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Ruth
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in your electric bill since lowering your thremostat? Too soon to tell?
We are keeping ours on 65 during the day and 69 at night. I don't know how some of you keep it below 60 at night! God bless you.  We're freezing during the day and I'm wondering if it's really making a difference. Poor kids! They're not liking it too much 
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Maryan
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We've always kept ours at 64 downstairs and 63 upstairs (both day and night). I'm too ditzy to switch the thermostat constantly. 63 is too toasty for me at night, but several of our kids kick their covers off, so for the sake of sleep, we keep it at 63. The moral is: we were too wimpy to do 60 at night, so I don't see a change. and am no help.
But... I did want to say that I don't blame you for being chilly -- I could NEVER be called petite,  so I have more built in furnace than you and your girls!
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Paula in MN
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My dh said that ours is down. Normally we would have had to refill our tank a few weeks ago but we are still doing fine. A tank usually runs us $450, so I'd say we were saving money!
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 Paula
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Elizabeth
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We're at 55, pretty much all the time, though I sometimes bump it to sixty on the middle floor. Michael wore a ski jacket the whole time he was home. We saved about $100 last month. When it snowed, Nicholas got mad at Patrick for rubbing his face in the snow. So, Nick put snowballs in Paddy's bed. Paddy discovered them eight hours later, a little smaller but still SNOWballs. In the house. We're cold. But here's the kicker: my kids are notorious for having winter respiratory ailments. I have not used the nebulizer, nor any illness remedies of any kind since the Freeze Yer Buns challenge began. I wouldn't keep it this cold if I had an infant in the house. Barring that, we're going to do this again next winter.
Oh, and just a warning, since seeing the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge on another blog and linking to Crunchy Chicken since she was the original source, I've seen some pretty raunchy stuff on Crunchy Chicken's blog.I wouldn't link there again. That said, her husband has terminal cancer. Every time my children complain about the cold, I ask them to offer a prayer for him.
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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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Aggie gal
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We've definitely saved money. We've kept it at a steady 64 this winter (still a little chilly for dh's taste) Compared to our neighbor with the exact same floor plan who's thermo. is set on 70, we've saved around $123. 
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LisaR
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huge difference here. we are at 65 during the day and 58 degrees between 9pm and 7am. the last two electric and gas bills (we get a combined bill) were 100.00 and 103.00!! almost everyone else we knew with same size home and family had at least 200.00. DH DID just add lots more insulation to our roof/attic/crawl spaces in the 2nd story, and also above our attached garage. That was about 300.00, but I think it is going to pay off. I just looked up our newest bill online, it is 234.00, still not bad compared to last years, and considering that we had programmable christmas lights outside, and many days of below zero weather... oh, and the flooded basement  the required 3 dehumidifiers and 2 fans running 24/7.....
looking forward to spring here!
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Ruth
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Elizabeth wrote:
We're at 55, pretty much all the time, though I sometimes bump it to sixty on the middle floor. Michael wore a ski jacket the whole time he was home. We saved about $100 last month. When it snowed, Nicholas got mad at Patrick for rubbing his face in the snow. So, Nick put snowballs in Paddy's bed. Paddy discovered them eight hours later, a little smaller but still SNOWballs. In the house. We're cold. But here's the kicker: my kids are notorious for having winter respiratory ailments. I have not used the nebulizer, nor any illness remedies of any kind since the Freeze Yer Buns challenge began. I wouldn't keep it this cold if I had an infant in the house. Barring that, we're going to do this again next winter.
Oh, and just a warning, since seeing the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge on another blog and linking to Crunchy Chicken since she was the original source, I've seen some pretty raunchy stuff on Crunchy Chicken's blog.I wouldn't link there again. That said, her husband has terminal cancer. Every time my children complain about the cold, I ask them to offer a prayer for him. |
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$100 last month! It's definately worth it.
Wow, that's pretty amazing about the snow ball. Our kids have have always had respiratory issues in the past- they always get croup.  So far this year only one had it very mild, praise God. I keep the baby in the Moby during the day, which keeps us both warm. At night she's next to me, so she stays pretty warm.
I'm sorry to hear about the Crunchy Chicken's blog. I'll keep him in my prayers and remove the link, if that's ok.
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Ruth
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I just saw the last two posts after Elizabeth's. I was posting at the same time. That's A LOT of savings.
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LisaR
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you know, come to think of it, besides a stomach bug that 2 of the boys got, we have been illness free so far , too, here at home. dh got a nasty sinus infection but we already had assumed he got that at work, where he has not control over the heat (very old building radiator heat) , nor the other employees coming in very sick. It is 74-76!! degrees in his office. He strips down there but still feels sluggish. He comes home and bundles up a bit and feels envigorated!
thankfully new office buildings are under construction, so by next winter he might be healthier...
