I started with the premise that any reduction was a good one, and figured a little discomfort was prolly good for us. After all the human body can adapt to amazing extremes of temperatures especially if you include clothing in the adaptation, and yet we waste this ability on houses set comfortably at X temp year round.
Our first winter here the heating bill (gas) was regularly in the $120s-$150s, with an average of $80. The last year it broke $100 only once, with an average of $50. That once BTW was when we had lots of company...company that was obviously born in a barn...door constantly left open! I figure if I could teach guests to shut doors I would have actually reduced the bill by more than half.
So in roughly the order we carried them out:
Reduce the heat by 2 degrees I heard from my father that reducing the temperature (or raising it in summer) would reduce the electric bill by something like 7%..now this is heresy, he said something, and now I am saying something, the two are not necessarily the same! My memory is defunct...the closest I can come to scientific evidence is
Frugalize some curtains out of blankets and sheets. I think real insulating curtains would have been great, but I didn't want to spend a penny. Instead I safety pinned a blanket to make a 'fold' to slide a rod I happened to have in. I know of others who have stapled the blanket to the wall as well..all free and all helps to insulate.
Reduce the heat by two degrees ..you thought I already said that, but this was an additional two degrees. Once we were comfortable with the temperature I decided to shake things up. I think the deciding factor was a day I vacuumed and started sweating while the heat came on. I decided I would rather move more, or use a blanket than PAY to be hot and sweaty!
Learn to open and shut said curtains I am sure we have all heard that curtains on the east side should be open in the morning and shut after noon, while the opposite should occur for the west side of the house. But actually putting that into practice took lots of work...and I still fail too often.
Turn the heat down two degrees Yep I did it again...I found I was sleeping with only a sheet and a bedspread..it seemed a waste to have such wonderful blankets and not use them.
Learn to bake when cold actually I bake a lot anyway, but now I try to bake when the heat was off in the evening, to keep it that way. And I practiced not opening a window if the kitchen got too hot..after all letting it cool of the slow way would keep the gas heat off longer. Plus when debating between nuking a potato and baking it, I picked baking...might use more electricity, but it sure does taste better
Reduce the heat by 2 degrees Ok you are prolly tired of hearing this, and you prolly wonder just how low I am willing to go? But well I had all these sweaters (I am from the north) but I never got to wear them! So I had to reduce the heat just to have a use for what I didn't want to give away.
Learn to drink hot drinks when cold heating up some boiling water to make tea or hot chocolate doesn't take as much energy as heating the house 6 degrees, but it gives the same effect. Only tastes better than a heating bill .
Reduce heat by 2 degrees..again. I woke up one morning freezing cold..I checked the temp.. 72. I hadn't paid to keep my house at 72 in years! And yet here I am thinking this was freezing. The same temperature that, had it been afternoon, I would have complained of not being able to wear a sweater for... So down the temp went and I added socks to my bedtime PJs (or at least put them on as soon as I woke up)
Create a rule for turning the heat off and on The weather here is a mite bit unpredictable, so a set date for turning the heat on (like we use for the air conditioner) doesn't work. Instead we have a rule, currently if the heat drops below 63 in the day (after 10am-ish, before 6pm-ish), we will turn the heat on, and leave it on for the winter. Until it stays above 63 all day. This means no chilly morning will drive me to spend money, just to find warmer clothes or blankets.
And as of yet this year, no heat has been used (and no air since Labor day) Making for a very nice low heating bill
That is it, nothing spectacular. But consistent. by attacking the heating bill like a ongoing battle instead of a one time fight, I was able to reduce it dramatically. I have hopes of reducing it further.
For example I acquired several sets of insulating curtains from my mother as presents. This will be the first year to test them on winter. (They did make a difference in summer already)
And we still might turn the heat down, two degrees at a time of course!
Safety note..I checked children's fingers and toes frequently for warmth (Though more importantly necks must be warm), so long as the shirts were doubled and the socks on both were warm. (Parents of premature babies do not have the turn down the heat option, for quite some time)
Now for some misc. science-y questions ...do Inuit (up north natives) tend to keep more 'brown' fat longer due to the colder climate? Do babies born of traditionally warmer climates have less? Or keep it for shorter times?
Do complex carbs help keep you warm longer than simple?
Does being chilly tend to encourage the body to add on more muscle? or just fat? Does muscle keep you warmer than fat? One insulates one is a heat source.
How cold can humans be comfortable in? How hot?
How many blankets can you pile on before you lose the cumulative effect? Is there a top breaking point?
Does having house plants help keep a house warm..due to humidity? or insulation? or extra oxygen?
Does having a lower 'normal' temp mean you are more likely to be comfortable in cold or heat? How about the reverse?
Not that any of it matters, I just always wondered.
November 7th, 2007 at 02:23 pm 1194445396
November 7th, 2007 at 02:50 pm 1194447059