Want lower utility bills? Turn down (or off) the heat.

[dremd]

Some years, all year. This year, not a chance.

[Christ]

If I lived on my own, I'd just put more clothes on. Unfortunately for my heating bills (which I don't pay), I life with my wife, who's a 70 or nothing girl, and my Son, who's only 6 months old. I *have* to keep the temps high enough to maintain his body temp, at least.

I turn the heat down any time we're gone for more than a couple hours, though.

I lived though the winter in a crappy old travel trailer in my dad's yard... I had a kerosene heater that I had to learn to P&G the heat from. I used to heat my pillow up on top of it, heat the area under the bed, and heat up water jugs that were filled with salt and had just enough water to make it fluid.

Put the water jugs in bed with you, cover up nice and tight, and turn the heater off.

I made it all winter on around 15 gallons of kerosene.

[Frank Lee]

Once upon a time I had a water bed with drawer units underneath. The nice thing about it was that heating element underneath the bladder not only kept the room a bit warmer, but upon jumping outta bed all the clothes in the drawers under the heater were toasty warm.

[jamesqf]

I don't mind over-heated houses in the winter nearly as much as I hate places that are too well air-conditioned in the summer. I've worked several places where I had to keep sweaters in the office for summer wear.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Once upon a time I had a water bed with drawer units underneath. The nice thing about it was that heating element underneath the bladder not only kept the room a bit warmer, but upon jumping outta bed all the clothes in the drawers under the heater were toasty warm.

That's part of the reason I heated the space in my trailer under the bed. During the day, I kept warm by working... there's an idea.

[Jethro]

We have a rather large house, at night we set the t-stat to like 55 or so. I have an electric - oil filled heater that I set at ~62. My parents love the cold I guess, they don't have heaters in their rooms. Seems to work great for all of us.

No one is ever home during the week, so we normally leave it nice and cold.

My 42" monitor helps supplement my heater too Lol!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by jonebell

You may want to check with your utility companies and see if they offer something like budget billing or level billing. I have those on both my electric and natural gas, and it is very handy. Yeah, it kinda sucks paying almost $50/month for natural gas in summer, but it is nice in winter, when I am running the gas furnace and still only paying around $50/month. My electric bill has stayed under $100. Of course, it helps that my house is only about 1400 sq. ft.

I could probably lower those costs a good bit, but it is worth paying a bit extra to stay comfortable. I keep the thermostat between 70-75, depending on season.

Thanks.

For many people, budget billing is a bad idea. When you don't have a real-time indication of your waste, it generally increases.

If you have to pay more during the winter for your use than you do during the summer, it acts like an indication that you may want to consider doing things slightly differently.

For some areas, like those with electric co-ops, block-billing is available, where you make an investment purchase at current rates (including a discount) of a large "block" of energy. If you do not use the energy within the allotted time, you must make another purchase, or restart normal billing. The rates and time periods are negotiable, and it provides investment capital for your local co-op to bargain with larger companies that they get their power from.

[Frank Lee]

I like "real time" billing. As noted, your choices and the consequences strike home immediately.

It's like people who buy gasoline with credit cards- they generally have no idea what they spend on gas or get for fe except once a month, and then it's all lumped in with other stuff right? No immediacy. No motivation to stay on top of things.

[MadisonMPG]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Once upon a time I had a water bed with drawer units underneath. The nice thing about it was that heating element underneath the bladder not only kept the room a bit warmer, but upon jumping outta bed all the clothes in the drawers under the heater were toasty warm.

I have a water bed, and I leave it on 68 (which is freezing) but I lay a thick blanket over it and it feels warmer than a spring mattress.

[Frank Lee]

I was an idiot and thought mine had a small leak I could never detect; now I think what happened was I turned the heater down a bit too much and the constant dampness was condensation??? At any rate I trashed the bladder and converted the Captain's bed drawer base to regular box spring and mattress. Oh well, that's comfy too, and takes no power, and is lower and easier to get in/out of without that big edge.