dbark

We have the heating set at 68, and wear long sleeves - my daughter's friends come around in short sleeves and complain that it's cold!

When sitting watching tv, we snuggle under a blanket, and don't see anything wrong with that.

Then again in summer, we set the A/C at 76, and have the fans on. That's the time to wear short sleeves!

joto

Just had a bill for a fill up of oil. It was $482 for 196 gallons. That is steep although we haven't had a fill up since November. We try and keep the thermostat to around 62-65 and it is ok. We are in New England so it does get pretty cold at times.

Sophia_S

We're in central Illinois and it's been abnormally mild so far,except for a few days here and there,I've just paid $216 for the gas bill and $91 for the electric..same time last year was $118 gas and $68 electric!..we keep our therm. set on 68F during the day,unless it's really cold when it goes up to 72F,and 58F overnight,and we went mad this year and bought an electric heater to help the gas heat in the evenings thats why the electric is higher this year,we've got a a one storey house,2 bedrooms,and a basement,but it's an older house (we've been remodelling for the last nearly 13 years!) and we've replaced just about all the windows and put insulation in the walls everywhere,MUCH cosier than it used to be!....Sophia

LivingInTheSun

I know this is something which will not affect your heating / cooling bills immediately, but it could do in the future !

I've recently been reading about (& listening to) info about monolithic domes & find them very interesting.

Apparently heating / cooling bills can be as little as 20% of that of a similar size conventionally built house.

Monolithic Domes are built from concrete & foam in the shape of a dome and are extremely well insulated & have great thermal properties. They are also great for area's which have earthquakes / hurricanes / tornadoes.

I'm am seriously considering building one (or even some) when I move to Turkey in a couple of months.

I plan on adding a page or two on my site about these, but if you are interested, you can listen to a podcast about them at Airstream Indie Radio (scroll down to episode 25 entitled "Disaster Proof Housing"). There are also several links to other sites from this page, or you can look at the following:

www.cloudhidden.org/
http://www.genesisiim.com/
http://www.monolithic.com/

Hope you find them interesting

Ray

I'm getting on to the chairman of the Homeowner Association right now...
to suggest

mandpete

Our bill for December was $390.00 and it wasn't a particularly cold month, I am dreading the February one.

It's set to 73 degrees from 5.30am to 8.00am, drops to 68 whilst the kids are at school, 73 degrees from 3.30pm to 10.30pm and down to 58 during the night. Weekends it's on 72 degrees from 8.00am to 11.00pm and 58 over night.

Our A/C bills for July and August this year were $250.00. I wouldn't mind paying high bills in the winter if we didn't have A/C.

It doesn't matter what our heating is set to, I am always cold and hubby's always moaning it's too warm. During the summer though I am always too hot in the house but hubby insists it's like living in an ice box.

Pulaski

I used to keep my home in the UK warm enough - the thermostat was set to around 18º-19ºC in the winter. Now I have it set to 65ºF for an hour in the morning before we leave for work, and to 64ºF in the evening for when we come home. During the night, and while we are out, I have the thermostat set for 58ºF - and we use a good thick duvet on the bed.

Is the house "toasty", .... I guess not - but then I never wear a pullover, and right now I am wearing a T-shirt.

The heating bill (gas, incl water) for December was $208 - this month should be a good bit less.

For what it's worth, I think that your house may need more insulation, and/or your heating unit should be replaced for something more efficient and modern.

Pulaski

You may have added insulation, but if you have to turn up the thermostat when it's cold then you still likely have significant heat loss, or a gas pack that is worn out and needs replacing, because a the thermostat should, by definition, keep the temperature the same. If you are having to boost the heat then something is certainly wrong.

AmerLisa

You mean you have to heat the pool heater first? I thought you just turned the heater on and it heated the pool.

AmerLisa

In Southern California? Eskimo, are you guys running around in the nude? You can't have it 100 degrees all year, you know.

eepgmik

What thermostat do you use to have such good flexibility? We're just buying a house in NE and I want to be able to set the temperature at different times like that.

We got our bill for December and the price was almost 50% more than December 04, even though we used less gas than the previous residents! I like the fact that the bills give you so much information relative to English bills.

Martin

mandpete

It's a Honeywell 5-2 day progammable thermostat. I think Lowe's sell them for about $30.00

TimFountain

Biggest electricity bill last year was $650 for one month. This is for a 3800 sq.ft house with a pool and separate office. Water heating and cooker are gas.
I had solar screens put on all the windows last month and I am investing in more attic insulation so I'll be interested to see what happens this year. I also moved the upstairs thermostat as the pinheads who built the house put it on the landing, where there is one small A/C vent, and all the hot air from downstairs rises to. Of course the rooms upstairs were freezing.
Finally TXU energy have put up their prices by 25%, so probably any savings I might have made are already blown by the higher prices, grrr.
I still think there is something wrong with the electricity consumption, as our middle of the night constant consumption is around 600W. I have a 120G marine reef tank that takes about 300W of that, but I have no idea where the other 300W is going.... I have built my own power monitoring system to try an understand where it is going and am in the 24/7 monitoring phase right now...

- Tim

Lottie

I'm betting Gruffbrown and I can top this in January

Lottie

Man it must be chilly in your house - I think we are definitely going to have to set the thermostat lower !

Our energy company shows us our previous bills - but as we've only been in the house since March it only goes back that far.