Comment on Servers go Brrrrrr
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Why does the electricity company know your flat size and your heating source?
Besides what others have said, they’d know the capabilities of the address when it’s built, at a minimum, as they’re responsible for providing the infrastructure to deliver power to it.
I really don’t get why you’re asking this - they need to know what a facility is capable of to manage and plan power delivery.
they need to know what a facility is capable of to manage and plan power delivery.
But that’s a single value measured in Ampere.
The size in square feet is something completely irrelevant to know.
And even the Ampere value is only relevant for the local provider that connects to your house, not for the company selling you the actual electric energy.
The company selling me electricity knows nothing about me but my electric meter ID.
Lighting load on new construction homes is calculated based on square footage.
Lighting load on new construction homes is calculated based on square footage.
That doesn’t even make sense as it treads someone just putting up a single 5W bulb the same as someone having an indoor hemp plantation or heavy machine shop in their basement.
(USA) My flat just had its tax assessment done and that includes the floor area, heating source, and other things like how fancy your kitchen is (mine is “standard”, btw). That tax assessment is available online to everyone.
Soooo… there are openly available public databases containing information on how fancy a kitchen you own…?
On one hand that’s completely hilarious.
On the other hand that’s frighteningly dystopian.
To say it with the latest officially elected German youth word: “Das crazy.”
Yep. For example, search for parcel “176-194-030” in the Hartford, CT tax assessor’s search. It should bring up a McDonald’s fast food building (I chose that because it’s less creepy than singling out some random person’s home.)
Screenshot of the parcel info page
There’s even a little drawing of the building. The purple is the first floor and the blue is the “canopy” or, I guess, awning outside. The “interior” tab on this site doesn’t list the kitchen quality, but does say the insulation is “typical” and 40% of the building has sprinklers. My guess is different cities and towns track different things in their tax assessments.
Oh! IIRC, Germany has the thing where the kitchen doesn’t stay with the house. In the USA, they’re firmly attached.
Coming from a country where even the streetview pictures have to be blurred if the people living there wish so, this uncompromising publication of people’s home information is totally fascinating!
And also I am wondering now, what a half and a 3/4 bath is… ;-)
BTW: While it is true, that the kitchen is not part of a German house or flat, it nonetheless typically is also firmly attached (big screws into our rather firm brick walls).
And contrary to exaggerating Youtube-clips, in most cases it stays and is privately and quietly sold by one tenant to the next, out of obvious practical considerations.
Also because of the “does not belong to the building” rule, when buying a home, it is a good idea to estimate the value of an existing kitchen at the upper end and reduce the official price for the rest of the home price accordingly, thereby reducing the estate sales tax by a few bucks. (Sales tax is only for the building, and the kitchen does not belong to the building, so…)
cm0002@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
In most places in the US, basic home specs are public record and/or just floating around since the last time it was publicly listed for sale
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I bet you can look at the building permit and learn this stuff
cm0002@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
That too, but some jurisdictions put some guardrails for pulling full prior permits, when I wanted to pull all the historical permits for my house for my own records, I had to bring in some proof that I was either the owner, tenant or other interested party (like say a contractor who want to see the previous permits before doing their own work)
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Wow. That idea is definitely 2American4me…
(I also just posted it in the respective community, as it fits perfectly there…)
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In Germany, not only do they know all of that, but they come out every year to check it. This year, they showed up several days before they said they were going to, but when the guy walked in, he looked around, and then gave us a bunch of information about dealing with slum lords, lol.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Are you perhaps confusing that with the heating meter checkers in appartment buildings? They actually need the living area for the billing and have a contract to do so with your
landslumlord, and thereby you.Regarding the slumlord: The magic word is generally “Mietminderung”, I think.