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LisaR
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| Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 12:46pm | IP Logged
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teachingmyown wrote:
I remember my last question: What about when you get out of the shower or bathe little ones? Do you use a space heater or crank up the heat? |
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This seems to only bother me  I try to remember to bring all of my clothes into the bathroom, and hang them on a door hook. then, I get dressed as fast as I can after drying off with the bathroom door closed, and I turn the exhaust fan off right away when I hop out of the shower, thus keeping a bit of warmth in there!
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dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
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Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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Elizabeth
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teachingmyown wrote:
| I remember my last question: What about when you get out of the shower or bathe little ones? Do you use a space heater or crank up the heat? |
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Honestly, I'm showering in the basement lately--it's ten degrees warmer, remember?  And there's a tub down there too...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Christine
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I raised our thermostat from 67 to 69 during the day and our bill increased dramatically. I keep reminding myself that I need to set the thermostat for 67, but I cannot bring myself to do it. At night, we always keep it at 60. Our thermostat is set according to our daily schedule, so if we have lessons regularly on x day, then the heater will only turn on at 64. When my husband wakes up, the heater is already at 64 and by the time we wake up, it is at 69.
If you don't have an automatic thermostat, I recommend getting one. They are not difficult to install and in the long run, if set properly, it can save you money.
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Elizabeth
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Christine wrote:
If you don't have an automatic thermostat, I recommend getting one. They are not difficult to install and in the long run, if set properly, it can save you money. |
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I totally need one of these but after the blanket investment, I promised my dh I wouldn't spend any more money this season on the money saving venture . Next year.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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JennGM
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I'm really impressed! Now, our basement isn't that much warmer, and with an infant we're keeping the thermostat around 64 at night and 67 during the day. I'm chilly at different parts of the house, though. There are places that let in the cold, like the multitude of bay windows on the main level that are not insulated underneath. And the gas fireplace that just lets in the cold air. The thermostat is placed in an odd place, and i know it would be more efficient if we were dual zone, because the 3 floors are so inconsistently different in temperature throughout the day and night.
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Bridget
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We have been keeping our thermostat at 60. Our basement and upstairs are colder. It doesn't seem to bother the kids at all. They still won't keep socks on and getting them to layer...!  I do turn it up a little on the nights the little kids shower.
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hopalenik
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Oh I feel so guilty now. We keep ours at 69 during the day and night. Before I miscarried, I was so cold at night even with the thermostat at 69. I must really be a wimp. I guess that I will try turning it down one degree a week for the next couple of weeks and see if we can do our part.
Holly
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LisaR
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our programmable thingy I think was only around 50.00?? but I could be way off. when we are out for a long sports day (sat) or co-op day- I will turn it to "Hold" 60 degrees. I have read that if you are gone longer than a 5-6 hour stretch it is worth it to turn it down...
Holly, that is a great idea to turn it down one degree per week. especially with Lent coming up, right?
what is fascinating here to me reading these posts is how some families keep their temp the same at night, or even bump it up. We really are quite toasty at night with it set on 58- we each have one polarfleece blanket and a down or down alternative comforter, and flannel sheets. The kids wear athletic type clothes to bed, and we all wear socks.
maybe we have just grown used to it as we've always kept our nighttime temp down to at least 62...?
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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Nina
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Wow!You ladies inspire me.We have our at 64/65 during the day and at 64 at night.I would like it a little cooler at night,but my husband objects.We live in north Idaho,so it is cool up here;which I don't mind at all.  It is a good idea to purchase a nice down comforter.
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mandmsmom2001
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I guess "comfortable" is a relative term. We live in New England and our main floor heat (oil burner/hot water baseboard) is always set at 62 and the upstairs heat (electric w/ thermostats in each room) is always set at 58. This is comfortable to us. On the days it is above 40, I turn the heat down to 60 during the day.
We have regular sheets with comforters and one blanket per bed; we wear long sleeve shirts and either sweaters or sweat shirts and cotton socks and slippers if our feet get cold. For the sub-zero temps we get some winters, we have flannel sheets for the kids and DH and I have an electric mattress pad - which we haven't turned on all winter!
Since we have always done this for the 6 years we've been in this house, we haven't seen a difference in our bill but hope to soon - we changed all of our light bulbs to compact flourescent.
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JennGM
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mandmsmom2001 wrote:
Since we have always done this for the 6 years we've been in this house, we haven't seen a difference in our bill but hope to soon - we changed all of our light bulbs to compact flourescent.
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I started a new discussion on these bulbs.
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hylabrook1
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Two things relating to being able to bathe when the house temperature is cool.
(1) When we were first married and VERY poor, we kept the house at 57; when one of us wanted to shower, we raised it to 62 for about 15 minutes beforehand. When you're used to 57, 62 is incredibly toasty.
