For November, I decided to try some home-made oven cleaner for my One Small Change.
I am embarrassed to say, I have not cleaned my oven yet. I even made it more dirty while preparing our Thanksgiving dinner. So the home made oven cleaner will stay on my plan for December.
For December though, I am pleased to say that I got a head start on our planed One Small Change... a lower thermostat than last winter.
Over the years we have learned that choosing a temperature and leaving it alone helps with the overall comfort of our home as well as reduces the energy used and therefore the cost of heating the house over winter.
We had settled on about 70 degrees F as the preferred temperature, but last year was our first winter in our new place and the energy bills were shocking. There are several reasons:
- Most of the heat is baseboard (aka water heated by gas), however the basement and Man Room are heated electrically. I don't know why, this is just how it is.
- It is colder in Colorado than New Mexico.
- Our house is somewhat drafty.
- Last year was a harsh winter.
- The temperature on the hot water heater was set to scalding.
- Our new place is much larger than our old place.
We realized half way thru the winter that the basement and man room were heated electrically and these were switched on. We promptly ensured all were switched off, closed the doors to rooms we were not using and doubled checked the off-ness often. This helped with the energy costs as winter turned into spring, but the shock of those first bills left quite an impression on me.
We turned the temperature down on the hot water heater to something less than scalding and I have the thermostats set between 60 and 65 degrees F.
I haven't been able to figure out what area one thermostat controls so that one has been left off. I assume as as we get into the heart of winter, the area will reveal itself.
With these changes and the fact that this has been a more mild winter so far, our energy bill is about half of what it was for this time last year.
My intention is to leave the thermostats at 60-65 degrees the entire winter. December and January will be the test... can I leave it there?
If you're interested in seeing what others are doing to improve their affect or would like to participate, please head over to the One Small Change Blog, new folks are always welcome.
This is great! I am so excited that you have been so commited to this project and love hearing about what you are doing! If you ever want me to share your posts on the One Small Change Blog so others can see what you are up to, let me know suzy@hipmountainmama.com
ReplyDeleteIt's cold, but you'll manage. I keep mine at 18 celsius, which is 64.4. I just bundle up the kids and bake a lot of bread! Every so often, I feel like it's freezing and I turn it up to 19 or 19.5 for a few hours as a treat, LOL. Other than that, it's always at 18.
ReplyDelete@Suzy - Thank you so much for hosting. I enjoy reading about what others are doing and then thinking about how we might incorporate those ideas for ourselves.
ReplyDelete@Jaimie - if you can keep it at 18, I should be able to keep it between 60 adn 65. Thanks for the encouragement. :-)
Over the years we have slowly lowered our house temp also. We used to keep it at 70* all year round, but that costs so much. Now we have it at 58* overnight (we are all covered in warm blankets so you'd never know. We have a programed thermostat so it will raise the temp to 62* in the morning while we are getting ready. I find I am running around so much getting ready I don't need it warmer. When we are gone all day, it goes back to 58*. On the days we are home it is at 64* but we usually totally turn off the heat and make a fire in the fire place instead.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that my husband used to be cold in anything less than 70*. Now with some clothing changes (more layers) and getting used to colder temps, one day he was complaining how hot he was, it was 66* in the house! My how far we've come :) He claims I ruined him, but I say I improved him.
Cara