Utility suck - "But it's cold outside" A little long, sorry!

[Andara Bledin]

Another question for sudden electricity spikes: Do you have a waterbed? A waterbed heater can really suck up the juice, but unless it's rather hot out, you don't want to be without one.

^-.-^

[Mamadrae]

Hubby and I spent a ton of money last winter on a brand spanking new heater and air conditioner. We got a programmable thermostat (though i'm still learning the bastard) and with the windows we had bought before that we were pretty sure we'd be ok, though we had to live through the coldest point of the year bundled up and huddled around space heaters till the guys came to install our heater. Thankfully it was only 2 days and kiddo was as Grannie's both of those.

Granted we were shocked at our bill suddenly being so low. Then again our ancient heater that died had been some 50 years old. It only heated the first floor while the upstairs lived off space heaters. After we switched them the whole house was heated and we thought for sure our bill would explode! It was a pleasant surprise for us.

[taxguykarl]

IWe also just purchased a programmable thermostat so we'll see if this lowers my bill.

It should--also see about having a technician clean and tune up your furnace. The tech who did ours found the pilot light was off, thus; the flames were running unusually high. His $90 service call easily paid for itself.

[Arcade Man D]

People here don't want to believe that the fact it was 50 degrees outside and they had their thermostat set to 68 affects how much gas they used.

Or as one customer put it, "It just got cold last week" Ma'am it has been around 50 degrees on average for the last two months but you are right it just dropped below 40 this last week.

People leave their thermostats as high as 68? o.O

(I live in the frigid north, with a father who was a bit cheap, so I'm acclimated to nothing higher than 60-65 for a thermostat setting, and in February "wear a sweater".)

[Soulstealer]

People leave their thermostats as high as 68? o.O

(I live in the frigid north, with a father who was a bit cheap, so I'm acclimated to nothing higher than 60-65 for a thermostat setting, and in February "wear a sweater".)

Yes, you see, some of us can't be comfortable below 74. I know it's a bit high, but I don't use the air conditioner much in the summer. It's all about what you're used to but you better prepare to pay for it.

[Jester]

People leave their thermostats as high as 68?

Yep. Mine is currently at about 77.

[protege]

I usually don't get cold. My parents wouldn't turn the heat up much during the winters when I still lived there. Throw in the fact that my bedroom had no cold air return (which meant that the cold air wouldn't leave the room) and leaky windows...and it was no wonder why I could have had penguins in there All of that lasted until I was at my grandmother's one weekend...and Dad got sick. Sick enough, that my mother couldn't sleep in the same room. Let's just say that she was pretty damn cold in *my* room, and didn't sleep that entire night. Let's just say that the thermostat got turned up pretty damn quick, and I got new blankets, and those damn windows were fixed

I'm not cheap with the thermostat either--usually it's set at 72F during the winter. But, I turn it back to 62 when I'm not home...or when I'm sleeping. I don't get cold at night...mainly because I'm under the blankets, and the kitties usually curl up in bed with me

[Chromatix]

68°F is 20°C, which is a temperature my flat only goes *down* to if I open the windows. The insulation is so good and the neighbouring flats are kept so warm... More often I see 25°C on the thermometer.

If we're talking bills, my water+heating bill is only €180 for the whole year. That's how good it *can* be with the right infrastructure.

[Shalom]

My gas bill is more or less $300/month during the winter (for one apartment; it's a two family house, and the upstairs has a separate boiler, which is on my tenant's meter). I had new windows installed and the bills went up. How come? they took off the storm windows and left gaps in the frames where they had been, so now the cold air winds up inside the walls. I have to get that caulked before it gets much colder. Drapes would probably help too, but I have no talent for interior design; have to get someone in who knows what they're doing, or we'd probably wind up with colors that clash horribly.

I used to maintain around 66°F before we had children; now with a baby in the house we try to keep it at 70°. (If we go away for the weekend, though, I will crank it down to 62° or so, just so the pipes don't freeze or something.) As far as saving energy by shutting lights, we put CFLs in most of our fixtures. I figure if I leave a 16 watt bulb burning by mistake, it won't cost me all that much.

@Mamadrae: You'd be surprised how much $$ you can save if you replace an old cranky heating system with a new efficient one. So will the gas company. I've heard stories of people getting visits from inspectors following installation of new systems, because the bills suddenly went down so low that they thought the meters were being tampered with.

The programmable set-back thermostats are best for forced-air or electric heating or recirculating hot water, types of heat that can be ramped up quickly. Here in the good ol Northeast USA, though, we have single-pipe steam heat. Basically there's a huge kettle in the basement which boils water, the resulting steam goes through pipes to radiators in the various rooms, gives up its heat there, and condenses back to water, which then runs back down the same pipes to the boiler. This cycle takes some time to build up, and when it does, it has momentum. The steam heat experts don't recommend a huge drop in nighttime temp, because it will burn more fuel to reheat the cold house than it would have taken to maintain that temperature. (The original technology burned coal, which basically burns all day once you light it; it's not a flame that goes on and off like gas or oil would.) I do spend a couple hundred dollars before each winter to have the plumbing guys come in and clean the year's accumulated crud out of the boiler and tune up the system; you're supposed to drain out the rusty water and refill it every two weeks in the heating season and every month in the summer, but it doesn't always get done as often as it should... Definitely a worthwhile investment.

@Pinkie: Regarding those oil-filled radiators, my father used to have a computer in his basement office that wouldn't boot when it was cold. (IBM PC/AT, 6 MHz 80286 processor, RLL hard drive with sticky bearings, those were the days eh?) One February he left that heater running 24/7 so he could use the computer whenever he wanted it. You should have seen the electric bill that resulted. He figured it would be cheaper to replace the hard drive than to keep that room heated. (Remember that hard drives were many hundreds of dollars for a 65 Meg drive back then, which is about 1/10 of a CD-R to put things in perspective. Windows 2.1 fit on a 2 meg partition. That's two meg, not two gig.)

@Chromatix: New York City gets its water the same way you do. Manhattan Island in addition has a huge steam generating plant at 14th Street and the East River, which supplies steam to buildings that don't have their own heating plants. This is why you sometimes see steam leaking out of the streets or manholes in Manhattan; some of those pipes are over a century old, it's amazing they've lasted this long. I dunno if they generate electricity at that plant also, or if it's strictly a steam generator.

[Arcade Man D]

Yes, you see, some of us can't be comfortable below 74. I know it's a bit high, but I don't use the air conditioner much in the summer. It's all about what you're used to but you better prepare to pay for it.

Actually, my bedroom is in the basement, so I just need a fan in the summer until it hits about 90. (Which is only about a month of summer up here).

[protege]

As far as saving energy by shutting lights, we put CFLs in most of our fixtures. I figure if I leave a 16 watt bulb burning by mistake, it won't cost me all that much.

Nearly all of my light fixtures use CFLs now. I've actually seen my electric bill get cut in half because of them. Granted, I don't leave lights on all the time, but still. Those things helped cut my energy usage, so I can't complain.