What Are the Utilities?

iamsweetmystery

The postman says "Your mail has been delivered, you have 48 hours to pay your bills before we shut off your utilities one by one."
I'm usually pretty diligent about paying my bills. I have had the lights shut off once (though, oddly, it didn't seem to affect the computer).
What I'm wondering is... What are all the utilities and what is their shut-off schedule?

IceyJ

After the first 48 hours, electricity is shut off. Then you get another 48 hours, I think, until the water is shut off.

Sid1701D9

The Utilities are based on a certain percentage of the objects your household includes objects in your house your household inventory and sims inventory.

Anthonydyer

Oh boy, utilities. One time I bought a house I couldn't afford and I had to forgo electricity for a few days. I came close to losing water. Sims logic, right?

Pinkmonkey

Sid1701D9 wrote: »

The Utilities are based on a certain percentage of the objects your household includes objects in your house your household inventory and sims inventory.

Does this include items on owned retail lots?

EgonVM

Pinkmonkey wrote: »

Sid1701D9 wrote: »

The Utilities are based on a certain percentage of the objects your household includes objects in your house your household inventory and sims inventory.

Does this include items on owned retail lots?

Yes, if you don't pay the bills, the utilities (power and water) will be shut down not only at your house, but also at the retail stores, restaurants, and vet clinics you own.

iamsweetmystery

All good info. Thanks. If anyone knows more, please fill me in. For instance, if there's anything else after water. It's not like I plan on neglecting my bills, but I do like to know things like this. Little details sometimes just pique my curiosity.

kalaksed

nope, power and water are all. and candles will still light up at night without power, which is a nice touch

Pinkmonkey

EgonVM wrote: »

Pinkmonkey wrote: »

Sid1701D9 wrote: »

The Utilities are based on a certain percentage of the objects your household includes objects in your house your household inventory and sims inventory.

Does this include items on owned retail lots?

Yes, if you don't pay the bills, the utilities (power and water) will be shut down not only at your house, but also at the retail stores, restaurants, and vet clinics you own.

Cool. So I can't hide all my extra collectibles in my retail lots to keep them from increasing my bills?

LolaLuvsSims

Pinkmonkey wrote: »

EgonVM wrote: »

Pinkmonkey wrote: »

Sid1701D9 wrote: »

The Utilities are based on a certain percentage of the objects your household includes objects in your house your household inventory and sims inventory.

Does this include items on owned retail lots?

Yes, if you don't pay the bills, the utilities (power and water) will be shut down not only at your house, but also at the retail stores, restaurants, and vet clinics you own.

Cool. So I can't hide all my extra collectibles in my retail lots to keep them from increasing my bills?

Yes you can. The items at the retail lot will not increase your bills unless that is a recent update.

iamsweetmystery

I just store any collectibles I don't want to display in a chest. There are several storage chests the Buy/Build Catalog (under Storage>Miscellaneous). It can hold as much as you want and keep it all accessible.

paradiseplanet

iamsweetmystery wrote: »

I just store any collectibles I don't want to display in a chest. There are several storage chests the Buy/Build Catalog (under Storage>Miscellaneous). It can hold as much as you want and keep it all accessible.

Yes, but they'll still affect the overall total of all your bills!

iamsweetmystery

I wasn't aware of that. It doesn't seem to make much sense either. Does that mean the veggies and fish in your fridge or fish in a fish tank raise your bills too?

paradiseplanet

iamsweetmystery wrote: »

I wasn't aware of that. It doesn't seem to make much sense either. Does that mean the veggies and fish in your fridge or fish in a fish tank raise your bills too?

Unfortunately yes, anything stored away within a residential lot still counts towards the overall total of the bills, since it calculates everything on the home lot as well as in the household inventory and individual sims' inventories. I learned this the hard way. Luckily most stored items add very little to the bills, it's whole collections that rack up a lot.

iamsweetmystery

This goes a long way to explain a lot. It's a good thing money in the game is so easy to come by. Some of my families have numerous completed collections as well as hundreds of veggies, fruits and flowers stockpiles for cooking and crafting supplies. I never made the connection to that and their bills because their houses are so expensive in the first place. Definitely best to save serious collecting for families who are already wealthy. Since I like setting up big display rooms in the basements to visibly track my collections, it's better for families who can afford to do so. One thing I will say, I like the utility shut-off system better than the old way, which involved a repo man coming to your house and taking random stuff equal to the value of your bills, then having to figure out everything they took and replace it.

GalacticGal

paradiseplanet wrote: »

iamsweetmystery wrote: »

I wasn't aware of that. It doesn't seem to make much sense either. Does that mean the veggies and fish in your fridge or fish in a fish tank raise your bills too?

Unfortunately yes, anything stored away within a residential lot still counts towards the overall total of the bills, since it calculates everything on the home lot as well as in the household inventory and individual sims' inventories. I learned this the hard way. Luckily most stored items add very little to the bills, it's whole collections that rack up a lot.

So glad in RL the power and water usage isn't calculated that way.

iamsweetmystery

Hilarious, GalacticGal, and so very true.

VentusMatt

To add to this bills are also based on energy usage and and possibly water usage. If you have your lights on 24/7 or any other electrical device on most of the time your bills will increase and I'm not sure if this is true but the more water you use also add to the overall cost.

iamsweetmystery

Seems like they're trying to bankrupt all the Sims. Next thing you know, Bladder Fails and Pet Poop will raise your bills as well. It's crazy.

Simmerville

VentusMatt wrote: »

To add to this bills are also based on energy usage and and possibly water usage. If you have your lights on 24/7 or any other electrical device on most of the time your bills will increase and I'm not sure if this is true but the more water you use also add to the overall cost.

Sounds reasonable. 8 sims houses should get higher bills than single sim households.