(2) When I was a baby and little girl, my mother would fill the bathtub with hotter water than we were going to bathe in, close the bathroom door, and wait for some minutes. When the water had cooled down sufficiently, we took our baths, but the room was steamy and warm. We could bathe comfortably without risking a chill.
Maybe these ideas will help one of you-all.
Peace,
Nancy
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SusanJ
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The health factor is pretty interesting. We have a few mild colds here now but otherwise we have had a remarkably healthy winter so far. I was just noting that the other day. We are at 63 day and no heat night but I don't think it's ever gotten below 57 at night.
Susan
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Ruth
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Elizabeth wrote:
At night, we layer long underwear and flannel pajamas. Everyone has two blankets on beds. We've found that the warmest blankets of all are these Cozy Blankets from Target
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I just clicked on this link and realized I have one of these king sized blankets. I had it put away from last winter. Maybe now I can talk my sweet husband into lowering the thermostat to 67 tonight. It's a start, right?
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LisaR
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you can do it Ruth!! happy snuggling
btw, it went from a balmy 56 here to 4 degrees! very scary! in 15 min time we felt and watched the temp drop over 20 degrees earlier today.
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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nissag
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I just posted my thrifty results on my email group.
Savings:
20% on electric bill from not using the dishwasher (!!!)
30% on grocery bills with marathon cooking
20% on oil by turning the temp down 2 degrees (!!!)
20-25% on gas by reducing travel to one day and all errands at once.
I still can't believe it. 
I'm thrilled, and so is my hubby
Blessings,
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Ruth
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LisaR wrote:
btw, it went from a balmy 56 here to 4 degrees! very scary! in 15 min time we felt and watched the temp drop over 20 degrees earlier today. |
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Wow, that is scary!
nissag wrote:
I just posted my thrifty results on my email group.
Savings:
20% on electric bill from not using the dishwasher (!!!)
30% on grocery bills with marathon cooking
20% on oil by turning the temp down 2 degrees (!!!)
20-25% on gas by reducing travel to one day and all errands at once.
I still can't believe it.
I'm thrilled, and so is my hubby
Blessings, |
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Nissa, that's pretty amazing! I'll have to show this to my dh. I guess it's a blessing the dishwasher is still broken. 
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Ruth
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JenniferS
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We had our propane tank filled halfway in October. Dh went out and cut LOTS of wood. We turned our heater off and heat with our woodstove. Our living room gets REALLY warm, but the rest of the house stays between 55-60 degrees. I hadn't really thought about it before now, but ds with asthma has had no problems this winter. We had the flu at Christmas time, but we were exposed to it on Christmas Eve at a family gathering, and we all got over it before everyone else, even though it did hang on for almost two weeks. Hmmm...interesting. Anyway, we haven't had to fill up on the propane yet, as it is only used to heat our water, and our electric bill is down $20/month, as we don't use the forced air heat. Our woodstove is only radiant heat(we just put it in last year). We may lost heat through the flu, I don't know, but our house is comfortable for us, and not paying $700/month for propane like we did last winter when it was really cold is nice. Our house is old and not very efficient. I'm hoping that over the next few years we can re-insulate and put in new windows.
jen
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Anne McD
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Kudos, ladies! I really mean it-- when I first read about this I just thought to myself, have fun. I grew up in an old colonial house in Upstate NY and it was freezing every winter. Add drafty windows and a radiator that didn't work well, and it was darn cold in my room when I was little. As for the healthy aspect of it, I got one cold after another every winter as a child, as I do now, so I can't offer any ideas on that front. I'm a wimp about the cold-- we have it set to 71 day and night, and I'm freezing when climbing into bed.
That said, I do like what Elizabeth said about going with ebb and flow of the weather. One thing I haven't liked about central air since I've moved to VA is that there is a constant temp all year long, not feeling the warmth of the sping coming, looking for ways to break the heat on hot days, and noticing the crisp chill of autumn coming in a September morning.
Though, it gets mighty hot and sticky in these parts, I still don't have a tree to my name in this development to shade us, and like I said, I'm a whimp . . .
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LisaR
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to be honest, one of the reasons we don't go lower temp wise during the day is this weird/depressing memory of growing up. My parents were fairly well off, but said they were "poor" kwim? so we could not "afford" heat, even though my dad's income then (in the 1980's) is much more than what dh earns now!
so we were totally frozen and it was a point of pride or something but my mom would not turn it up for anyone- even my little grandma, etc. so it was like "we are stronger than you that we can handle this cold"
When I was in high school, if my parents were gone, I would "rebel" and crank it up to 62 degrees- woo hoo!
so, this gets me to my next question- how do you handle friends/guests, etc?
I bump the heat up if I know company is coming, maybe others don't. conversely, have you noticed that you are SWEATING when you go to someone's home that is at 72 degrees, or do you welcome the heat?
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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