Comments on: Eco-quandary: Staying warm and saving energy

By: Saving on winter heat « Cheap Like Me

Saving on winter heat « Cheap Like Me — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:43:59 +0000

[...] the morning and evening, 64 during the day and 58 at night (55 just felt too frigid). We do love our electric blankets, and I use a space heater in my office as [...]

By: cheaplikeme

cheaplikeme — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:17:43 +0000

Thanks Fred. Check the comments, I did update there.

By: Fred The SEO Guru

Fred The SEO Guru — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:43:07 +0000

This is a great article. I like this article because of it puts emphasis on how to get yourself warm. You might want to check your wattages again. I just used 400kwh electricity last month. I think you meant your electric blanket uses 100 to 200 Watts, and your space heaters are 600 to 1200 watts an hour.

By: Heat and heating update « Cheap Like Me

Heat and heating update « Cheap Like Me — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:47:11 +0000

[...] 21, 2007 by cheaplikeme Back in October, I reported on my new stay-warm strategy for this winter. After a reader commented to tell me I got my units of measurement wrong (doh!), I thought it might [...]

By: cheaplikeme

cheaplikeme — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:19:33 +0000

You’re right, that would be WATTS of energy (I guess if I had a 200-kilowatt electric blanket, I’d better not be so cold!). You can tell I’m no electrician (just ask my electrician).

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:06:16 +0000

You might want to check your wattages again. According to my last electric bill I used 460kwh for the month. That works out to an electric load of .633kw(633 watts) an hour average for the month. I think you meant your electric blanket uses 100 to 200 Watts, and your space heaters are 600 to 1200 watts an hour.

A 20amp, 120v circuit can only carry 2400 watts (and actually by code, is only allowed to carry 80% of that, so 1920 watts, which is 1.920kw).

I have a 1950′s brick capecod also, and my wife is always whinning about being cold. We aren’t quite as stringent with the thermostat. I keep it at 67 in the morning, 68 during the day for my wife and kids when they are up, 67 when I get back home, and 63 at night. Our kids’ room has a 1200w oilfilled space heater that keeps their room at 72 degrees all the time.

With all of that, during the same period, we used 83 CCF’s of natural gas (about $103).

By: Keef

Keef — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:50:25 +0000

I just bought myself a fancy space heater and it’s fantastic. My house got so cold last year I had to wear a hat to sleep, so I don’t really want to go through that again. Anyway, I love it and it loves me and everyone is happy.

I like the hot water bottle idea. I use Nalgene bottles and throw them at the bottom of my sleeping bag, but I haven’t tried them at home.

There’s always hot cocoa, too!

By: Brigid

Brigid — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:54:58 +0000

Hot water bottles! My mother grew up in an unheated house in Ireland, and when I was growing up in Indiana, we kept the heat in our house low. But every night we fixed hot water bottles and put them between the sheets before going to bed, to keep things nice and warm. Don’t use boiling water, especially if you’re fixing it for a kid, and wrap it in a towel if it still feels too hot. If you have a good heap of blankets, it will stay warm until morning.