Let's see if I can type this post while my teeth are chattering. I'll explain...
A few months ago, Drew and I were commenting that this had been a pretty mild winter. We kept cozy and warm at home on the extra cold days, enjoying our gas fireplace every now and then. A month later, we got our energy bill. GULP. We realized that we really had used our fireplace a lot - and left it on for a long time. We figured that was the culprit. So, we decided No more fire place. We'll just use blankets. After a month of being so diligent, only using blankets and not using the fire, we got our second energy bill. It was $50 more! Geesh!!
My next line of attack was the thermostat. I decreased the daytime temperature by five degrees and the overnight temperature by seven degrees. And, man, have we've been FREEZING ever since! My kids complain all day of being cold. I am dressing in layers just to be comfortable inside my house.
Last night, I realized that I was a bit ambitious. Maybe I lowered the overnight temp too much and our pipes might freeze. So, I fixed that.
While driving the kids to school this morning, it was -8 degrees outside. I think it's warmed up to 1 degree now. And the colder it is outside, the more I desire to have it cozy inside.
What's your vote? Should we stick through this and see if it lowers our bill? Or should we be comfortable and pay for it?
By the way, a family I know from church had an energy bill of $800 last year!!! Ours is no where near that high. But as you can see, they opted for comfort.
5 comments:
Call the energy company and get your bill averaged so you pay about the same amount every month of the year. And then do what you have to do to stay warm and still afford groceries!
Our bill in February of 2000 was $234.00 - even with weather stripping around the doors and windows. I feel your pain. One night a couple of years later, our pilot light went out and it was 18 below outside. We paid the power company some obscene amount of money to make an after hours call to come re light the pilot.
Our bill hardly eeks over $100.00 a month now. I love Virginia!
Oh man, we had the same problem last year. And in the summer our electricity triples with the AC. It was painful! Don't freeze. I place comfort above all else! :) Perhaps that is why I am broke.
wow, that is a huge energy bill! My vote, of course, would be for comfort. but then again, I've never had an energy bill that was $800 (or even close to that!) I think I still say, go for comfort though! Maybe you could cut back in other areas but being cold is miserable. Especially when you're home all day. Or you could always buy a heat dish... I have one and love it! I also have an electric blanked that I love. Those 2 items help me a lot. Good luck.
Holy Cow! -8 Degrees, and its humid hu? So that makes it even colder! Geesh I have no idea what your budgjet is like, but If I could could afford it I would definetly opt for the comfort. On the other hand it sure would be nice to save $800 a month and go on a cruize with my family at the end of the year than pay a gas bill every month. It's wrong that its that expensice. I thought we lived in a free country!
I remember those MN winters. It's a hard call -- wouldn't it be nice to spend that heating bill on new cute winter clothes? It's especially hard when you're at home during the day. Only a few more months to go and you've finished your first MN winter!
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