electricity/water) with
metering... I am surprised how cost insensitive my neighbors' behaviors
are. Folks are very reluctant to change comfort behaviors. We have some
success with sharing conservation measures.

Janet Murphy
Arboretum Cohousing

p.s. Thank you to those who are starting to delete the thread when you
write the list. Too often I go searching for the new comment someone has
written, and can't find it for all the clutter.