Brrrrr. Any other home-workers freezing this year?

I'm keeping the thermostat here at 60 during the day so that I can maybe afford the gas bill this year (Donations gratefully accepted!) and I am wondering if anybody else is working at home and making a similar decision about the heat?

:scared:

the thermostat down to 60 during the day; up to 66 (woo hoo!) when we're all at home.

And, of course, we're in the middle of a week-long, record-setting cold snap. God must be an oil man.

cold for us.

your desk. It will make you a bit more comfortable.

had a heating pad too but handed it over to a yorkie.

My thermostat is programmed for 64 starting at 6 a.m. when I get up. I keep the heat at 64 in the day, turn it to 66 in late afternoon because it gets unbearably cold and my fingernails start turning blue (I do a lot of typing). I've tried keeping the thermostat at 62 but I actually begin to shiver and can barely move my hands. Brrrrrr!

The thermostat is set for 52 an hour before bedtime and through the night.

I consider that Spring...have to say I'm shocked at the weenies here.

When I'm inside, I'm sitting at a desk with a computer in front of me.

Weenie my a**. :eyes:

it's kind of neat...because it really works. BTW, My thermostat has NEVER been set higher than 60, and this is my down season so I'm home in the winter...heck, I even crack the window at night.

And I have to type, so no gloves.

where do you lot live? Florida? I don't even live in a very cold climate...the DC area and can't imagine anything freezing at 60 degrees. Heck, if it's not windy I sit outside and read a book at 55 degrees.

It's COLD here in Chicago.

It's COLD in Oregon in the mountains.

As for remarks about clothes, a little mockery about wearing sweaters as if we didn't think about it, some people fail to consider that others might -- just might -- have medical conditions which predispose them to feeling colder than others might at the same temperature. Women, and older people, are also more inclined to feel chilly.

As for those who think 60 degrees indoors is just fine and dandy, they can be grateful for an body thermostat which runs a little higher than the rest of us.

...cold weather can be hellish on people with that. And anyone at a keybord with it suffers doubly.

I am in MA, and we have the dampness that goes along with the cold. You being from OR, I am sure you can relate!

I can relate. Thankfully I do not have Raynaud's, but my hands get extraordinarily cold, for reasons I cannot fathom, especially my right hand. Must be my extremely warm heart. ;)

notice it helps tho' it's also part of my hypertension therapy. Up until I was diagnosed I thought everyones hands, feet, nose and ears got just as cold as mine.

That's what my husband wears when he needs to work on the car or something else outside during the cold months.

I am loathe to mess with my ergonomic situation here, though.

I have found running three or four systems throw the right amount of heat. Haven't yet had a day colder than three. SETI will love you for it.

It does help, but not a lot.

The dryer throws off quite a bit of heat. Just keep the laundry room door open, and the temp will rise by a couple of degrees.

But it is down in the basement, so any help from that is rather indirect. :)

We've been looking for one for months, but no such luck.

Thanks!

They no longer have it listed, but here is one on Ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clothes-Dryer-Heat-Diverter-gives-FREE-Heat_W0QQitemZ7569266803QQcategoryZ20714QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Husband and I went to the Real Goods STORE on Sunday! 'Bout and hour north of us (I got lunch and two glasses of Sonoma County wine outta the deal, too!).

What a great place!

If anybody has a woodburning or other heating stove, I HIGHLY recommend the Ecofan and Ecofan Plus. Uses no energy, and works like crazy to circulate heat through the room.

http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dv=3&dp=302&ts=1064207&kw=ecofan

http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dv=3&dp=308&ts=2170180&kw=ecofan

Though, you know, if I had the money I would open one.

It is an interesting place. A whole complex. Solar powered merry-go-round for the kiddies. Waterfalls, solar powered. The store building is of hay-bale construction, and lighted by solar. Heated by pellet stove.

The restrooms are a kick. The walls are tiled with the LIDS of used toilets.

They even have a koi pond, but the koi are so incredibly fat, it is all they can do to attempt to mosey over and try to eat one more bite.

LOL!

