<p>This winter, I have heard that natural gas prices will almost double. I know that last year I barely even turned on the heat and the bill was $250 a month in the winter months. We could be talking $600-$700 monthly gas bills for some people this winter. This is outrageous! People are going to have to choose between eating or staying warm. Is it going to take some poor senior citizen on a fixed income freezing to death to call this highway robbery to the attention of our (hopefully not corrupt) politicians?</p>
<p>there usually are structures in place for low income/seniors to pay their utility bills.
How cold does it get in Cleveland?
We just put on a hat and extra socks here :)</p>
<p>Here in Alaska, we are working on various plans for making sure that everyone is taken care of. One of the best ideas is making business credit available to the heating oil distributors in order to enable them to carry homeowner debt for a longer period of time. The credit would be interest free, so there would not be an added cost to the consumer. </p>
<p>Mostly we just take care of each other. We know it gets freakin’ cold here (our son says it takes a 7 year old with hair on his chest to trick or treat at 0 degrees fahrenheit-but when I told him that most of the kids this year were being ferried around by car he called them wimps!) so we check in on each other and there are many public buildings with activities for seniors, etc. </p>
<p>Back on topic…warmth is life or death here, and I am not being melodramatic, it gets to 60 below here, so most people have at least 2 if not three methods of heating their homes,just in case. Wood is cheap. Pollutes like a son-of-a-gun, but it works just fine if you don’t mind smelling like a smoked salmon! Kerosene heaters are portable and efficient and heat well. We don’t use natural gas up here, that may change though, so I can’t address that yet, but mostly we just use wood and oil. </p>
<p>Bring out the flannel sheets and the woolies, it’s gonna be a long (9 month) winter! Ready or not, here it comes!</p>
<p>I live in the deep south and we have the opposite problem in the summer. I know there are many programs in place that distribute fans and other related items free of charge to seniors and low income families. Perhaps there are similar programs where you live. I know about the ones here because they constantly ask for donations during the summer months to try to keep people from dying of heat stroke.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.liheap.ncat.org/[/url]”>http://www.liheap.ncat.org/</a></p>
<p>I do so like living in a moderate climate- we haven’t even turned our furnace on yet.</p>
<p>Our furnace doesn’t go on until Nov. 1 by dictate of W. The end of October was getting a little chilly here in the Detroit area…</p>
<p>Use a space heater. I’ve used one in my home since 2001. I simply put it in the room I’m in most of the time when I’m at home, which is my bedroom. When I need to go to the kitchen or bathroom I just stick on the slippers and sweater.</p>
<p>I am able to keep the thermostat down to as low as 64 at night because the heater is able to take the one room up to about 77 or so if it’s on for at least a half hour. My heater is a Black and Decker and it oscilates so the heat gets distributed well. The bedroom is also where my fish tank is so it works to their advantage as well. My dog just comes into my room to get warm but she’s furry and overweight so she can survive with 64 at night even without the heater.</p>
<p>When looking for a heater, get one that automatically shuts off if it’s going to overheat. I killed two Arvinair machines because they didn’t have this and I left them on too long. The Black and Decker mentioned earlier does shut off automatically if it feels it’s getting too warm. I’ve had it since October 2003 and it’s served me very well. Can’t remember what I paid for it, though…but it wasn’t horribly expensive.</p>
<p>Seniors freezing? Yes. Happens every year. Probably more this year - keeps the cost of senior benefits down, though, so I suspect the rise in fuel prices fits in some sort of master plan. After all, gotta pay for tax cuts somehow. </p>
<p>On a more serious note, you can save a lot on your heating by the use of a setback thermostat, especially if no one is home in the daytime. I’ve used one for many years, and I can tell you it is really nice to have a cooler house for sleeping, but warm when you wake up- all automatically. And, it cuts the temp weekdays during the day, down to 55 (lower limit), but we never notice - it is warm when we get home. We DO notice on holidays, since the thermostat does not know holidays, thinks they are just weekdays. So we do a manual override.</p>
<p>I agree with the programmable thermostat. Ours can differentiate weekends, so we don’t have to mess with it much. Saves summer and winter. One room in our house, where son spends most of his waking hours, is always cold, so we use a small space heater for that room.</p>
<p>Lots of good ideas, but none of them are going to help seniors on fixed income who have to stay home. They are far more susceptible to cold than younger people. They can’t lower the heat during daytime. Electric space heaters are not cost free.</p>
<p>Most communities have plans to help low income/elderly people with heating costs- subsidization of bills- weather stripping and insulation programs
I bet your local power company will also take donations to help support their program.</p>
<p>My mom lives in a condo where she doesn’t even have to turn on her heat because the whole building stays warm.
We use Presto heat dish space heater for about $50 at Costco- it warms you up directly without heating the whole room.
They aren’t too attractive, but light and use less electricty than comparable options</p>
<p>There is a lurking danger with portable heaters: Fire danger.</p>
<p>I am quite confident we will see a long series of articles in our local papers about less well to do folks, elderly or not, who died in home fires due to space heaters. None of them are as safe as central systems. Some, thankfully mostly in the past now, tended to start fires if any cloth or paper draped over them. Newer designs are safer, but still cannot avoid fires due to electrical cord overloads. And how many folks realize that many of these heaters cannot be used safely with a standard zip cord extension cord?</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
<p>So we can expect our malls and libraries to now be filled w/ seniors who cannot pay for warmth at home? I hope that they can ride the bus to the mall/library for a free or reduced ride. This could be a challenging winter for many older folks. If only they could/would read stories to kids while they are at the libraries!</p>
<p>we have senior community centers here- meals and entertainment is available- we have rides for those who don’t drive ( why do all the 90+ seniors on my block still drive? gimme those car keys!)</p>
<p>( many of the seniors in the neighborhoods do volunteer at the schools- they help tutor reading/math and get lunch too- it is great for the kids- although I admit I was turned off when I see seniors telling 5 year olds- “no you can’t paint a tree that color- a tree is green- no you are making a mess- no…no… no”</p>