Utilities Mod (Update 12/9/24) - Reset Usage Statistics & Heat/AC Billing Fix

Mod Description

This mod adds optional power, water, and heat/AC utilities for players looking for an additional challenge in their gameplay.

This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.

Updates

12/9/24

• Added a "Reset Usage Statistics" interaction on power, water, and heat/AC utilities that reset the usage notification back to $0.
• Fixed bug with heating/AC utility usage statistics not being reset to $0 after paying household bills.

Overview

• Power & Water Utilities
• Heating and Cooling System
• Thermostats, Radiators, & Air Conditioner Utilities
• Outages
• Utilities Cost and Usage
• Lack of Funds
• Bill Delinquency
• Master Controls
• New Moodlets
• Catalog Info

Power & Water Utilities

The Power Box controls power and the Water Pipes control water (self explanatory :p). Both utility objects are free in buy mode in the Misc. Electronics tab and Misc. Plumbing tab, respectively.

Once placed down on your lot, you can enable one or both utilities. When the utilities are enabled, power and/or water will be cut off to certain objects on your lot until you "Turn On" the Power Box and/or Water Pipes.

While the utilities are on, your sims will be charged between §1 - §3 simoleons for every 10 minutes they use an object that requires a utility, with the charge varying based on the size of the object. The total cost will be added to your next household bill.

If you want to opt out of the utilities system, just use the “Disable Power Utility” and “Disable Water Utility” interactions available on the utility objects.

The utilities system only applies to the active household.

Below are a list of objects affected by the Power Box utility and their usage costs:



Below are a list of objects affected by the Water Pipes utility and their usage costs:



Heating and Cooling System

Sims are now affected by outdoor temperatures indoors, and are at risk of overheating or freezing if their temperature swings to either extreme.

Thermostats, Radiators, and/or Air Conditioners are now required inside a sim’s home to help regulate their temperature.

To activate the new system, place down one of the three temperature utilities and use the “Enable Temperature Utility” interaction. Once enabled, you can then turn on the temperature utility to control your lot’s temperature.

These temperature changes will only affect sims in your household on your active home lot. No need to worry about unplayed households or sims on community lots freezing or spontaneously combusting!

Thermostats, Radiators, & Air Conditioner Utilities

There are three different types of temperature utilities to choose from to control your lot’s temperature, depending on the climate of your current world and the size of your lot.

Thermostats are good for climates that have both hot and cold seasons, as they have heating and air conditioning, and are cost effective for residential lots with more than two or three rooms.

Radiators and Air Conditioners are better for climates that have either cold or hot seasons, but not both. They’re also more cost effective for apartments or starter homes with a few rooms, as they cost less per hour of what a thermostat does.

Thermostat: Provides either heat or air conditioning when turned on, covers the entire house, costs §2 per hour, gives the Toasty and Keeping Cool custom moodlets

Radiator: Provides heat when turned on, only covers the room it is located in, costs §1 every 2 hours, gives the Toasty custom moodlet

Air Conditioner: Provides air conditioning when turned on, only covers the room it is located in, costs §1 every 2 hours, gives the Keeping Cool custom moodlet

There are three thermostats, four radiators, and two air conditioners included with the mod. Some of the meshes are from Around The Sims 3 and the others were converted from The Sims 2 and The Sims 4 by me.

Temperature utilities can be turned on for different lengths of time: 6 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours, or 24 hours and will automatically switch off when the time is up.

Radiators and Air Conditioners have “Turn All On/Turn All Off” interactions to switch on or off all radiators or all air conditioners on the lot at once.

The usage cost of these utilities will be added to your household’s next bill.

If you want to opt out of the heating and cooling system, use the “Disable Temperature Utility” interaction available on one of the three temperature utilities.

Pay attention to the weather forecast temperatures to determine when your household needs to turn on their heating or air conditioning, and remember to turn them off when the weather is fine to save money!

Utility Costs and Usage

To check how much you've spent on utilities during the current billing cycle (between when you pay your bills and the next bill payment), click on the "Check Utility Usage" interaction on either utility.

To see your full utilities breakdown, use the new "Check Utility Costs" interaction on the computer.

Also included in the full utilities breakdown is a Green Energy Rebate total. This total calculates how much money a lot saves by using the Solar Panels and Wind Turbines from the Sims 3 Store and factors that into the total utilities cost.

The full utilities breakdown also shows up when your sim pays their bills.

Lack of Funds

If your household funds fall below the usage cost of a utility, that utility will be shut off and cannot be turned back on until your funds are sufficient.

Note: Temperature utilities will not be shut off due to lack of funds.

Bill Delinquency

If you’re late on paying your bills, your utilities will get shut off. Both utilities will be shut off when your bills are two days old.

Note: Temperature utilities will not be shut off due to bill delinquency.

Outages

When utilities are enabled and turned on, there is a 3% chance of experiencing a power or water outage once per day. This chance increases to 5% when it is raining, snowing, or hailing.

Outages can last anywhere from 1 hour to 6 hours.

Note: Temperature utilities will not be shut off due to outages.

Master Controls

Every utility now has four new interactions: “Turn On All Utilities”, “Turn Off All Utilities”, “Enable All Utilities”, and “Disable All Utilities” under a new pie menu interaction called “Master Controls…”. These interactions turn on/off and enable/disable every utility on the active home lot at one time.

New Moodlets

Keeping Cool: Given when air conditioning is on, lasts until sim leaves the room (air conditioner) or house (thermostat), +5 mood, removes the Pleasantly Warm, Getting Warm, Starting to Sweat, and Sweating Profusely moodlets

Toasty: Given when heat is on, lasts until sim leaves the room (radiator) or house (thermostat), +5 mood, removes the Pleasantly Chilly, Getting Chilly, Starting to Shiver, and Teeth Chattering moodlets

Catalog Info



Tuning

All of the following values are tunable in the mod’s XML files.

(True or False)
kUtilityCheckOnSwitchHouseholds = false

(In simoleons)
kPowerPerUseCostSO = 1
kPowerPerUseCostMO = 2
kPowerPerUseCostLO = 3
kWaterPerUseCostSO = 1
kWaterPerUseCostMO = 2
kWaterPerUseCostLO = 3
kCostPerHourAddtoBillThermostat = 2
kCostAddtoBillRadiator = 1
kCostAddtoBillAC = 1

(In minutes)
kMinutesBetweenUsageCheck = 10
kMinutesBetweenThermostatCharges = 60
kMinutesBetweenACCharges = 120
kMinutesBetweenRadiatorCharges = 120

(In hours)
kMaximumOutageHours = 6

(In percentage; 1 = 100%)
kBaseGetChanceForPowerOutage = 0.03
kBaseGetChanceForWaterOutage = 0.03
kHailModifier = 0.02
kRainModifier = 0.02
kSnowModifier = 0.02

Script Namespace

If you want to turn another object into a utility, open your desired object in S3PE and replace the current script name with the following:

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.Utilities.PowerBox

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.Utilities.Water Pipes

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.Utilities.Thermostat

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.Utilities.Radiator

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.Utilities.AirConditioner

Conflicts & Known Issues

These are new scripted objects so there shouldn’t be any conflicts.

Credits

EA/Maxis for The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4, Around The Sims 3 for meshes, SimPE, Visual Studio 2019, Sims4Studio, Blender, Milkshape, TSRW, ILSpy, s3pe, Notepad++, and Gimp.

Thank You

Thank you to gamefreak130, zoe22, Lyralei, echoweaver, ATS Sandy, desiree101, Kevinsko and its-time-o-clock on Tumblr!