I hope this practical question is not OT and not too trivial for this forum. I am renting an apartment in a duplex with a shared water heater and dryer. Turns out, both water heater and the dryer are connected to my meter. The neighbors seem willing to pay their share for the past 6 months, only how to estimate their fair share?
I tried to leave the apartment for a couple of days and take a reading from the electric meter before and after. It appears that in these 48 hours, my meter changed by 10KWH, i.e. $5/day, with everything but the fridge off. Realistic? There are 3 to 4 of them, and they seem to shower a lot! I know, because I don't get much hot water.
The neighbors are moving out in a month, so I don't have much time to experiment. There is no way to interrupt the electric circuit to insert a meter; so I am thinking, maybe an induction meter would be feasible? How reliable would it be?
EDIT: actually, turns out the dryer plugs into a standard 220V outlet. But heater probably takes much more electricity anyway, right?
Best Answer
This was a comment but it got too long..
With the level of information you can provide this is not a physics question at all.
10 kWh over 48hr may be very high or very low consumption, unless you have traced the circuits you don't know what that meter supplies.
The fact you run out of hot water tells us nothing useful at all about power consumption, it may suggest your tank is small or that your neighbours like to leave the hot taps running for fun.
If you want to pay the correct amount without getting another tank then you need to have a plumber install two flow meters on the water tank and install another power meter (your energy supply company will do that, It'll cost a fortune) then divide the bill based on the flow rate ratio. Anything else is just wild guess work.
Though, that'll probably cost more than a whole new tank.
You just need to come to some agreement with your neighbour and/or landlord, get advice from the appropriate forum. The usual method is that power is included in the rent (rent is still a flat rate).
If you were unaware of the issue before moving in, you've been deceived. If you were in my country the tenancy disputes tribunal would certainly rule in your favour and the landlord would have to pay your bill.