What If Apartment Complexes Had a Stake In Energy Efficiency ?

• Equipment
  • mantenance
  • specifications 
• Construction
• Design and % of shared external walls
• Incentives and Contests
• Submeters
• Getting Republicans In On The Action
• How big a stake ?
  • How would you monitor it ?
  • How would you give back to residents that portion which was theirs?
  • etc

I am just going to put this one out there in a totally unfinished state. You can figure it out.

Deserves to be talked about, but anything more than that would be way too premature.

One of the coolest things about a market economy such as ours is that it puts the burden of consumption on the consumer. In other words, I won't waste energy because I have to pay the bills.

• That keeps me from putting my thermostat
  • up too high in winter and
  • down too low in summer.
• Keeps me from wasting hot water
• etc

Problem with that approach is when it's shared.

My Apartment Was Built To Waste Energy

• Electric resistance heat (approx 30% efficient ?)
• 80% of my external walls are exposed to outside temperatures even though I am in a building
• Poorly insulated ?
• Crappy windows
• Poorly maintained equipment.

So my bills are pretty high even though I only have 840 square feet.

I didn't shop for energy when I chose the apartment, too many other variables had to come first. So really no-one has a stake in this, because it is not in the apartment owner's economic interests to provide me a better designed, constructed, and maintained structure and equipment.