Apartment electrical questions

My apartment has electricity included. Thats a pretty common thing around here, you just pay rent on the apartment, they pay the hot water bills, electricity, etc.. (we pay our own cable/internet though).

Our apartment has 5-6 circuits and a small old school panel (those round 15a fuses instead of breaker panel, aluminum wiring etc)


Do buildings like these, that pay the entire electricity bill themselves, do they monitor the usage of EACH unit? Is that even possible? Its not like I have a meter in my apartment. But I dont know what goes on in the basement of that locked "electrical room".

Also with aluminum wiring, should I be worried? On a 15 amp circuit I want to play it safe and use 10-11 max. But I have read a wee bit about aluminum wiring and I think the main fires are caused by arcing. Basically many summers and winters can cause some of the terminal connections to expand and contract, over and over and sometimes they can loosen and arc, to me that means a toaster is just as likely to set off a fire as a 1000w light. If you run too much wattage through the circuit you'll just blow the fuse, but I want to be as safe as possible just to be sure.


Basically I'm wondering if at each month, the landlord just gets some $10,000 bill for the entire building, or if they actually get a breakdown like Susan in 105 used x amount of kw's, Joe on the 14th floor used bla bla bla. I'd feel alot safer if I knew it was the former.

Do buildings like these, that pay the entire electricity bill themselves, do they monitor the usage of EACH unit? Is that even possible? Its not like I have a meter in my apartment. But I dont know what goes on in the basement of that locked "electrical room".

the answer is yes they have a seperate meter for every unit, and if you exceed a certin amount of usage im pretty sure you have to pay the difference in how much you go over. just go with cfl, no worries imo.

Damn I dont like that. Just more reason for me to move out, I'd rather pay my electrical bill directly to the electrical company instead of my landlord eyeing the bill, noticing our unit significantly higher then the rest and raising red flags. I think you are right, they probably install sub-meters. Electrical room is always locked I have no way to verify. And asking the landlord directly is just too suspicious I think. My next rental I want to look for a place that provides no utilities, I want to pay them all myself.

that would be the best way to go. the reason i know is because i do service/inspections in the construction field and ive always seen those sub meters but if you do cfl they wont know because of the low wattage. but they will def see the difference if you use better lighting.

Do you think every building has them, even old ones? I know for a fact my building uses aluminum wiring and is quite old. Is it almost certain they use sub-meters anyways?

Also whats your thoughts on that aluminum wiring anyways, it makes me a little nervous doing anything. Then again I bet people in my building run like 1000w heaters in the winter and dont even think twice about it. You can literally throw any AC you want in a window here, they dont inspect, I bet people have ACs drawing a constant 10 amps at least. Is it dangerous? I know connections can loosen over time and arc/spark/cause fires, but drawing like 80-90% load from wire in itself shouldnt cause a fire right? And if you accidently maxed the capacity of the wire it should just blow the fuse right?

Damn I wanna pack up and move outta here fast. But for now its what I got, I'm considering a 400w (probably wont go that high), and a 5-6k BTU AC and 1-2 fans and of course my PC, which is actually kind of a beast in itself.

Do most bedrooms run 1 or 2 circuits? I figure 1 right? I have 3 receptacles and an overhead light fixture.


edit- if I ran the 400w I'd only run it 12/12 at night when I'm sleeping/at work and wouldnt use my PC during those times just to be safe. Its the window AC I"m worried about those beasts draw like 5-7 amps on their own.

most apartments that pay the electric as part of the rent do so because they dont have the electric broken up by apartment so they dont have the ability to meter each apartment. is this an old house converted to apartments?
as for bedroom being on 1 or 2 circiuts, they probably ran the wires the shortest way possible and not all the outlets in bedroom on 1 circiut but whatever is easier.1 circiut may run up the east wall, catch the bathroom on the other side of the wall,jump to the light in the hall and go on to an outlet on the next floor while the west wall has a different circiut that travels down the west wall picking up the outlets on the bedroom and moving to the kitchen or next bedroom.

isthis2012 said:

Do you think every building has them, even old ones? I know for a fact my building uses aluminum wiring and is quite old. Is it almost certain they use sub-meters anyways?

Also whats your thoughts on that aluminum wiring anyways, it makes me a little nervous doing anything. Then again I bet people in my building run like 1000w heaters in the winter and dont even think twice about it. You can literally throw any AC you want in a window here, they dont inspect, I bet people have ACs drawing a constant 10 amps at least. Is it dangerous? I know connections can loosen over time and arc/spark/cause fires, but drawing like 80-90% load from wire in itself shouldnt cause a fire right? And if you accidently maxed the capacity of the wire it should just blow the fuse right?

Damn I wanna pack up and move outta here fast. But for now its what I got, I'm considering a 400w (probably wont go that high), and a 5-6k BTU AC and 1-2 fans and of course my PC, which is actually kind of a beast in itself.

Do most bedrooms run 1 or 2 circuits? I figure 1 right? I have 3 receptacles and an overhead light fixture.


edit- if I ran the 400w I'd only run it 12/12 at night when I'm sleeping/at work and wouldnt use my PC during those times just to be safe. Its the window AC I"m worried about those beasts draw like 5-7 amps on their own.

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on the aluminum wiring if its not a really old building you wouldnt have to worry. when aluminum is used instead of copper they're gonna be a size bigger then the copper so its ok. and usually in bedrooms is only 1 circuit receptacles.