A consumption or flat tax isn't regressive, that's a phony political term the far left uses. to elicit an emotional reaction from itherewise reasonable people for pilitical reasons.

I have not heard any complaints on power consumption.   

The thing the rich want to purchase may be a utility bill, a regular vacation, or transportation (car, Netjets, or whatever), but rather than paying for the thing from current income they first invest in an asset or business and then use that to pay for consumption. 

Work with your tenants on programming them, and that should result in a 15% to 25% reduction in energy consumption (depending on how easy the thermostats are to use and how often your tenants are home).

You're in good company in your quest to balance money savings with pounds of ibuprofen consumption.  

A funny thing happens when you revisit how much consumer crap you "need" -- turns out you don't need any of it, and by drastically reducing your consumption you suddenly can live on a fraction of what you thought.

I tell them all up front that i never will and they are responsible for notifying me immediately with water leaks and AC issues and they alone are responsible for their energy consumption.

To elaborate on soft costs, that would be things like architect fees, permit fees, tap fees, insurance costs, interest costs, temporary utilities and utility consumption.

Originally the purpose was for sensors (humidity/moisture, temperature, electrical consumption, motion), but them we started to add control features (thermostat limits, electronic lock, etc), with the ability to delegate some access to the tenants.While it doesn't increase our rent, it does make looking after our student houses easier and the "coolness" factor does seem to help with word-of-mouth marketing.

Our operations and services are based on the new collaborative consumption real estate market.