Cold and curious - what is your thermostat set to when you are home?

[Claire&TheBoys]

I just got our electric bill for the time when we had our cold snap last month. We are in the part of Florida that got some ice and sleet and everything closed up for two days because we don't have the equipment to deal with iced bridges and such. Our electric bill was right at $200 for that month, which is very typical for a winter bill for us. I think the previous month's was also right at $200 and covered Christmas (so lots of lights, cooking and entertaining). We have a gas water heater and that bill runs $35-45 per month -- usually more in winter, I guess we take longer, hotter showers. Our house is about 2700 sf.

 

[nsmith]

68 daytime, 62 nighttime when we were in the grip of the POLAR VORTEX I bumped it up to 69 and left it there for a few days. we also use the wood burning stove/

 

[texasroni75]

We lease, so we have no control over the fact that our thermostat is on the first floor very close to an output vent, no thermostat on the second floor, and inefficient air flow out of first floor vents. Property manager did send an HVAC guy out and confirmed there's not enough air blowing on the first floor, but short of ripping open the ceiling to look for pinched off ductwork ,because everything accessible is functioning fine, there's nothing we can do until we move. The house is less than 10 years old, and it was probably like this from Day 1 due to shoddy contractor work.

So, as a rule, in the winter it gets HOT HOT HOT upstairs and stays so cold on the first floor that my hands and nose feel like ice. And, due to the location of the thermostat (which is very close to the only output vent on 1st floor that flows properly) thinks it's hotter downstairs than it really is and shuts off before it's comfortable temps).

I feel I'm throwing $$ away each month to make it bearable in the living area, so to offset the inefficiency, I turn the central air/heat off unless it's below 65 or above 80 in the house.

I must say it's still a LOT cheaper than what we were paying when we lived in NJ to heat our 50-year old house, but it still stinks when you know you are paying more for utilities than you should have to.

NOTE: I hear many people talking about using space heaters, but I find them to be impractical with (1) a toddler in the house who will stick his fingers and/or "stuff" in them which makes them dangerous, and (2) many models use INCREDIBLE amounts of energy and probably cost more in electricity to run than it would to crank up the central heat another degree or two.

 

[HeatherC]

I guess we are pretty lucky. About five years ago, we installed two wood pellet stoves....one in our dining area and one in the basement since we finished it ourselves but never put heat in.

Our house is 13 years old and is about 2800 sq ft including the basement.

We have ordered three times from the oil company since Sept at an average price of $3.49 a gallon. But..we only order a 100 gallons at a time. We have been using our pellet stoves and have probably spent about $1000 in pellets since October. And about $1000 in oil.

We primarily use the main floor stove for heat and it keeps both the main and bedroom floors (center colonial) about 72 degrees. We lower it at night, but still keep it on.

Our most expensive electric bill was last month...after the Polar Vortex was $132. The pellet stoves run on electric so a normal bill would probably be about $90.

So I figure all in all we have spent about $2100 for the season so far. Will probably spend about another $500 before the end of March because we will need some more pellets and we currently have a little less than 1/2 tank of oil which we also use for hot water. So maybe $2600-$2700 total for the whole heating season. Not too bad really considering we hate to be cold and keep the house at 72.

Another thing I found was that we run a humidifier in our bedroom at night and living room since the air gets so dry. The room feels warmer with some moisture so I definitely recommend using them. You can actually keep your heat a little lower and still fell comfortable.

That being said.....I am SO READY FOR SPRING!!!

 

[rmm7e]

My heating bill from December 28th until I think February 4th was $640. We certainly don't turn the heat up when it gets colder.

I opened my electric bill last night and it was an all time high of $580. I nearly had a heart attack. (Especially after two months prior of over $400.)

So thank you for posting yours, it makes me feel a little bit better.

I have electric baseboard heat and unbeknownst to me hubby turned it up to 72 as well as turning on heat in some unused rooms to help the main room reach temp. I was enjoying it until I saw the bill.

I turned it down and plan to call about getting an energy audit as well. I hate waste!

 

[eliza61]

It's just so damn cold. I'm at 350 bucks and generally keep it 69 degrees. Friday the high is only going to be 20 degrees. I swear my heart pump its not keeping up.

 

[disney1990]

We've been keeping the temp set at 68 but I am tempted to crank it up just a little . . . I should say we are not used to weather this cold for this long - which also means our house is not built for these temps either . . .

Our house is set at 67 degrees. After two months of heating bills of $299, it not likely to go any higher. What have your heating bills been?