Fuckin Room mates

[zenia]

Keeping your keys in a place that also has your home address in it isn't particularly smart.

Well then they could at least keep it in their pocket or on a necklace. It isn't acceptable to leave the house unlocked when nobody is home.

Re: Bills... I have the gas/hydro/cable in my name. Upstairs has gas heat. The hot water tank costs $46/mo to keep heated. I know this 'cause that is what it costs in the summer... only hot water and upstairs heat is gas. This month the bill came... the heat alone cost $150. My roommates like to wear shorts and t-shirts without socks/slippers and then complain they are cold (and blame it on being skinny) and turn up the heat. It pisses me off, 'cause my room is a broiler. I asked them to keep it around 15 at the most. If I catch them putting it higher, I will start making them pay more. Right now I split it 3 way equally. I can't afford to spend so much on heating. When I lived in my own apartment alone, the heating was electric. In summer, hydro cost $34... in winter it cost $50. I know how to wear sweaters.

[Ember]

It pisses me off, 'cause my room is a broiler. I asked them to keep it around 15 at the most.

15? As in 15 Celsius? That's very cold.

Room temp is 21C. I'm not surprised that they are saying that they are cold.

[Ember]

But yeah, I hear what you are saying :p

One of my room mates routinely puts the heat up (around the 25C range?) to the point that the upstairs of our house is physically HOT. I almost always have to have the window in my bedroom open in the dead of winter.

The same person then keeps the door wide open as they let dogs out, keeping themselves warm at the expense of reheating the house.

But hey, when you live with people then it just goes with the territory that some people will use some utilities more than others. If you start nit picking each case then it turns into this stupid argument of "well he uses more of the water!" "Well I never use the cable TV!" etc.

You should prob just suck it up, the conflict you'll come to to save ~$20 a month just isn't worth it.

[Ember]

Oh yeah.

You should know that you forcing your room mates to live at 15C is actually ILLEGAL in all of Canada.

They can sue you. They will win.

The minimum is 19C, 20C, or 21C depending on where you live.

[Tony Greyfox]

On locking doors: we didn't worry that much about it when I was growing up in Chilliwack until my brother woke me up one morning and we spotted some guy trying to steal our motorbikes from the back of Dad's pickup. We got a big dog that week, fenced the yard and today the house there is fully alarmed. And Dad has various other painful ways of discouraging prowlers. Times have changed, unfortunately.

Me, I lock everything. The times I forgot to lock my car, people rifled the glove box. (and took nothing... Apparently my CDs weren't to their taste?)

[Ember]

The times I forgot to lock my car, people rifled the glove box. (and took nothing... Apparently my CDs weren't to their taste?)

They rifle your glove box to steal your insurance information for the purpose of fraud and identity theft.

[Tony Greyfox]

These days, sure. This was ten years ago when thieves hadn't figured that bit out yet. =P

[zenia]

The minimum is 19C, 20C, or 21C depending on where you live.

Are you serious? That is insanely stupid. 15c is perfectly fine. 20c is way too hot. My boss keeps the shop at 21c and it is so uncomfortable that I sometimes have to turn the fan on me and I work in sleeveless tops.

At least my roommates don't know about that... or else I would not be happy. I don't see what is so hard about wearing pants, socks and a hoodie in the winter. Cheaper than heating the whole house.

Now, if we all had individual thermostats in our rooms, they could do whatever they wanted... but we only have one control for the whole house. Maybe the ducts going into their rooms are leaking or something, but I seem to get nearly all of the forced air and my room is so hot that when you walk into it you are smacked in the face with the temperature difference... which is at least 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

[Ember]

Block the vent to your room. Problem solved.

As it stands, you are forcing your room mates to live in uncomfortable (and illegal) conditions, then forcing them to spend money to not do so. When people say that they are "cold because they are thin", what they really mean is that "you are overheating because you are overweight." (Confirmed via profile pic).

21C is called room temperature because it's the temperature that the greatest number of people are comfortable being at.

Sounds like you're the "fuckin roommate" in this scenario.

[zenia]

When my room is twice as hot as the rest of the house, it isn't fair to me. The damper box in my vent doesn't work, so I am trying to find out how else I can block it effectively. They actually don't have much of a problem keeping it between 12 and 15 now... last winter I was stingier and kept it lower. You'd really have to come into this house to see what it is like.

Once I got them to step into my bedroom, they totally understood. It is broiling in here, fat or skinny.

[Ember]

In my room I physically blocked the vent with a piece of cardboard. That's all it took.

[zenia]

Is it safe to do that? I always imagined blocking it with something flammable was a fire hazard. That is why my bed is in the only other place in the room it could possibly be.

[Ember]

Paper has a kindling point of over 200C. If your vent is putting out 200C of heat then you have bigger problems. It wont catch on fire.

[Icey Dominus]

Problem is I sleep in the living room there is no vent to cover lol so sadly that wont work for me

[zenia]

Paper has a kindling point of over 200C. If your vent is putting out 200C of heat then you have bigger problems. It wont catch on fire.

Ah ok. See, I've only ever had baseboard heaters before and those will catch things on fire. I guess I just assumed "hot+flammable=bad" XD