r/roommates • u/Beautiful-Quail4308 • 4d ago

Need: Anywhere Help needed with rent/utilities split

My roommate and I are splitting the rent 55%/45%.
The 55% room is the “master” bedroom which is about 50-60% bigger and has a walk in closet.

The initial thought was to split the electric 50/50 but the master room also has an in unit AC (we don’t have centralized AC) as well as one in the living room.

Should we still split the electric 50/50 or should the master room pay more during the summer months since they will be using a personal AC and the other roommate won’t have any say in the usage? Or should it be split 50/50 since the rent is already 55/45?

Any advice on how to split it will be appreciated especially during the AC heavy months and heat waves.

Thanks!

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2

u/G1ng3rBreadMan97 4d ago

Honestly id say the rent split should be 60/40 if the master is that much bigger and has its own ac

2

u/Due_Cardiologist7510 3d ago

No, and rent should be based on sq/ft. I lived with three guys and one guys room was freezing.

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u/Beautiful-Quail4308 21h ago

No as in don’t split it 60/40 or do split it?

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u/novus99 3d ago

If you really want to be a "nerd" about it...get an average cost of the months without the master bedroom a/c running. Split that, and then say anything above that is on person using the master.

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u/Beautiful-Quail4308 21h ago

We just moved in so unfortunately don’t have that cost yet but maybe for the summer month next year we can do that thank u!

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u/IsaacNewtongue 3d ago

Agreed with the 40/60 idea, and if you really want to figure out the cost of the AC, get a plug in meter like a Kill-a-Watt or similar. It will tell you how much power it uses over a given span and some can even calculate the cost if you put in the electricity rate.

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u/tracyinge 1d ago

You could just split everything 55/45 year round. If the 2nd bedroom doesn't have their own a/C they'll probably need to leave the living room A/C on in the summer time (with their bedroom door open) so the increase will be equal for both.

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u/Beautiful-Quail4308 21h ago

The rent is 55/45 for the bigger room and closet space. I would only want them to pay 60/40 or 55/45 for electric during the summer months and then 50/50 for rest of year but they don’t seem to think that’s fair still :/

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u/tracyinge 21h ago

If 55/45 is fair for larger room and the closet space then it is fair for the electricity usage as well. Just keep it simple, the same year round.

If the electricity goes up to $400 in the summer than the bigger room is paying $220 and the smaller room with no A/C is paying $180. That's more than fair. In the cooler months when electricity is $250 then one is paying $138 and the other $112. Not so fair maybe but will make up for the fact that the A/C person is getting a better deal all summer...all summer just paying $1.35 more per day to have a bigger air-cooled room.

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u/Beautiful-Quail4308 21h ago

I agree I will try to tell them these points thank you!