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LisaR
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I have a few "kicker off of covers" here too, and was concerned about 58 degrees at night. I'll tell you, even Maria, almost 3, pulls her covers back up on herself in her sleep now when she gets cold!
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Donna
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Elizabeth wrote:
| So, Nick put snowballs in Paddy's bed. Paddy discovered them eight hours later, a little smaller but still SNOWballs. |
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!
Glad to see my boys aren't the only ones enjoying the snow.
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Elizabeth wrote:
| But here's the kicker: my kids are notorious for having winter respiratory ailments. I have not used the nebulizer, nor any illness remedies of any kind since the Freeze Yer Buns challenge began. |
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Question: do you know the reason for this? From the conversation I gather that cooler=healthier... but I kinda need to understand the how or why. Having been born in a tropical country I'm always freezing, but I can stand 64 degrees or so... but I'd be willing to go lower if it will benefit the allergy-sufferers and weak lungs in the house.
Thanks!
And kudos to everyone -- that's a lot of savings! I'm sure dh will be happy to try it out!
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teachingmyown
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And here I am crying about 55 degrees at night because the heat is broken! Maybe it is just my circulation, or lack thereof. At 67 degrees, I am in long underwear, heavy socks, slippers, a long sleeve shirt and heavy sweater. And I am cold.
A couple of questions:
what do you wear in the house? do you wear shoes, slippers, coats, etc?
do you have gas or propane heat? I have always heard that they produce "warmer" heat than a heat pump. The heat pump blows cool air (never figured out how that works!) and even when set warmer never seems to make the house comfortably warm.
my dd 11 wants to know if you have a fire going in your fireplace. Can you tell we are all cold-blooded here?
I honestly don't think it would be worth it to me to save $100 a month if I had to be miserable to do it. We don't have respiratory issues so that wouldn't factor in to our decision very much.
I am really looking forward to winning the lottery so I can do that summer in Maine, winter in Florida thing!
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Elizabeth
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stefoodie wrote:
Elizabeth wrote:
| But here's the kicker: my kids are notorious for having winter respiratory ailments. I have not used the nebulizer, nor any illness remedies of any kind since the Freeze Yer Buns challenge began. |
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Question: do you know the reason for this? |
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I think that it has something to do with humidity. We are not nearly as dry as we were. Then again, Arizona is supposed to be great for asthmatics. I know that the one night that someone messed with the thermostat and turned it up to 65, a couple of things happened. The sound of the heat kicking on actually woke me several times during the night. When I finally got up, I felt sluggish and puffy. And several kids complained of being stuffy. In previous winters, we have run a humidifier in order to blow cool mist into the air. This year, I guess, with little or no heat, the air is staying cooler and damper and we seem much healthier. Maybe it is just a coincidence but I am willing to try this particular experiment again 
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LisaR
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teachingmyown wrote:
A couple of questions:
what do you wear in the house? do you wear shoes, slippers, coats, etc?
do you have gas or propane heat? I have always heard that they produce "warmer" heat than a heat pump. The heat pump blows cool air (never figured out how that works!) and even when set warmer never seems to make the house comfortably warm.
my dd 11 wants to know if you have a fire going in your fireplace. Can you tell we are all cold-blooded here?
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I am always cold, with blue hands so to me, I had to realize that unless I had the heat on oh, 78 or so, I just can learn to cope. I have thin silk long john top and bottom, I usually wear those. I have a few "around the house" - type polar fleeces that I leave in the downstairs closet and I'll throw one on over my clothes. I wear socks and these kind of ugly Lands End clearance marinac clog things in ultramarine blue, they are thick fleece/sherpa type stuff on top and very warm!
my kids usually wear socks. If I'm feeling cold sometimes I'll "make" them put theirs on!
they wear undershirt, short sleeve blue polos most days, if they get chilly they also have polar fleeces they can throw on. Maria tends to wear knee socks and leggings under her dresses. Tights , even the hannas, just weren't warm enough for her, but the double layer of a knee sock and the legging work well.
We have gas heat that blows out (but kind of gently??)
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insegnante
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We had a new programmable thermostat (bought mostly with a Home Depot gift card) and I was keeping it mostly at 65 during the day when we were home and often wimpily adjusting it to as much as 70 at night. There are four settings per day but we would often manually adjust them. Our bedroom is usually colder than the hallway thermostat says. I'm not sure how accurate our old thermostat was but in winters past I probably kept it at 71 most of the time even when I was thinking about the bill. I was being pretty fanatical about unnecessary lighting, etc., too.
