Lodger leaving lights on

[DurKirsty1984]

Hello All,

I have recently let my spare room out to a new lodger, she is lovely but leaves the lights on! I woke up at 5am this morning to find the bathroom lights left on, she’s done this in the kitchen too and i’ve noticed at 3am. She just walks out of a room and past a switch 😫 Do you think it’s ok to gently tell her not to? I pay first £100 of gas and electric then split 50/50 anything over that but I hadn’t anticipated her carelessly leaving lights on. She’s only young and fresh out of student accommodation. I don’t want to make her feel on egg shells but I also want her to turn lights off.

Thanks x

Of course. Otherwise tell her you'll up her bills to cover the cost. Your house, your rules

The only thing you can do is turn them off and rant 'bloody hell it's like Blackpool illuminations in here!!'

Work out exactly how much it is costing before you decide whether to mention it.

Oh god that’s what my parents used to say to me 😂

Mine is the same but also leaves the bathroom window closed after a shower! Will talk about bills and how willing they will be to treat the walls for mould too!!

It does take some nagging when they are inexperienced unfortunately but you can make it lighthearted too.

She's probably lived in places where the lighting comes on and goes off automatically🙄If you've got led bulbs/lights it's not that expensive, but it's wasteful. Just remind her to please switch them off.

I say that phrase to my dds who leave lights on everywhere in the house. They’ve just skipped off to go get the bus for school and the house is lit like the Blackpool illuminations. Dhs not much better.
I’d mention it. It’s not just cost, it’s unenvironmentally friendly and a waste of resources.

Ensure all your lights are low energy. Then - and I know this is hard as I can't do it - try and tell yourself that its not that bad. Lights left on don't cost a lot. That said, if they are leaving them on all night then that's just thoughtless and I'd be having a word and upping their part of the bill if they didn't take any notice.

But as a parent, I'm getting used to the idea that lights left on are not the hill I want to be buried on and that there are penty of other much more impactful things that impact my energy bill that I'm focusing on with the kids.

If it REALLY bothers you, then get smart lights. With Alexa you can can get them to turn off at set times or even xxx minutes after they turned on. I have smart plugs that turn off everything in the house at 23:00 and that includes lights in the communal rooms. I've also got timers on a couple like printers that turn the device off after 10 minutes.

But as a parent, I'm getting used to the idea that lights left on are not the hill I want to be buried on and that there are penty of other much more impactful things that impact my energy bill that I'm focusing on with the kids.

Fair enough if it's your kids, but this is a lodger. OP just tell her to turn them off or you'll need to move the full bill to 50/50

It costs about 5-6p to run an 18w LED light (equivalent to the old 60w bulbs) for 10 hours. So a whole year of her leaving a light on overnight every single night will cost about £20. If she only does it on some nights, and for some of the night, it'll probably a matter of less than a tenner a year. Personally I'd not want to sour relations with a good lodger for the sake of a tenner or so a year.

True and if I was the OP, I'd be annoyed as they are. My point was the one the person after you made better than I did, that you risk getting uptight and losing sleep over something that is actually quite minor compared to them showering for half an hour or whatever else they might do.

I can't say I'm perfect at all in that respect, just caught myself getting really wound up by lights being left on and worrying and now I'm a bit more chilled about it all and focus on the more important stuff.