I opened an affiliate account with Real Goods and put the banner on my site...

(Please use it for your online Real Goods purchases!)

http://whiterosesociety.org/#SHOP

I commented that they have such cool stuff, and the prices were good.

I searched for a good hour before coming back here to see if you'd posted.

Lots of power companies recommending the things, but no vendors.

I found one at HardwareWorld.com... but they don't come up under froogle.

Thanks again!!

cough some stuff up. (Rather hairball like, but anyway...)

Thanks again.

My drier is in the garage, but right behind it is a little side room that is freezing cold and the primary reason my living room gets cold. If I could divert drier heat in there, even a few days a week, it would save me tons of money. So how do you keep the lint from blowing into whatever room you're blowing the drier heat into?

i am getting gloves without fingers. and gonna wear them around. oh, he suggested socks with heaters in them. he is such a wuss

if he loved me........ ba hah ha ha

but yes, i am having a hard time getting thermastat up high enough for different reasons, and there are cold rooms in this house. and i am so AFRAID to look at bill at end of month. not using gas fireplace, that heats middle of house

I am tired of this bullshit - we have to freeze so the energy company CEOs can get HUGE bonuses.

been using one for 14 years. Keep the whole house toasty for around 300 bucks a winter.

I looked into wood, but as my family no longer owns a woodlot, the cost of the wood was higher per therm than the gas was, and coal just doesn't seem like a good idea for the atmosphere.

you fill the hopper with the pellets which all the stoves I've seen will hold more that 1 bag. Then the pellets are metered to the burn pot by a screw auger. we have been heating for $300 a year, my brother who also has a pellet stove and heating twice the space uses about $450 bucks a year. This year the pellets went up by 15 bucks, the first time the price has increased since '92. Now the pellets cost $162.00 a ton. Here is a link to check out, There is a lot of different brands and looks. With a pellet stove you can keep your house as warm as you want, 72 degrees for us. The stove here is the one we bought and it cost $2200


http://www.lennoxhearthproducts.com/products/overview.asp?pid=202

Very interesting. They burn feedcorn.

I would have gone with the corn stove if I had a vermin proof storage. Corn sells for something like $70 a ton. Half the price and more BTU in each pound.
on edit: I keep hearing of a tax write off for alternate fuel heating, something to think about.

with our natural gas company. We pay 100.00 a month for 12 months. We set our thermostat at 64 during the day and during the evening it is at 67 and back down to 62 at night. Again I'm sorry for any one that is surfing this winter.

for the privilege of living in "The World's Only Superpower"!

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

Yeah. Sure.

:argh:

What a DUMP!

:spray: "What a DUMP!" :rofl:

My thermostat is set to 58 during the day. I'm keeping warm with sweats, socks, and a hot cup of tea on my desk at all times.

I bought Christmas presents through your site, so you should get a little extra this year. :)

I'm on a budget system, so I'm doing okay. I've got plastic up over the windows that I haven't replaced yet. But, I can't play with the temp over the day, as I have steam heat and it would take hours to bring up the heat or make it go down, it's really slow to adjust. But, last year the highest gas bill I got was for $300 for the month, and I'm heating a large 2 family home.

I've found that forced air heat, even when temp is set at 68-70, I'm cold. Best heating tricks are (I know because, my forced air furnace went out in my old house, and I lived for 4 days without heat, in the dead of a Syracuse, NY winter.) a little heater under your desk does wonders, I'd recommend a ceramic one, and light. Let me explain about the light. I used a directional light that looks down, it could be one of those clamp lights, but use a regular light bulb, not one of the energy saving ones. You'd be surprised how much heat comes off that lamp. If you poise it so the cone shape is pointing at you, it will warm the upper part of your body.

zalinda

Every bit helps! When several dozen people each do a little bit big things can happen. :)

you would be surprised at the difference that makes. My son's girlfriends parents don't heat their house at all, and they live near Syracuse. They use space heaters and drag them from room to room. But the thing I noticed most was they wear knit hats all the time. Put on a hat and see if you don't feel warmer.

zalinda

I will.

