The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: purplish 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
-
What steps did you take to achieve this?
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Good for you! I think electric blankets can save some money but it seems they are going out of style
-
Awesome!