Surging UK energy bills spark tensions among tenants
Britain's cost-of-living crisis has turned into a bitter winter in households trying to keep their energy bills down: Some lecture flatmates for keeping the lights on. Others move to better heated homes.
Common energy-saving measures also include not using heating during the day-and buying an electric blanket instead of switching on radiators.
It can be complicated for people in shared accommodation, with relationships complicated by different lifestyles and salaries, which means they must compromise to lower their bills.
"Everyone is conscious about not leaving lights on," said Joe, a 33-year-old schoolteacher who shares an east London home with five other people.
The housemates have together agreed to turn off heating in bedrooms.
They still warm the living room, where two of them work from home, but they use an electric heater during the day rather than firing up the boiler.
Arguments can flare up, particularly when housemates bring partners to stay over.
Notes are sometimes left as a reminder to turn the heating down.
"We have had a few passive-aggressive messages: If you're not in the room, turn the lights off," added Joe.
Other London flatmates opted to avoid all heating unless the temperature dips to a really cold level, as it did over Christmas.
Household electricity and gas bills have rocketed across Europe this year, after key energy producer Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
In Britain, the average domestic energy bill has roughly doubled over the last 12 months.
That has helped push inflation to the highest level in four decades, in turn creating a cost-of-living crisis as wages fail to keep pace, despite the government's partial subsidy for fuel.
Simon Francis, campaigner at pressure group End Fuel Poverty, told AFP that the fuel crisis was hitting everyone.
"People are all just suf