In the old days, everyone wore nightcaps, to hold in their body heat!

The hat works--you can keep the temp much lower with something on your head!

AZ is nice and warm! I guess you could say I work at home - I'm a homemaker. Our weather here is chilly for us but compared to the rest of the country our weather is toasty - a high today of 65. But I do sympathize. I was raised in PA so I know how nasty winter can be.

Fire or ice.

And as everyone here says "You don't have to shovel the heat!" LOL

I got lucky and was able to afford to remodel this place for maximum energy efficiency last year. Made a big difference. Damn near couldn't keep a match lit inside the house on windy days before the work. I keep my thermostat on 72 and my gas bill is not killing me even though it is very cold here this year. Might be a record breaker for cold this month? Had I not put the money into this place last year my gas bill would likely be unmanageable with the rate increases and colder temperatures this year. Glad I did it when I did. My heart goes out to you guys.

Don

it's winter for goodness sake, not t-shirt weather....wear a sweater. What's happened to Americans...they've become weenies.

Solid fuel hand warmer (you can use them anywhere on your body):

http://www.majorsurplusnsurvival.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=0217671&Category_Code=2

Refill sticks are way cheap too.

edited to add link for the "combo pack"

http://www.majorsurplusnsurvival.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MSS&Product_Code=0217682

I'll check our surplus place.

Sometimes they even get a little too toasty. I've had one of these things for years (it was a gift from my great-white-hunter brother). I can't stand cold hands, even gloves don't do the trick. I've seen disposible plastic handwarmers but I like having something reusable.

of this matchbox. No gas to the building. Also we don't have real weather here although the wind off the water can be really cold.

The cats come in handy, though, as warmers. Good luck, Ben! I'm really concerned about a lot of DUers this winter. :(

and I found that keeping it at a constant low temp (say, 64 degrees) saves more money than lowering it at night and raising it during the day. The system just doesn't have to work that hard to maintain, as opposed to recover from colder temps.

Also, if your system is forced hot-water, the lowest you should ever go is 60 to keep your pipes from freezing...it gets colder where the pipes are versus where You are.

Extra blankets at night and good sweaters and socks during the day are still cheaper than Oil or Gas. (I use Gas...switched from oil a good five years ago.)

and sit on your lap throughout the day. You'll be fine.

all day to help keep warm.

I stay at home with my two kids and YES! we are freezing our asses off.

Space heaters are our saving grace. I've bundled up in layers, but I refuse to wear gloves around the house and can't stand cold fingers.

Our thermostat is set at 64/65. We can't go much lower than 64 at night, it's too hard to warm it back up during the day (old drafty house with plaster walls).

I'm serious.....30-50% of body heat is lost through the head. It's one of the things I'm doing to stay warm.

* Formerly known by pinko commie leftist scum-bag hate-filled whackos as a "French beret."

i just went & put on a little knit cap. feels great! never thought of wearing one inside, duh. thanks for the tip!

last night, fell below 70 and that is freezing to us. My normal indoor temp year around is 75.

doesn't that concern you at all?

So far the weather hasn't been too bad. Also, I have so many computers in my work room that it helps to keep it warmer than the rest of the house! :thumbsup:

And it costs an arm and leg to heat our old block building, with little insolation in the ceiling.

:rofl:

We have our thermostat set at 50 and use portable oil filled heaters to warm whatever room we're in so we don't have to heat the whole house. Our house is 2700 sq ft and with the recent rate increase, it would cost about $700 to heat the entire house.

These oil filled heaters give off a nice comfortable heat and are fairly efficient to run.

My office is a well-insulated addition to my house. I can crank up the heat in here to 68 and it stays that way for hours (without the heat coming back on).

I can close the office of from the rest of the house (which I keep at 55 until it's quitting time --- and 55 overnight in the house).

My most recent bill (gas, forced hot water) is $281. I expect this to double by January.

It's just too expensive. The temps have dipped down to the thirties at night. The cat and I huddle under a lot of blankets. I have taken to cooking my evening meal in the oven though. At least it heats my trailer up a bit in the evening. I'm lucky that I live on the California coast so it never gets really cold in the day here.

