njhowie
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 3,931
Energy costs are way up this year - are you doing, or planning to do anything different this year?
I saw a story this past week about folks turning off their heat and making do without it. It resonated with me as I decided to do similar weeks ago.
Our home uses oil for heat. In the spring, with our last fill, it was about $6.50/gallon, which is significantly higher than we've ever paid. When I read the total charge, I nearly fell over. Totally unexpected to be so high. Today, I'm guessing it's still between $6.25 and $6.50/gallon. From past experience, whatever diesel is at the pump, our oil company charges about 50 cents above that.
Normally, I try to hold out turning the heat on until November 1. This year was very easy to make it that far as we had extremely mild weather in October. Even now, daytime temperatures are mid-40s to mid-50s. However, I've decided to do more this year and not turn it on. We're using a couple of small electric space heaters in whichever room we're hanging out in, and the bedroom at night. I'm willing to trade a higher electric bill for not paying (so much) for oil. We still need the oil for hot water, but that is a minimal amount. I have the safety on the Nest thermostat by the bedrooms set at 40, which is the lowest it goes. The small space heater has been excellent in the bedroom with the door closed at night. At the other end of the house, the safety on the Nest is set to 45 - the fridge begins to freak out at that temperature or lower. Thus far, the safety did kick in below 45 a couple nights for about 25 minutes. So not bad at all.
If the electric bill comes in $100 to $150/month higher, maybe even $200 higher for the next few months, I'll be happy.
I've told DW and DD (when visiting) to simply bundle up around the house, throw an extra blanket on the bed at night, and wear long johns. We have better things to do with the money than give it to the oil company.
We have a fairly large home and there's no reason to heat the whole thing if we're only in a small section of it.
So, are you doing anything different this year considering the higher heating costs?
I saw a story this past week about folks turning off their heat and making do without it. It resonated with me as I decided to do similar weeks ago.
Our home uses oil for heat. In the spring, with our last fill, it was about $6.50/gallon, which is significantly higher than we've ever paid. When I read the total charge, I nearly fell over. Totally unexpected to be so high. Today, I'm guessing it's still between $6.25 and $6.50/gallon. From past experience, whatever diesel is at the pump, our oil company charges about 50 cents above that.
Normally, I try to hold out turning the heat on until November 1. This year was very easy to make it that far as we had extremely mild weather in October. Even now, daytime temperatures are mid-40s to mid-50s. However, I've decided to do more this year and not turn it on. We're using a couple of small electric space heaters in whichever room we're hanging out in, and the bedroom at night. I'm willing to trade a higher electric bill for not paying (so much) for oil. We still need the oil for hot water, but that is a minimal amount. I have the safety on the Nest thermostat by the bedrooms set at 40, which is the lowest it goes. The small space heater has been excellent in the bedroom with the door closed at night. At the other end of the house, the safety on the Nest is set to 45 - the fridge begins to freak out at that temperature or lower. Thus far, the safety did kick in below 45 a couple nights for about 25 minutes. So not bad at all.
If the electric bill comes in $100 to $150/month higher, maybe even $200 higher for the next few months, I'll be happy.
I've told DW and DD (when visiting) to simply bundle up around the house, throw an extra blanket on the bed at night, and wear long johns. We have better things to do with the money than give it to the oil company.
We have a fairly large home and there's no reason to heat the whole thing if we're only in a small section of it.
So, are you doing anything different this year considering the higher heating costs?