Author Topic: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!  (Read 4042 times)

purplish

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Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« on: March 15, 2016, 08:34:42 PM »
Keep in mind I live where winters are cold.  I've always liked it HOT so I'm proud of myself that I've been able to lower it this amount :)  Looking at my starting point, I saved over $500 this winter!

Year 1
Dec. $245
Jan.  $315
Feb   $275
Mar. $266

Year 2
Dec. $199
Jan.  $227
Feb.  $264
Mar.  $231

Year 3 (current)
Dec. $127
Jan.  $140
Feb.  $174
Mar.  $144
« Last Edit: March 15, 2016, 08:39:22 PM by purplish »

xyzzy

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2016, 03:36:08 PM »
What steps did you take to achieve this?

purplish

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2016, 07:56:48 PM »
What steps did you take to achieve this?

Prior to living at my current place, I lived in apartments where the heat was automatically included in the rent.  I preferred keeping the temp at 75, but would compromise with roommates at 73.  Once I got my condo and had to pay my heat for the first time, I "compromised" at 73 lol.  Hence the huge bills.  Also my bedroom was in the coldest room of the house.  I found myself keeping it warmer in the rest of the house just so my room wasn't cold. 

Luckily, after that winter I was able to switch bedrooms to a warmer room, which had a significant impact.  The next winter I decided to buckle down thanks to reading this forum, and compromised further to 71 during the day, with 68 (maybe 66 at times?) during the night.  This year I managed to bring it down to 70 during the times I'm home, and 63 during the day and at night.  Huge difference!  I also use an electric blanket at night, works like a charm.  I would've even brought the day/night temps lower, however I have a sickly/elderly cat, and I feel like that would be bad for her.

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2016, 08:57:22 PM »
How do the HDD days compare between the 2 years? I've done some work that looked very good, but turns out to be just good when adjusted for HDD differences.

xyzzy

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2016, 10:17:36 PM »
I'll tell you my approach. I'm in the Bay area, so its not nearly as cold as the colder regions, but I turn off my heater most of the time and at night just use a heated mattress pad. I think its better than an electric blanket because the heat is trapped between you and the covers - vs having an electric blanket on top or between other blankets. It has a preheat mode, which lets me warm the bed quickly, then I have it on the lowest setting for the rest of the night. I got this one, http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/sunbeam-reg-therapedic-heated-mattress-pad/3256372?Keyword=heated+mattress+pad which even has 3 zones so you can warm just your feet and it also auto shuts off in case you forget to turn it off in the morning. Best thing ever.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2016, 10:20:11 PM by dn123 »

purplish

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2016, 06:07:55 AM »
How do the HDD days compare between the 2 years? I've done some work that looked very good, but turns out to be just good when adjusted for HDD differences.
Sorry what's HDD?

wienerdog

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2016, 08:03:25 AM »
http://www.degreedays.net/

Use that site to calculate Heating Degree Days.  Most use 65F as a base temperature.  It integrates the time in days when the temp was below 65F so you can see how cold a winter was over several months and compare that to other years.

Edit:  I did a quick example comparing the past 2 winters in the attachment.

« Last Edit: March 19, 2016, 08:18:05 AM by wienerdog »

Chavak

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2016, 06:21:07 PM »
I'll tell you my approach. I'm in the Bay area, so its not nearly as cold as the colder regions, but I turn off my heater most of the time and at night just use a heated mattress pad. I think its better than an electric blanket because the heat is trapped between you and the covers - vs having an electric blanket on top or between other blankets. It has a preheat mode, which lets me warm the bed quickly, then I have it on the lowest setting for the rest of the night.

This is also what I do. During the day I leave the thermostat at 64 degrees and wear a sweatshirt over my normal clothes. When I leave the house, or at night time, I shut the heat off. I also have an electric mattress pad and I love it. So much better than an electric blanket. I highly recommend them.

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2016, 09:12:19 PM »
How do the HDD days compare between the 2 years? I've done some work that looked very good, but turns out to be just good when adjusted for HDD differences.
Sorry what's HDD?

wienerdog covered it nicely; it give a decent way to compare different years with different weather patterns.

Erica

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2016, 03:23:13 AM »
Good for you! I think electric blankets can save some money but it seems they are going out of style


Bob W

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Re: Lowered my heating my bill over a couple years!
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2016, 01:51:35 PM »
Awesome!