Wednesday, July 15, 2009

P365 Day 5: In Bloom



(Taken on the walking trail near our house)

For those of you who didn't see my Tweet, I opened a $480 utility bill yesterday. Then I checked the address because surely that wasn't mine.

Five hundred bucks?
I've never had a utility bill even remotely approach that — even in a larger house that we kept at 68 degrees. I called Mom (we're staying in my parents' old house), and she said their bill last August was $392. And they kept it at 78. I refuse to do that.

Curses, vaulted ceilings! Curses!

I've set the thermostat up from 72 to 76, which isn't uncomfortable but is warmer than we'd like around here. We'll see how many nights we can (literally) sweat it out before we give up and just foot the high bill.

2 Comments:

Blogger StargazerGirl said...

Your 68 degree house was friggin cold too.

6:55 PM  
Blogger De said...

We don't have central air conditioning. Using fans, we're able to keep things between 78-80.

Check your appliances to ensure they're not energy vampires. Anything that has an onboard clock or an ever-present light is sucking electricity while it sits there. Use a surge strip or just unplug them when not in use.

Also, you may want to put your TV, game systems, DVD player, et al. on a surge strip and switch it off when not in use. Of course, you'll need to keep the DVR on a separate plug so it can record stuff.

Yeah, I know all of this is a pain but it will help keep the electricity bill down if you're married to having a 72 degree house.

9:22 AM  

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