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I'm in the process of evicting my second roommate for nonpayment of utilities, and we were having this same problem. Let's call this problem roommate Cuckoo.
Each bedroom, the living room/dining area and both bathrooms have heaters that are essentially space heaters in the wall, and in the ceiling of the bathroom. All of the power is electric, and we have a washer and dryer in our apartment. The heater in my room was broken, and I have the largest room (more area to heat, and two exterior walls that catch all the wind and snow drift, but I'm awesome and agreed to pay more in rent), so I added an extra blanket to my bed, and made sure to keep both sets of curtains closed. Other roommate realized that it was colder, covered her window, added an extra blanket, and only turned the heat on when she was in her room. However Cuckoo complained it was cold ALL the time, and made no effort to cover the window (Cuckoo never put up their curtains) or to add on another blanket (which was stored in the linen closet). I made "draft dodgers" for the two doors, and made some temporary curtains for the patio door and adjoining full length window. Cuckoo would have the heater on in the bedroom, when not home, and if home, would run that one and the one in another room, in addition to leaving lights on, sometimes all night. Cuckoo would take at least two showers a day, each one being longer than the combined shower time of the other two roommates. The other roommate often would shower at the gym three times a week as she had work or class and just stayed on campus.
The bill came for the month of November, and it was over a third higher than the previous month. We agreed to pay it in equal shares, but that we need to be more diligent about electricity use (Cuckoo specifically but we all agreed to it). Also it was noted that not only I, but the other roommate would be out of town for two weeks at the same time leaving Cuckoo alone, and though we'd contribute to the elctricity for the fridge and basic heating to keep the pipes from freezing, if the bill was the same or higher, it would not be split equally. The bill was only $1.28 less than the previous month including two people being out of town and insulation efforts.
Consequently, Cuckoo never paid, and now combined with that and other reasons, we're evicting Cuckoo. My suggestion to you is to pay it now since there wasn't a prior arrangement in place, and contact your electric company for a free energy audit to find out what items use the most electricty. Then with that information, try and work out a system agreeable to all roommates about when people are out of town and individual usage, and if certain personal items use more electricity it can be addressed accordingly. However living by yourself isn't a bad idea either.
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