The Electric meter is whizzing......

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
The Electric meter is whizzing......
7
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 4:48pm

I live in the Southeast, and this is just not normal.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 11-02-1999
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 4:55pm

All right Norma, I'll whinny! :) I have all the respect in the world for our northern neighbors - I don't know how you do it!!! Here in NJ it's been near 0*F (with the wind chill) for at least a week...though it finally came up to feeling closer to 20*F yesterday and today. Our car even went on strike - it wouldn't start in that cold, for the past two days. (This, with the truck already stuck in the driveway because of battery/alternator problems - UGH.) Luckily, we have emergency road service through our insurance, and they came and jumped it for us yesterday morning.

We just had insulation blown in right before Christmas (OMG, I can't imagine if we hadn't!!), and I'm sitting here at the computer in two sweaters and a wool cap...and my fingers are still cold as I type this!

Give me the heat of summer, any day, over this. :)










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Community Leader
Registered: 07-26-1999
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 4:56pm

I'm sort of there with you Norma. Texas has been unseasonably cool, and they are talking sleet Thursday morning, so let's see. DH did put in the new heat pump and a/c, but now feels the need to leave the heater set at 72 ALL THE TIME!! I wake up every night in a sweat, stripping down to a t-shirt and panties while he is under 2 blankets in sweats all bundled up because he's "cold". I just don't understand it! And to top it off, this wonderful heat pump, as wonderful as it is, greatly pulls out all the moisture from the air, so all our of hair is standing on end from static, and my legs are itching up a storm because my skin is so dry. Soo, consequently, I am running the humidifier all the time trying to put some moisture back into the air, thus adding another source of electricity drain... We do have a fire place and use it, but heck, buying the wood for it eats up any savings we'd have turning the thermostat down. On the nights I go to bed after him, since I normally get up with Madison at least once during the night, if I remember, I turn the thermostat down to 70, and then when I get up with Madison at 3 or 4, I turn it back to 72 so he doesn't know.

Ahh, the things we do to save a little bit of money.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-02-1998
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 6:28pm
We installed a programmable thermostat when we had the heat pump put in. So I have it so that the temp goes down overnight and while we are at work. As I never seemed to remember to turn the thermostat down at night or when I left for work. It also has a vacation mode that I use when we go away for a couple of days. Keeps things from freezing but doesn't heat up the house unnecessarily. And doesn't take too long to warm back up once we are home.


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-10-2003
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 7:46pm

I am cuz i think it was about 8 degrees BELOW ZERO!!!! in frigid western WI when I was coming to work this morning!!


My arthritis always gets cranky in this cold stuff!! Thankfully its been getting above zero during the day so that helps some although the extreme ups and downs do make body crankier!!


BUT we need to be somewhat grateful....International Falls, MN was about 31-32 degrees BELOW zero this morning!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Tue, 01-05-2010 - 8:06pm

It's actually not bad right now.

Community Leader
Registered: 07-26-1999
Wed, 01-06-2010 - 9:08am
DH installed a programmable thermostat on it and has it set at 60 degrees during the day when no one is home, but won't change it for the evenings. He keeps threatening to lock me out of it if I keep turning down in the evenings! Last night I was heading to bed, he was in the living room on the computer and I looked at it for some reason, he had set the heat to 74 degrees. Ugh!!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-14-2008
Wed, 01-06-2010 - 11:27am

I live in the middle of Canada. It is very cold here right now and has been for a week. We need to fine tune our pellet stove because it has been really smokey through out the house when we use it. So...we have not been using it that often. But our last hydro(electric) bill was only 9 dollars!! One of two things happened. They over estimated it previously or it was read incorrectly. The next one will likely be really big so I just rolled over the amount I had set aside for next month.

If we are lucky there is only 2 and 3/4 more months of winter here!! LOL!