Lightbulbs
Sorry for the length of this, this housemate annoys me more than I'd anticipated.

This housemate has been mentioned somewhere in this QOTW before, the one about the crap burglar. He's older than the rest of the other 3 housemates, who've known each other for years, so thinks (and has actually told me this on an occasion) that he has more of a say in the house because he knows how to live with people more than we do.

Only problem is, despite this nasty attitude of his in which he constantly looks down at us, he keeps making silly errors that show he has no idea how to live on his own. He never locks the door (which led to a burglar sneaking into the house), he once put some chips in the oven, fell asleep in the kitchen for 3 hours while he waited for them and then just turned off the oven and went to bed. The next morning I found what I thought to be sticks of charcoal in the oven on a baking tray.


But he persists, and he's created rules, mainly to save electricity, that we have to stick to, but just the simple ones like making sure nothing's on standby, turning off lights when we're not using them. Common sense stuff, he doesn't want the bills to be high and neither do we. Only problem is, despite this insistence on not using stupid amounts of electricity, he decided to bring his own freezer into the house despite the fact that the massive freezer that came with the house is only ever a quarter filled by the rest of us. And of course, he likes to keep his freezer on the highest fast-freeze setting, despite only having a loaf of bread in there most of the time.

But I let him have his freezer, mainly because I like to keep the ground floor hall light on in the evenings, it's energy-saving and only on for about 4/5 hours a night, not too much really, just means that since I live on the ground floor, I don't constantly walk into pitch-black every time I leave my room and have to search for a light switch every time. Quite annoying when you're trying to dash to the shower room. Also it makes it seem like we live in the dark ages when every light in the house but two back bedroom lights is off, not very welcoming for guests.

But no! He does not like this, every time he sees the hall light on, he has to turn it off! That's wasting electricity! Let's completely ignore his cold bread in the pointless freezer!

So we've had a constant back-and-forth, until yesterday evening, when I tried to turn on the light to go to the bathroom, the light didn't work... he'd actually gone to the effort and getting a ladder and un-screwing the bulb, leaving it on the window ledge in clear view as a message to me. Don't fuck with him and his electricity, he has a ladder. Except, I decided to not take that as the message, I'm playing dumb and thinking that he just wants us to put all the bulbs we can on that ledge, so every day I plan to buy a new pack of bulbs and just keep piling them up until the window and ledge are covered. It's already getting quite high. I love playing the dumb card.

And if that fails, I'm just gonna unplug his freezer. Sucker.
(Ya_Ma_Ha, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 17:22, 14 replies)

By my reckoning...
Your bulb uses 100watt/hours per day (assuming 20w for 5 hours). That works out at 36.5kWh p/a.

Can't find hard stats for a freezer (greater variability), but one source quotes a nominal drain of 500w/hour. This is acknowledged to be misleading; as the machinery is thermostat controlled, it won't be running continuously, but with an estimated 10% duty cycling. That's 1,200 watt/hours per day, or 438kWh p/a; which is 12 times the drain of your energy saving bulb.

The numbers look even better when you factor in that Freezers with large air-voids are less efficient, and most low-power bulbs are rated less than 20w.

(edited for spelling and grammar)
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 18:03, closed)

or just poo in his freezer

(mr-lizard Hell's teeth man!, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 18:30, closed)

Fill his freezer full of light bulbs

( The magic of chutney Shakes it like an Instagram filter!, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 18:37, closed)

mould poo into light bulb shapes and put them in his freezer.
that'll show him.
(micky2shoes has more shoes than feet, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 18:41, closed)

Well, that's as sound a plan as any.
After all, you can't easily reason someone out of a position, which they haven't arrived at by reason.
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 20:55, closed)

^^this
is excellent. and exactly what i thought.
(imallamallama looking forward to llamageddon on, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 22:42, closed)

or
put the freezer on the windowledge too.

or

poo on the windowledge.

or

get the stepladders, set them up outside his door, climb up, lower trousers, reach down and knock on door, poo on flatmate.


b3ta - sensible solutions for a brighter future.
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 23:23, closed)

i'd suggest...
buying his brand of bread, letting it go stale or mouldy and replacing his frozen bread with this repeatedly. It'll drive him crazy!
(Roopy all is not what it seams, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 0:28, closed)

^^ This
And randomly open a packet and poo in it.
( snee held his breath since, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 7:58, closed)

^^ I like this too..
But what about mouldy loaves swap, plus... take the fuse out of the plug for the freezer (sorry if you're not UK).. it'll still look the same, only warmer.
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 9:42, closed)

What is with?
All the poo today?

Does his freezer have a fuse in the plug? Can you take it out, and replace it with a dead one. It would probably drive him insane, or is he actually fairly intelligent?
( mister.f is now married, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 16:25, closed)

Take the fuse out
and replace it with a very small cylinder of poo.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 16:41, closed)

this is b3ta
there will be poo
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 17:15, closed)

I might just go completely unrelated to everything
and throw poo at his door. My own poo, I'm not sick.
(Ya_Ma_Ha, Wed 4 Mar 2009, 17:51, closed)