Monday, December 13, 2010

What are you doing to cut heating bills? a/k/a "That's what blankets are for..."

We had our first snow - albeit a somewhat light dusting - here in Virginia today.  The kids were elated, that is until I told them that there was still school.  Both kids actually complained about being cold this morning, to which I replied, "That's what blankets are for."  My daughter actually asked me tonight to dig out her comforter from the linen closet.

Why the sudden cold children?  Because I refuse to keep the thermostat turned up at night.  I have dialed it back to 69-70 degrees and am considering dialing it back even further once we find a compatible programmable that will work well with our heat pump.  My kids don't know how good they have it.  The house I grew up in had no heat in the upstairs, save for the bathroom.  The rest was unheated and it was not unheard of to have a heavy frost on the inside of the windows.  We thought it was cool and scratched our names into the frost and then piled on extra blankets for bed. 

Getting dressed was something we did as quickly as possible so that we could rush to the warmth down below. We didn't really think much about it, really.  It was just how it was. My parents turned the thermostat back to 60 degrees at night so if you wanted to stay warm, you wore heavier clothes and used extra blankets.

Dialing back the thermostat is something that I'm doing to save some green this winter.  What are you doing?  Take a look at an article that I saw at Wallet Pop about 12 Days of Energy Efficiency.  And while you're at it, grab some slippers for your cold feet!

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