Still warm here, but damn humid. Sheets are wet when we go to bed.
Holding on.

Even though its not horribly cold, the landlord fired up the boiler NG boiler yesterday. Im sure after a winter of this he'll jack up the rent a bit to cover the cost of heating. Still, you gotta love radiator heat....although its hardly efficient, its a nice heat which doesnt dry out your skin.

Yes. Gas is included in my rent so it doesn't make any differene whether I use it or not.

-A

Well, we did turn on the oven a few minutes last week, but no, I haven’t cleaned the mud-dabbers out of the forced-air yet.

My goal is not to move the thermostat off "off" this winter.

But we've only been to 30F so far...

We broke down and turned the oil-fired boiler on a couple of days ago with the temp set at 64 during the day and 60 at night. It's been raining for weeks and the outside temp mornings has been averaging about 40 degrees, but the inside of the house had not dropped below 50 degrees. We have been missing out on the passive solar due to the rain and the dampness contributes to discomfort.

My husband works from home sitting at a computer all day. Extra layers of clothing help but don't do much to warm up the fingers. He won't go for the Bob Cratchet gloves and won't wear a hat in the house. I guess we all have our limits.

We purchased two space heaters and hope they will take the curse off the cooler rooms. I am also making quilted window coverings.

I fired the electric heaters at the beginning of last week..I'm kinda in the north (Quebec Province of Canada),so no big surprise here !

It seem that we got from summer to winter in less than 2 weeks ..

Schneider
French-Canadian

No way. You're spoiled. Quebec has the greatest autumn season in the world.

Normally,i would agree..but it seem different this year ! We got a looooong summer,with weird behavior at the end of it (very cold weater,than great sun the day after) ,then,we got or cold or/and rain since..

I miss the walk under the colored trees ...

Schneider
French-Canadian

Huh. I'm not the only one with wallboard heaters. Best part is that we pay a separate $.03/kwh for heating.

I live in a huge apartment complex, so it really hasn't gotten below 60 degrees, yet. Being a cheap college student, I'm OK with setting the thermostat to 62 degrees; my roommate is, too.

You'd also be suprised how much just electronics, cooking, turning lights on at night, and generating 100 watts of thermal yourself can heat up an 800 sq. ft. apartment. It's been getting below 40 F on a regular basis here for a while, and today was the first time I turned on the heat.

We're probably going to spend less than $3.00 on heating this month!

Another fellow Quebecois !? If yes,i would be more than glad to chat more with you..just send me your email or msn account on Private Message !

Schneider
French-Canadian

Not yet here in upstate NY but was tempted today when it started snraining sideways. We have been burning wood for about a week now because it's been a bit nippy but my goal is to wait until at least mid November before spinning the meter.

It's the dampness that makes it feel so cold. It's been raining a lot, I live a few hundred feet from the ocean and with the large trees and the side of the hill I get no sun until march.

Woodcutter,

if I were closer, I'd take one of those woodstoves off your hands .

GrannyMay,

I've been trying to make myself pull out the sewing machine and make some window quilts too. I keep running out of days, though, and getting the outside critters ready for winter has been my top priority. How are you doing yours? Like little mini quilts? I have tons of scrap fabric, so I'll probably just dig into my box and see what I can come up with.

Schneider,


I said the same thing to my husband the other day. We barely had a spring - straight from winter into summer, and now we've barely had a fall. We were at record heat just a couple weeks ago (in the 90F range) and this morning we had a freeze. It's just crazy.

Kathy

Before the past 10 years I could count on a killing frost by Oct 15. No more. Global warming is real. It is now Oct 26, and only once has the temp dropped to 39. I also use passive solar heat, so NO extra heating will be used for at least another month.

In 1996, when we build a new house, I intentionally picked a lot that that let the long back side of the house face south. With most of the windows on that side I installed a louver patio cover/ sun shade with the fixed louvers angled to 21 degrees, the height of the sun above the horizon around Dec 1. When the sun gets higher on June 21 it completely blocks the sun (read lower A/C costs) and as winter appoaches I get passive solar heat. It costs nothing to operate, and saves both heating and A/C costs.

As a result we typically don't fire up the gas furnace until late November, with the exception of a string of cloudy days.

And I thought I would set the record for putting up with 60 F. Bah...

Be careful about your pipes, though. A lot of folks say you should keep your thermostat above 55 to make sure the pipes don't freeze. As bad as the cost of natural gas is, the cost of a pipe exploding on you is going to be bigger.


Sorry. I'm from Illinois.