In the course of my life as an independent person (i.e. not living at home), I have lived in apartments, condos and houses. I have been a tenant and a home-owner. As a tenant, it was always a bonus to pay rent which included utilities, things like heat, hot water and electricity. The apartment building that I used to live in had a boiler system and the rent included heat (radiators) and hot water. I could take as many hot showers as I wanted! Electricity was usually extra but when it didn't include heat and/or hot water, it was really a minor thing. Or so I thought.
The tables have turned. I am now a landlord with three rental units. All of them have electric baseboard heaters. All of them have electric hot water tanks. I had no idea how expensive a BC Hydro bill could be!
When we moved into our current house, we asked BC Hydro to put us on the Equal Payment Plan. Over the course of a year, we would pay a fixed amount every month. Since we had just moved in, BC Hydro used the previous owner's electricity consumption as their baseline. Our monthly payments were $250. Gulp.
We set about tightening our belts by spending money on energy efficiency upgrades. We put extra insulation in the ceiling, installed programmable thermostats and replaced most of the GU 10 halogen spot bulbs with LED versions. We made sure that all of our other light bulbs were curly CFLs. We turned down the heat to a cozy 18 degrees Celsius in the living areas and kept our bedroom at a brisk 15 degrees. We wore sweaters and wooly socks. We washed our clothes in cold water. We dried our clothes on the clothesline outside or on clothing racks inside.
It made a difference. Over the course of the next year, we watched as the discrepancy between our Equal Payment Plan and our actual electricity usage grew wider and wider. After twelve months, BC Hydro owed us almost $1100. Bonus! We received a nice fat cheque in the mail from BC Hydro and our monthly payment plan dropped from $250/month to $155/month. But could we continue the trend? Five months into our second year, we are about 20% below last year's usage. And BC Hydro is taking notice. They are set to reduce our monthly payment to $143. That is good news for us!
You see, electricity rates are always rising. The infrastructure of BC Hydro (dams, hydro-electric plants, transmission lines) is aging and needs to be updated. Demand for electricity is rising. As a landlord, I am concerned about the electricity consumption of tenants whose rent includes utilities. Not just my tenants. All tenants.
Every household, every person can make a difference when it comes to conserving electricity. If everyone in British Columbia conserved electricity, demand would not be so high, rates would not rise so sharply. It's pretty obvious. Ultimately, conserving electricity is not only good for us, it is also good for the environment. In BC, we are lucky to have access to hydro-electric power, one of the cleaner formers of electricity generation. Not so for Alberta which relies on coal-fired power plants to generate its electricity.
Still... I have visited folks whose rent includes utilities. Lights are left burning all day, regardless of whether anyone is home or not. Baseboard heaters are cranked to 25 degrees Celsius while windows are left wide open. Space heaters run day and night. These tenants have no incentive to save electricity.
Despite the fact that their extravagance directly impacts hydro rates and therefore directly impacts me.
Despite the fact that their extravagance increases the demand for more electricity which means more dams, more power plants, more transmission lines, more environmental damage.
We all pay for increased electricity consumption - in the short term and the long term. Some costs are far-removed from us, like the flooding of rivers in the north-eastern corner of the province. Other costs are nearer and dearer to our hearts. Perhaps the truth is that we are only motivated to change our habits when something affects us directly. Directly in the pocketbook. And the sad truth is... if we don't pay for something... we aren't hit in the pocket book, at least not directly... and we are less motivated to make a difference.
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