<p>My previous house it would reheat quickly, but not this one. Hours and hours. It is only 15 years old, but 2 story 3500 SF with 2 room/2 story open foyer–one of the worst fads in history.</p>
<p>Also the furnace has problems when it kicks back up that fast–I can’t remember the entire reason but it has to do with all the safeties shutting it down temporarily. When that happens it is 3 hours before it tries to heat again. I may never buy a super energy efficient furnace again. This one is only 4 years old. Sure, it uses 30% less gas, but there are so many electronics on it that it goes out far too often. More than make up the gas usage by calling the repairman, plus I’m out of heat that time. </p>
<p>In contrast, I have a bare bones belt-driven furnace at a rental that is 45 years old and going strong, and one at another rental that is 15 years old and has had 1 service call.</p>
<p>Our electric company offers credits for folks who agree to have their A/C shut off during peak usage times. It can only happen a few times over the summer, and only for a four-hour period. Credit was $16/mo for May through September. They came out and installed a free switch on the A/C unit. We have a shady lot, so even if they shut off the A/C it still doesn’t get that bad in the house. We also have ceiling fans.</p>
<p>While I always enjoy saving money and do want to do things that are good for the environment, I can’t imagine going to the extremes some of you are. I guess because I do not have to. And I would rather put my energy into more interesting things. </p>
<p>I also worked hard and got multiple degrees, as did my H, to not have to count every penny at this stage of my life. We donate a lot to various sources but also allow ourselves a good life. We sent our 3 kids to expensive private colleges and we, and they, owe nothing. Now it is time to pay ourselves. And we do have a decent savings for retirement.</p>
<p>We do not live in a McMansion, buy our cars new but keep them forever, have paid off our mortgage and have little debt. But no, I do not always shop the best buys and buy pretty much what I want, within reason.</p>
<p>I wonder how the posters in this thread compare to those who say that household income of $250,000+ is just barely making ends meet (a common complaint on these forums from families who won’t get any need-based financial aid).</p>
<p>My grandma always said watch the pennies, they add up. She meant its worth it to save small amounts, but we also collect our change.
( she & Grandpa, were such good savers, they paid cash for their house in the early 50’s, in one of Seattle’s most exclusive neighborhoods.)</p>
<p>Ive been reading Pretty Good Number One, about a local families stay in Tokyo, and I am grateful, I don’t need to keep track of their currency.
I have a hard enough time when I go to Canada. :o
Armchair traveling is another way to save money, although I still try to explore locally.</p>
<p>“Our furnace and water heater look to be about 20 years old, I’ve been meaning to replace them before they fail-- since they’re THIS old I would rather replace them on my time than when they fail and cause an emergency. I wonder if our bills could go any lower if we did replace them, I would assume they have become more efficient in the last 20 years?”</p>
<p>You could go penny pinching extreme and do what my parents did. Their furnace failed over 50 years ago, and they never fixed it. They eventually at least decided to put a small water heather in the bathroom and one bedroom. They have saved a ton of money in heating costs over the last 50 years…but oh, it can be so cold in that house in the winter.</p>
<p>A very old heater might be quite inefficient, perhaps around 40% efficient. More typical new heaters are probably around 80% efficient, with the highest efficiency ones over 90% efficient.</p>
<p>Yeah…I think that is why I find this thread so refreshing (as well as helpful). There is definitely a large contingent on this site who have a pretty skewed notion of what “middle class” is. (And, yes, I understand that some parts of the country are more affordable than others.)</p>
<p>Re the thermostat settings, we are lucky in that we rarely need to run the AC in the summer (very shady yard, lots of cool tile floors). Sometimes on really hot days I just run the fan to get the cooler air up from the basement and that works. Heat never goes above 67, and when it is really cold and we are home I use the wood stove–it really cooks! (I am aware that it is not great for the environment, but probably only use it 8-10 times a year max.) I have a large corner fireplace that we never use because it is such a heat suck.</p>
<p>The best thing I have done this winter is buy an inexpensive newfangled space heater that is safe, quiet, and unobtrusive. I have it in a part of my house that gets very cold (it is over an unheated, inaccessible crawl space and sometimes the pipes freeze). I love this thing!</p>
<p>I do love my space heater. Part of the reason we run our heat so high is because different rooms heat differently. For example, our computer room has a vaulted ceiling-- so no attic above it with three feet of insulation like the rest of the house, and it has two exterior walls and three windows. It is UNBEARABLY COLD no matter how high the heat is set. We keep a space heater in that room to help warm it up when we are in there. I have my heat set to 75 and I am still sitting here with long pants, long sleeved shirt, slippers, heated blanket, and space heater two feet away.</p>
