I've lived in here for about 9 months now, and already started seeking another apartment to move to. The biggest reason that I am moving out of this place is the crazy electricity bill.

First of all, I live on 1st floor, and this floor is impossible to keep apartment warm since there is no insulation work. I felt so strange since the apartment was not getting warm, and realized that freezing cold air is keep blowing into the apartment from the space between wall and floor, space between balcony door and floor, etc. To prove that, I put film all over the window, and hoped this would help, but as I expected, they were ripped off due to very strong wind that is keep blowing into the apartment. It is impossible to keep this apartment warm, especially if you are on the 1st floor.

I have tried couple of things to reduce the cost of energy bill.

1. Shut off barker for the heating, so it won't turn on last month.

2. Never used 4 halogen lamps over the kitchen for since 2 months ago.

3. Switched most of the light bulbs to fluorescent type that you see in the store for energy efficient light bulbs.

4. Always turn off the light in the area that I am not around.

I have been trying these conditions above harder recently, but strangely, electricity bill went up. I do not understand this at all.

Here are the electricity bills that I got:


$135 for March ----- Last month, I just even tried harder, but got worse result. I did overcome last month by being in the blanket while I am at home when it is freezing. I shut off barker for the heating for entire month this time, and just used portable heater around my feet, but strangely, the bill was even higher than last month!! I basically lived same way as I did for last month except shutting off braker. Plus, this month's delivery charge was actually 2 cents lower than last month. Seriously, this is very strange, now I started feeling that I am paying for something that I did not used, and bill isn't metered correctly. It is highly possible that I am paying for some other usage that is not from me, but I don't know how to investigate this. This situation doesn't make sense.


$105 for February -- Still had barker up, but never turned on heating. I kept film all over the window. It gets ripped off often by itself by the wind that is keep trying to freeze apartment.

$ 88 for January -- I freaked out with last bill, so never turned on heating, but had barker up. Put film all over the window.

$160 for December-- Used heater when I wanted, never thought bill will go this high.

$106 for November

$ 68 for October

$ 67 for September

$ 66 for August

$ 24 for July (only for 17 days)

Now, I got these bills that are lower than other neighbors. I asked the one who also live on 1st floor about the electricity bill. She told me her bill is always over $250, or even sometime $300. So, you see, I really tried hard, and spent time in freezing cold apartment during last couple of month, but still got very poor results. I don't think many people would do that.

If you are thinking about moving into this apartment, I definitely would recommend to live on top floor or somewhere upper floor, don't pick the unit on the low level. I would stay here if apartment pays electricity, but since they don't I'll move out when my lease end in couple of months. I think they need to pay if apartment is poorly constructed and impossible to keep the unit warm, but they don't.

- Also, another thing, my car was broken into while it was parked in the garage. This happened in December, in the middle of the night. I had to replace my driver side window. It was messy trouble to go through during the cold winter.

- One black male and black female who were together in the car parked in my spot (the spot in garage that I pay monthly fee), and I came home to park. I asked them to move their car since that was my spot, but male came out of the car and threaten me. This was during the day, but at this time, garage was way too dark. Now they put bright light in the garage.

Well, last two notes are maybe because I was unlucky, but I'm just listing this for the trouble experience that I went through. Good thing about this apartment is the location. It is close to everywhere.

User Responses
From: forbis01	Date: 03/25/2008
Plus you probably should have told the staff about the cold air flowing into your apartment and have them fix it instead of trying to fix it yourself and complaining about the problem. they cant help you if they dont know there is a problem. Massachusetts gets cold in the winter and heat is expensive that is why you notice in the summer your bill is way lower then the winter. Maybe you should find an apartment with utilities included
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/26/2008
I never turn on the heat for more than 15 minutes, but I realize even if I don't turn it on, it randomly turns on itself for a couple seconds hear and there. Don't you just love the fire alarms going off... like now, 2:59 am in the morning?
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/28/2008
Well, if staff could do anything about the insulation, they should have done it already as I reported at the begining of the Winter. I am the person, who never just complain and do nothing about it. I always do report things in written format, and keep the copy and the date that I reported. I don't trust the process, making phone call and wait and hope to be resolved. I'm very organized. So, only the way is to find a warm apartment and move out of here. As you also said, yes, rent that includes utilities would be the best, and that's what I'm looking for now. That's right. It does turn on by itself even if you set the temperature at the lowest. That's why you need to turn braker off. If apartment won't pay for the bill, they cannot require tenants to keep the heat up, especially for the apartment unit with this kind of issue. You are basically end up trying to heat the apartment while very excellent working air conditioner is working next to it. That's nothing, but a waste. So, people at 1st floor are having insane charges to just keep small one bedroom apartment warm. Small one is not even 600sqf.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/28/2008
I live on the 6th floor and it is no different than the 1st floor! This past winter it was like a wind tunnel through our living room from the sliding glass door. We had a insane electric bill starting in November, we had to get one of those plastic film shrink kits from Home Depot. It is nuts that the insulation is so terrible and everything is electric! The building is also hardly ever secure. What I mean by that is people prop the entry doors open and don't shut them again, or jam the locks! We are paying for building security in some form in our rent I am sure, if people lose there magnetic key to enter they need to replace it but they don't and compromise the security of everyone else in the building. I always inform the leasing office when this happens and they take there good old time fixing the lock!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/27/2008
Hi, I am planning to move to boston and looking for a place near to boston downtown especially in some Indian locality near to Indian markets and connected by bus or trains. Seems like these apt. are not good. Any suggestions please. send response to me at bitm.neeraj@gmail.com Thanks a lot.

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