It's about sixty right now. One bonus though. All the creepy crawlies, especially spiders, who try to get in my place aren't doing it this year. I guess it's not warm enough for them.

I use one at the computer and also have one on the couch in the den. You can lower your thermostat and still stay toasty.

but I do stay at home during the day time (when I'm not out running errands).

I have the heat set at 64 during the day and turn it up briefly to 67 in the evening. I wear a sweater and keep moving. I only get cold when I sit here on DU for long periods of time.

I'm using about 25% less natural gas than I did last year. The house is warmer because we insulated a few walls and replaced a few windows.

November's bill was $25 cheaper than last year and Decembers is $50 cheaper than last year. I still expect to see a bill or two over $200, depending on how much colder it gets.

We did get a load of free fire wood from the inlaws last weekend, but I need to get the chimney swept first. That'll help quite a bit.

Overall, I think I've just adjusted to the colder temps.

Burning wood in a fireplace is great, unless it is below zero. When the temp goes below zero, heat is actually sucked out of your house through the chimney. Glass doors on the fireplace may help this problem, but I don't know. Any enclosed wood burner is fine. Learned this back when my ex-husband was installing fire places in northern Wisconsin.

zalinda

Which is what is done to counter that problem.

But, yes, the fireplace draft pulls cold air from the outside through the cracks in your home. In fact, if your home is "sealed like a drum" you cannot get a good draft in the fireplace at all!

I've never lived in a home new enough to have that problem!

Snowing, and winds up to 30 MPH.

I just heat the room I'm in, using an eheater. It helps a lot.

Hot tea, long sleeves, cat on my lap and heater makes my office bearable.

I just got one from Target for $40 bucks and it is a life saver. Haven't had to turn on the gas heat once since I bought it.

I have used one in the past. Gotta be careful.

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we're retired and home all day and can't afford even a toasty 62. We layer on top of our layers. By next winter we hope to replace our gas-burning fireplace with a wood stove.

My home has NO insulation in the walls. House built in early 60s and I guess they didn't care if most of your heat ended up outside.

Is blown-in insulation worthwhile, or would it be better to take out the drywall, put in that batt insulation and replace the drywall?

Would like an opinion from someone who doesn't have an axe to grind i.e. insulation company. I just don't know how this is done. Any ideas would be appreciated.

No axes here. I've lived in houses with batted walls and with blown in walls (and no insulation at all walls...) and batts pretty much equal blown in, but are harder to install.

There's some blown in that is made out of recycled phone books, so it's ecologically better and not as iffy as having spun glass dust around.

Get several estimates and look into taking a class on how to DIY - the machines can be rented from NationsRents (or the like) and the insulation bought bulk from Lowes.

No axes to grind here. That blown-in stuff has its purposes I suppose, but I'd never use it if I didn't absolutely have to. It's a damn mess if you have to cut into a wall for repairs, and the people who do the work are notorious for not using enough product and it settles down in the walls and leaves gaps.

I was thinking the same thing about the blown-in stuff. Tends to settle. Never considered what would happen if I had to cut into the wall. Could be a mess alright.

On the other hand, any insulation is better than nothing.

I've been told that installing drywall isn't that difficult, so tearing out the wall and retrofitting is doable I guess.

most of the time. The office is right off the living room, so it's not too bad . . . yet. We're sure eating up the "stove chow" though.

but... sure as hell burning a lot of wood..

as I compute things, it really only makes sense if you have a woodlot and cut your own.

Fortunately, it rarely gets below 30 degrees around here, it's 41 right now.

The house is kept at around 50 degrees.

I love a nice sweater or two. Always a good look.

I either shut it down or set it for 55 when I leave for work, "crank" it up to 65 when I get home and drop it back to 60 when I'm under the blankees. Pretty fuckin' austere, IMHO.

Moe Betta Fish has a heater and Goldfish are supposed to like cool water better than warm.

And falling.

I've got a raging fire going now, but I've been bundled up under blankets while working for the last few weeks.

sweater if you go out.