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Home > Archive: January, 2009

Archive for January, 2009

The high cost of heat...and pass me another sweater

January 29th, 2009 at 04:00 am

One of the many, many benefits of living alone is possessing absolute control of the household necessities: TV remote, what and when to eat (Cheerios for dinner? why not!) and yes, the thermostat! With the cost of (electric) heating these days, I thought I've had it figured out: keep the temperature at 60 degrees day and night (unless family is visiting, in which case I'd up it to 65 or even, 66!!); invested in a brand new heated mattress pad; sleep in layers and running cap; a hot water bottle always handy to keep the feet warm; and for those super chilly days, a couple of timer controlled space heaters on hand. I've been feeling pretty proud of my frugal efforts...until THE BILL arrived. My heating cost actually rose to $600! What did I do wrong?!? What efforts worked and what didn't? I wish the electric company would add a section in the bill -- similar to travel websites -- to indicate effective cost saving measures: if you turned down the thermostat a degree lower, you'd save $10 per day...or if you used cold water to run the washing machine and the dishwasher (not at the same time of course!) you'd save $3 per cycle...Wouldn't that be nice?