Trying to Get Electricity Usage Down

[kkbmustang]

I would just like it duly noted that I am currently sweating my ass off because I refuse to turn the air conditioner on.

[grantmeaname]

SWMBO is freezing her ass off because we won't turn the heat up past the low 60s and it's continually in the 30s-40s lately.

Isn't it funny that we live in the same hemisphere?

[kkbmustang]

You wanna trade?

What does SWBMO stand for?

[gdborton]

she who must be obeyed

[kkbmustang]

I am so using that. I'm gonna make a t-shirt with that on it.

[PJ]

Shoot, I can't even get my pets to obey me.  What hope do I have of ever having someone call me SWMBO? 
 
And I'm in Toronto, where it is currently 10 C (50 F?) outside and 16 C in the house.  My feet are cold, and I can't get the dog to stay lying down so I can tuck my feet under her.  But I'm not giving in and turning on the heat yet ...

[Bakari]

I'm proud of all of you
:) :) :) :) :)

[PJ]

Thanks, Bakari!  It lasts only until my sister calls up from downstairs to say "Can you PLEASE turn the damn heat on???" 
 
But so far that hasn't happened.  :-) 
 
Anyway, if I may venture a suggestion as to how to make a cold house feel warmer?  Take dogs out for a late night walk around the block on a cold, windy, rainy night.  Yeah.  Then the house feels really warm when you come back inside.  Bonus points when you then bundle up in jammies, extra sweater, and bathrobe, with one dog next to you on the couch and the other (finally!) lying down at your feet.  Aah.  I'm good now. 

[Jamesqf]

Also any kind of (fairly strenuous) exercise will get your metabolism cranking, so you'll feel warmer and burn calories.

Another thing is to wear a wooly hat around the house.

[Nords]

I would just like it duly noted that I am currently sweating my ass off because I refuse to turn the air conditioner on.

I hope you're acclimating.  "Acclimating" sounds so much better than "deprivation".

We actually had to turn on a ceiling fan today.  First time since we finished our home-improvement roof insulation nearly a year ago.

We're at the point where further reductions in energy consumption would mean that we'd have to:
- Replace our solar water heater with a model that holds the heat better and uses the electric pump less (it's on our To Do list),
- Replace our 25 cu ft Fridgezilla* with a 20 cu ft model, perhaps one without an icemaker,
- Stop maintaining an aquarium (I kinda like having it in the house),
- Persuade spouse to use the CRT TV less (not gonna happen),
- Stop using my desktop tower PC and switch to the laptop (need to do the research to see if it's worth it). 

*(It's a GE Profile Artica and it claims to be an EnergyStar model, but it's still way more than we need.)

[happy]

As the matriachal head of the household I am definitely SWMBO and I'm FMAO right now!

Its well into spring  here and last week we had a couple of 90F days: KKB I didn't turn on the aircon either and SMAO too! :)
Last 24 hours we've had a huge front with big storms and it was 43F .. the coldest day of the year. Yeah Yeah I know its not very cold but its as cold as it gets here.  Huge hailstorms, blocking up downpipes and freezing, and snow in places that don't normally get snow even in winter (Snow in October is pretty rare in Australia).  So  tonight the heat is on, but not too high just enough to get us into the low 60s. We don't heat overnight.. will be turned off soon.

[cosmie]

- Stop using my desktop tower PC and switch to the laptop (need to do the research to see if it's worth it). 

It's definitely worth it. Although an older article, this gives you a gist of the savings.

UPenn also has a (slightly) dated list of computers they use, and the energy usage thereof, here.

Granola is also good to use, regardless. It's a program that runs in the background that does intelligent and adaptive power management, and displays approximated power savings over time. It'll marginally reduce power usage on a laptop, depending on how aggressive your power savings options are already. But it will significantly reduce power usage on a desktop, since most rarely have anything beyond rudimentary power savings options enabled (or installed) by default.

[PJ]

Luckily, after the last couple of days being below average, it warmed up today.  I was so tempted to cave yesterday and put the heat on, until I realized it was going to go back up.  So I toughed it out and enjoyed the (relative) warmth today, although the fact that it was rainy and grey most of the day wasn't so great.