<p>Something we just noticed is that our thermostat is on the wall right next to the door to the furnace/laundry room, which gets REALLY WARM, and if we leave that door open the thermostat seems to think it is warmer in the house than it really is. Keeping that door shut is really important. I want to get some thermometers to put in different rooms in the house and see what temp they all are REALLY when I have the thermostat set to 75. I doubt any of them are 75.</p>
<p>My previous house it would reheat quickly, but not this one. Hours and hours. It is only 15 years old, but 2 story 3500 SF with 2 room/2 story open foyer–one of the worst fads in history.</p>
<p>Are you an empty-nester? If so, would you consider an area heater to just heat the room that you’re in? I mostly do that because it’s just too expensive to heat the whole house or even one zone when it’s just H and me in one room most of the time.</p>
<p>(my pets love those area heaters…they park themselves right in front…especially after bathtime.)</p>
<p>For one of my rentals, I put in one of those new electric fireplace heaters. I tried it…it looks very nice and heats the room nicely. I got it on Black Friday for a fab price.</p>
<p>We did a big downsize last year post-divorce and post-one kid going to college and now live in a house that costs about $50/mo to heat (budget). What a nice change form my previous house…a drafty older Victorian. $350/mo in winter, easy, if I’d done the budget plan thing certainly $100/mo. Electric is way cheaper too, even with AC running pretty regularly in summer.</p>
<p>Hmmm I wonder what it would do to my gas bill if I measured which room is always the coldest and moved the thermostat there!</p>
<p>It is interesting how huge a difference the house can make, even in two similarly sized houses. My mom always says, “I have the thermostat set at $200 a month.” The last time I visited I sat in front of the fireplace the entire time huddled under a blanket and shivering. It blows my mind that she pays almost twice as much as I do for less warmth.</p>
<p>My husband was really smart when we built our house in 1995. He designed it to be super-insulated. He also installed two flues - one for the oil furnace, and one for a future wood boiler. While oil prices were still very low, he found a beautiful wood boiler for about $100. Some wealthy guy just wanted the big orange box out of his basement! Even our friends asked why we went to such lengths, since oil was so cheap. I guess they forgot the oil crisis back in the '70s!</p>
<p>So now my husband cuts down dead trees off our property in northern Maine (he was a lumberjack for a few years in Alaska, so he knows how to do it). We also buy a few cords of wood in the spring. The wood boiler is so efficient that we can’t use it in the fall or spring - the house overheats! But in the winter, we stay toasty warm, even when it’s 20 below zero as it was last night. The wood boiler also heats our water. I love doing laundry with warm water, washing dishes, taking long showers, etc., knowing we’re not paying for oil!</p>
<p>“Requires labeling on firewood” made it very expensive to burn wood for heating.</p>
<p>We had an outdoor wood burning pit, when we tried to burn some thing in there, it immediately draw the attention of the fire department and we were fortunate that we weren’t cited for violation.</p>
<p>I’d be happy to heat with an area heater but the dining, kitchen, living and family rooms are all open to one another, w the living room being 26x13 and that being open 2 stories and having an open loft above…so the only room I could space heat would be my office downstairs. </p>
<p>We’ve spent an average of $2,700 the last 5 yrs for lp gas. It just kills me, especially for a newer house that was supposedly well insulated.</p>
<p>Layout makes a big difference. Everyone said our utilities would go up when we bought a house, but our utilities in our apartment were way more expensive despite having VERY little sqft. But the ground floor was an uninsulated garage and a little foyer area (think like 4ft x 5ft), then you went up a full flight of stairs to our living room and kitchen, then up a full flight of stairs where our bedroom and bathroom were. The heat was extremely expensive. Our air conditioner was broken all summer anyway so I guess we made up the savings there… we were very glad to move. I was initially against a ranch style house and that apartment convinced me to change my mind.</p>
<p>Yes, it is important to strike a balance and “live a little” too. I always feel sad for folks who are so busy counting pennies they don’t splurge enough to enjoy their special times, whether it’s going out for dessert or getting something just because they feel like it without guilt. </p>
<p>We are in a similar position as morrismom. It does feel very freeing that we and our kids are totally debt free, and both attended and were happy at their U and got their bachelors degrees. We are doing a bit of travel and staying at nicer hotels because it’s time. ;)</p>
<p>We still do watch our purchases because we hate overpaying for anything–longtime habit. We have always lived beneath our means and enjoy continuing to do so.</p>