Reducing heating bills this Fall/Winter

[PELRDL]

Every year I try to economize on utility bills, but here in California, it's futile. During peak months, rates jump regardless of the amount of electricity or gas used. i could swelter with the A/C off during the summer, or just run it. It makes very little difference. Although, a rep. at Edison once told me that turning the A/C on and off throughout the day forces rates to jump. Don't know if that's true, but it is a good excuse to keep the house cool.

As far as the gas goes, I just use a toaster oven instead of firing up the stove, that helps. if you'd like to keep your gas bills lower in the winter, I would suggest wearing Patagonia capiline thermals under your clothes while kicking it a home. They're pricey, so try to find them on eBay. I'm always freezing, and they keep me warm and toasty.

[IamOld]

If I may put in a side-note - when we moved into our house around 14 years ago, we had(have) a digital "computerized" thermostat. I've discovered very quickly that trying to let the house heat up during the day in the summer (especially) and get cold during the day in the winter - and have the programmable thermostat start everything say and hour or two before you get home, simply meant the HVAC unit had to work harder at peak times...I think - at least in my personal experience - having one steady temp seems to be better.

[StartinOver]

Re space heaters and pets:
One option is would be to make a "cage" out of something to keep the pets from being able to get right up against it. Depending on your decor, handyman capabilities, available materials and budget, you could use wood framing and hardware cloth, chicken wire, or decorative perforated metal sheet like they use for the grills on radiator covers. Also, pets can be kinda dumb at times, but if it's actually too hot for them, they will figure it out quick and back off.

Regarding setback thermostats:
A friend who worked for a machine shop, (i.e., a place full of chunks of cold metal) did an analysis on what they saved by setting temps back sharply at night and it really came out to be very close to a wash. It bought them a TINY amount of savings on heating costs, but it made employees unhappy to be working with bitterly cold metal in a shop that took all day to finally feel temperate (all that metal keeps giving off cold all day as it returns to target daytime temperature).

[MSbklawyer]

Reducing heating bills this Fall/Winter

The heating bill hasn't been a problem so far this year. I was running the A/C in the upstairs part of the house earlier this week.

[mountanddo]

Being from Minnesota it's pretty funny reading about someone in California trying to keep warm and toasty ;) That being said, it was 49 degress today and we have NO snow on the ground. For January 10th that's pretty unbelievable. Our summer is coming to an end though on Thursday when the high will be 14 and the low on Friday will be 2.

[Resigned2BK]

I just wanted to add that we are having good success with big styrofoam panels that can be placed over windows on the inside of the house. DH started doing that with some windows in a business rental a couple of summers ago as it was getting hot enough during the day to start melting things that had wax and such and the panels knocked a good 15 degrees or so off the internal temp of that shop. Then we started using that in the winter last year and that knocked about $50 a month off the heating bills. You can get that kind of thing at Home Depot and Lowes. I think it's considered insulation.

[GoingDown]

One of my goals each year is to get thru a "FL Winter" with out putting the heat on. I'm ok with the house being cold b/c I like it. The kids not so much..lol

So we do layers and each have an electric blanket.

I also use the colder months to take advantage of making oven dinners that I would never do in the hot months. And I also run the oven self cleaner maybe once every 6 weeks....lol

I know this is an old post, but I just saw it.

I do the same thing in Phoenix, Arizona. I can get by most winters only running the heater for a few nights when the temps actually dip down into the low 30s or upper 20s. The rest of the time I don't even run the heater at all.

I start using the long dormant oven and the stove top again, which usually provides enough heat to keep it somewhat comfortable. And I dress in layers and use 2 or 3 blankets at night. As for blankets, the best ones seem to be the velour blankets-- they're thin and light but amazingly warm, especially when you use 3 of them.

The sad thing is that I get accustomed to the 60 degree temperature in my home and when summer comes, I have to get used to the much hotter temps. 60 degrees becomes nothing but a distant memory. Even the overnight low temps never come anywhere near 60 degrees in the summer.

During the summer, I absolutely never use the oven, nor the stove top. I switch to mainly eating things like cold cereal and chilled fruit, and salads.