Skycraper Dreams

I just received an electric bill from one of the rental ‘house’ meters for a total of $324.12.  This issue is that this bill has never topped $210 up until now. I’m concerned because this can seriously affect my rental’s profitability, especially when my margins are already thin.

Now, I should give you a bit of background on this since I’ve recently made some changes to the set-up of this building.  When I bought the triplex, my house meter powered the common area lights, the laundry room, and the furnace room.  I paid for the heat via two oil fired forced air furnaces and an oil fired hot water tank.  In August I installed a second oil tank and a 60 gallon electric hot water heater in order to split the heating of the units independently (the basement has electric baseboard heat).

Unfortunately I couldn’t set up independent hot water for each unit without incurring large plumbing expenses so I opted to continue to pay for this myself.  Since August my electric bill rose from about $20/month to $100/month.  That was completely expected with the addition of the hot water tank.

During this time I also had a three bedroom unit turnover.  Originally it was home to a family of four, then it was vacant for the month of November and a family of three moved in.

Now, taken together this doesn’t really add up.  The spike in my bill does somewhat coincide with my new tenants, but there’s actually few people living in that unit.  Additionally my water consumption hasn’t gone up, so I’m not entirely it is becasue of the hot water heater.  I was paying for the hot water for nearly 6 months and it has not reached anywhere near this level.

I am considering a number of possibilities for the cause.  First, that I have a water leak somewhere that is drawing on the hot water.  Second, that the Christmas holidays lead to a jump in consumption with house guests.  Third, that my house meter may actually be connected to some of the basement unit’s heating.  I’m leaning toward the last at the moment.  Up until now, none of my tenants in that unit used the electric heat.  Additionally, the electrical in the building is not perfectly divided and its entirely possible that some of the basement wiring is connected to my meter.

Now – I’m not sure how I’m going to figure this out.  If this costs keep rising it will seriously eat into my profits.  I’ll keep you posted.

Steve Rental Profit Operating Costs, Utilities