So our first full month with the new thermostat and settings, we got our third highest electric bill in the 13 months I saw listed online. Our heat is electric. The HVAC guy we had to have come out one Saturday evening explained what was wrong and why our heater was working extra hard. I think he was only able to fix the most urgent problem that made us unable to use the heat at all and not necessarily what was costing us all of that money, until he found the part and until we find the money to pay for the other repair.
So our second full month with the new thermostat, the bill is about $50 more than the first month. I had started keeping it more even, like 68 in the day and 69 at night (with a sweater and lots of blankets), but now I'm 10 1/2 weeks pregnant and 66/67 is my preference even at night (with just a nightgown and one or two blankets). We (or at least I, but not noticing a difference with everyone else) seem to sleep better when it's cooler. I think the reduced dryness with the heater on less has a lot to do with it.
Because of the bill being so high with our temperatures lower, we'd better invest in those other heating repairs as soon as we can at all afford it.
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Elizabeth
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teachingmyown wrote:
A couple of questions:
what do you wear in the house? do you wear shoes, slippers, coats, etc?
do you have gas or propane heat? I have always heard that they produce "warmer" heat than a heat pump. The heat pump blows cool air (never figured out how that works!) and even when set warmer never seems to make the house comfortably warm.
my dd 11 wants to know if you have a fire going in your fireplace. Can you tell we are all cold-blooded here? |
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I have two kids with Reynaud's Syndrome. They wear ski socks at all times and their hands do look cold. Michael wore a jacket when he came up from the basement (the basement is about 10 degrees warmer)so the whole time he was home he looked like he was about to leave. We have natural gas heat. We are wearing layers. Everyone has ski socks. The boys wear Under Armor under sweatshirts pretty much all the time (except for Nicky). Occasionally, I'm wearing shoes, too. I typically wear jeans and two layers--a long sleeved t-shirt and a sweater, with silk underwear under my jeans if necessary (that's not often necessary). I have some flannel-lined jeans. On Sundays, I wear a skirt with silk petti-pants and socks and keep my boots on all day. We have a really small fireplace that doesn't seem to generate much heat. We do a whole lot of wrapping in blankets.
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
Honestly, it's not about the money anymore. It's about the fact that we do seem healthier. Also, I kind of like being more in touch with what's happening outdoors. If it's snowing, we pull on another layer.I have realized this winter that in the past, we just expected to be warm. We didn't really dress for the weather unless we were going outside. Now, I dress for the weather all the time and I am much more aware of whether it's 28 outside or 48 outside. It makes a huge difference in the house. And I find myself doing other things in rhythm with the outside, too. We have homemade soup for lunch on those very cold days and we drink tea all day long. I've thought about that soup a lot lately and I think that the soup is a very good thing healthwise, too. And probably the tea. Seems like a package deal that's working for us. That said, both Michael and Christian have purple hands pretty much all the time.
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ps to the 11 y/o dd: fireplaces are huge energy sucker, and unless you have a woodstove with a blower, we have learned that up to 90% of your heat is lost up the chimney, plus sucking the warm air already in your home out and up! so, we have a gas burning fireplace, but it is for ambiance only.
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teachingmyown
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We have a gas fireplace that lets in so much cold air that we keep a heavy blanket in front of it! It is nice and cozy when it is on, but that is just another expense. 
We also have so many windows. The couch and my computer desk are both up against windows and I can feel the cold air blowing through the windows. Brr!
Elizabeth, I understand what you are saying about being more aware of what it is like outside. Not having heat upstairs this last week has really shown me just how comfortable we are and how much we take it for granted. I have been trying to offer up my discomfort for those who aren't as blessed as we are.
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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LisaR
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Elizabeth wrote:
]
Honestly, it's not about the money anymore. It's about the fact that we do seem healthier. Also, I kind of like being more in touch with what's happening outdoors. If it's snowing, we pull on another layer.I have realized this winter that in the past, we just expected to be warm. We didn't really dress for the weather unless we were going outside. Now, I dress for the weather all the time and I am much more aware of whether it's 28 outside or 48 outside. It makes a huge difference in the house. And I find myself doing other things in rhythm with the outside, too. We have homemade soup for lunch on those very cold days and we drink tea all day long. I've thought about that soup a lot lately and I think that the soup is a very good thing healthwise, too. And probably the tea. Seems like a package deal that's working for us. That said, both Michael and Christian have purple hands pretty much all the time. |
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I LIKE this Elizabeth! I have reynaud's too. I'm baking more, (for the warmth, mmmmm!!) and cooking very seasonally. steaming mugs of tea are very comforting!
we are having lots more soups and stews, too, so the combined added liquids plus less drying heat is a good thing!
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Topic: Have you noticed a difference....
