The dreaded gas bill
Along about the time it started getting cold, we knew what kind of winter we were going to have and we decided to set the thermostat on 65f.
That turned out to be overly optimistic. It ended up on 67 after a few days of ups and downs and one week when both of us were amazingly sick, it was on 72 all week. However, it stays on 67f.
Everybody in this city does not get their bill on the same day. A few days ago they had some fool on TV who had been setting his heat between 75-80f as the mood hit him and for a one bedroom apartment his bill was $354. they held his bill up to the camera and showed it on TV. I about fainted. I did some kind of mental acrobatics that spread that amount of power over a 1300 square foot house and decided we had used more power than this idiot.
We finally got our bill and it was only $163. a few bucks less than last year. I am convinced they can magically tell what you set your thermostat to and there must be a tipping point where they up the rate and start laughing like maniacs and charge you more for being stupid. I think it must be 69-70F. I can't prove this except by guessing.
By now, nearly everyone has the newer thermostat with a computer chip in it. Does it rat you out? Does the power company know how warm(hot) it is in your house?
Next door is having an all out war because one roommate turns the heat way up, and the other one is supposed to pay it and now will not do so because the bill is fantastical and is threatening to move out. And has a place to go. Its not fair to say, the heat is your bill, crank that puppy way up during the coldest year I can remember and then hand the bill off to somebody else who told you not to do it and then run around the house barefoot in shorts.
And the law prohibits the power companies from cutting off power of any kind between November and April, so this will get interesting before its done. However if the roommate who has been paying the bill has it in her name, she can shut it off and take it with her. This is better than TV.
So 1300 square foot house plus 700 square foot basement heated to 67 costs about half of what heating an 2 room apartment to 75-80F.
I don't understand it, but I have to like it. I never knew these things because nobody's ever put their bill on TV before. Our power company is begging people to cut this out and stop running up huge bills.
They have put out warnings several times asking people to not do laundry on some days, or cook until after 7 PM, or use high powered appliances and implements, gas or electric, because they just can't keep up because the demand is so high because the weather is so crappy.
They have not proclaimed an official temperature, but they keep saying turn everything down.
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth.org
That turned out to be overly optimistic. It ended up on 67 after a few days of ups and downs and one week when both of us were amazingly sick, it was on 72 all week. However, it stays on 67f.
Everybody in this city does not get their bill on the same day. A few days ago they had some fool on TV who had been setting his heat between 75-80f as the mood hit him and for a one bedroom apartment his bill was $354. they held his bill up to the camera and showed it on TV. I about fainted. I did some kind of mental acrobatics that spread that amount of power over a 1300 square foot house and decided we had used more power than this idiot.
We finally got our bill and it was only $163. a few bucks less than last year. I am convinced they can magically tell what you set your thermostat to and there must be a tipping point where they up the rate and start laughing like maniacs and charge you more for being stupid. I think it must be 69-70F. I can't prove this except by guessing.
By now, nearly everyone has the newer thermostat with a computer chip in it. Does it rat you out? Does the power company know how warm(hot) it is in your house?
Next door is having an all out war because one roommate turns the heat way up, and the other one is supposed to pay it and now will not do so because the bill is fantastical and is threatening to move out. And has a place to go. Its not fair to say, the heat is your bill, crank that puppy way up during the coldest year I can remember and then hand the bill off to somebody else who told you not to do it and then run around the house barefoot in shorts.
And the law prohibits the power companies from cutting off power of any kind between November and April, so this will get interesting before its done. However if the roommate who has been paying the bill has it in her name, she can shut it off and take it with her. This is better than TV.
So 1300 square foot house plus 700 square foot basement heated to 67 costs about half of what heating an 2 room apartment to 75-80F.
I don't understand it, but I have to like it. I never knew these things because nobody's ever put their bill on TV before. Our power company is begging people to cut this out and stop running up huge bills.
They have put out warnings several times asking people to not do laundry on some days, or cook until after 7 PM, or use high powered appliances and implements, gas or electric, because they just can't keep up because the demand is so high because the weather is so crappy.
They have not proclaimed an official temperature, but they keep saying turn everything down.
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth.org