Electricity and Utility Conservation

[Ann155]

Hi all,

I just received the sticker shock of a recent utility bill that is 9x the amount. OUCH. It was a particular difficult guest, which I understand but I have been reading the posts and can't seem to find an adequate solution to dealing with guests who overuse utilities. The only option seems to be to raise the prices to accommodate but prices are competitive here. I explicitly write in the rules to please conserve electricity, water, etc. but clearly this is not working. Any thoughts on how to politely get folks to conserve rather than me just put up notes all over the unit(s)?? 

Thanks,

Ann

[Dede0]

@Ann155 9X? You didn't say how long the guest's stay was? Three days? Two months?

My point is that more information would be useful before anyone bothers to respond.

[Ann155]

Thanks @dede. One month stay, one month's utility bill. 

[Scott80]

I think the short answer is that you can't. Sure there are all sorts of ways to force it. ie turn down the water heater so it is luke warm. put timers on the light switches so they turn off an hour after the button is pushed. buy a thermostat that can't go above 70'.

The problem is that all of those are just going to lead to complaints, forced cancellations and bad reviews. There are some relatively transparent energy saving tips. Like making sure the doors and windows close tightly with weatherstripping/gaskets, and making the washing machine only use cold water and using LED light bulbs. Here is an article from forbes:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2011/08/23/10-easy-ways-to-lower-your-electric-bill/3/#2a2e...

I think the main thing is you are going to have to evaluate the profitable of AirBnB and if the market is so tight that the electric bill means the difference between profit and loss, it might be better to rent long-term and not include utilities.

[Elizabeth282]

I see some excellent ideas given and should be looked at. However I have a smart electricity meter and can see over use like this at a day delay. I would give some sort of normal measure as included in the price and then a plusage. As airbnb charges are all upfront I am not sure how one can do this. In France booking an apartment means you agree to post pay the electricity bill on actual use.

I can also see the daily megabytes download but fortunately I have a reasonable unlimited price. 

[Lisa1015]

I don't think this response really makes sense for California. Because of the way the tier system is set up here, the difference in cost between reasonable usage and extreme usage is enormous. The (essentially) penalties for what the "powers that be" decide is over-usage, make a potentially profitable stay into an unprofitable one. This is particularly true in hot areas of the state. 

Most of us followed the typical ways to make our property energy-efficient many years ago. This is not sufficient.

I think hosts can install smart thermostats with a reasonable range of temperature settings, and put this in the listing or notify guests of this as part of the initial communication about the property. I think most guests will accept this. Also, many of the ways the smart thermostats help, such as shutting off when there is no motion in the house etc., won't impact guests much. The same is true with the light timers. 

What do other hosts think?

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Instead of leaving it up to the guests, I would install a smart thermostat (we have the Nest thermostat) which allows you to monitor and adjust useage remotely.  You can even set a passcode so the tenant cannot override your settings.  You can let your guests know to contact you if it's too hot/cold. 

[Kate560]

Is it simple to install or does it require an hvac tech or electrician?

[Lisa1015]

Thank you, but I still don't understand how the thermostat would help with the situation of guests leaving the A/C on and the windows open?

Lisa

[Paul154]

The easiest way to reduce the risk of a huge monthly utility bill is to prevent long term bookings.

The law a large numbers will help you offset the abusers.

I am assuming your electricity is high because of air-conditioner being on 24 hours on a level too low, while the windows are open.

A smart wifi thermostat will help by lettinig you limit the temperature setting.

As for the windows being open, you can ask them nicely.  (I find this difficult, cuz I want to scream!) 

With the wifi themostat, you can check for open windows and then  turn off the A/C. When the guests complain, you can explain that your A/C doesn't work with the windows open. Confrontive, but direct.

[Kate560]

I also had an incredibly high electric bill ( 400) last month and my place is only 1400 square feet. One of my associates recommended buying a therostat control like NEST and putting a lock on it somehow, but I thought I would ask to see if anyone else is doing this.

[Amy-and-Brian0]

We have an Ecobee thermostat, which is a competitor of Nest. We like it and are able to make a daily schedule (one temp for day, one for night). It's saved us a ton of money. The reason we did that was because people leave the condo at around 9 AM, but then leave the thermostat cranked all the way down. (We are in Orlando, so it's air conditioning year round)

Users can override the schedule,  but only in a range that we have input. The ability to change the schedule or the range is locked at the controller, but we can change it via our phone or computer.

It was not hard to install, though we are pretty handy. 

We've never had a guest complain, though we've had a couple ask to change the range.

There are addons for some of the smart thermostats that can kill the air conditioner if the windows or doors are left open, though we don't have that.

Hope that helps!