What? Who said anyone should be the same as me? I’m just relaying how I feel. For the record, you and anyone else are free to have their own opinions. That’s why I put this thread in a forum entitled “In My Humble Opinion”. Okay?
What if
a) you can’t afford the move or
b) you are already living in the smallest or most energy efficient house?
Hell, let’s turn this on its head. I have lived in many apartments in my life. At times I lived in apartments that were not insulated very well. Well, I could break my lease and find a new place or I could just suck it up for a year or two and add a sweater.
Also not everyone can afford prgrammable thermostats. I only have one because the old one broke and I rent, so the landlord switched it.
It’s naive of you to think that everyone can just pick up and move when need be. Moving is a big deal, even for two people. I’ve moved more than 30 times in my life and in my adult life, when I had the choice and was trying to move as little as possible, I’ve still moved about 6 times or so. And that was just too people. Imagine if you have two little kids. I hate moving.
What you would do isn’t relevant to the question you were originally asking. It comes across as you being dismissive of people who value things different than yourself. It’s also rude and presumptuous to suggest those who prefer to save money by not heating their house should uproot their lives to accommodate that fact. What if they’re already living in a small apartment? Should they move to a box? Or maybe they could move in with you?
Okay. I’m not sure why you are so angry about my opinion. But again, for the record, I am only saying how I feel, and not how others should feel. If any of my sentences are not prefaced with “I would” or “*I *feel”, please imagine that they are. You are free to heat or not heat your house, as you please.
Programmable thermostats can be had for $30 and they come with self installation instructions. You can quite literally save the cost of the thermostat within the first month if it’s a high energy use month for your area.
The thread Alice referred to in the OP they were asking about using the oven to warm up their house and no one even hesitated to suggest prime rib, turkey or other large meat dishes so I suspect that a cultural hangup or habit from childhood is more likely responsible than the cost of turning on the furnance.
Exactly. It didn’t even occur to me until brought up in this thread that it could be the cost that prohibits the “principle” people from turning on their heat before a certain day in the calendar, because the OP of the CS thread explicitly said that they refuse to turn on the heat until next week.
I’m not angry. I just think your opinion is rude and presumptive.
Oh, that’s cool, I really didn’t know it was that cheap. In that case, EVERYONE should have one! They are awesome and the best thing ever.
For the record, I have never turned on the oven to warm up the house (what on earth would be the point?) I have, however, been happy to bake things in the winter as the house will be warmed up…
My college dorm did something like this. You couldn’t turn the heat or air conditioning in your room on before a certain date.
I have made it quite clear to Mr. Neville that keeping the house at an uncomfortable temperature is NOT an acceptable way to save money or energy. Neither of us can sleep if it’s colder than about 65 F (even with blankets), so we’re not really tempted to do that in the winter anyway. In the summer, he knows that if I’m inside and sweating when I’m not exerting myself, it’s too hot and we are going to turn on the AC.
I don’t do it out of principle, I do it because money is always tight. Within reason, I’d rather put on another layer of clothes than turn the heating on/up, especially as things gradually cool for winter. We’ve not got the heating on yet - I’ll feel a sense of achievement if we make it to November without starting it.
I have a constant battle with my family on saving money by not wasting power - they’ll say things like “don’t turn off the light/TV - I’m coming back in a minute!” - and they’ll be gone 20 minutes, so I do turn it off - I don’t understand why they even think it needs to stay on.
I was one of the people who mentioned not being willing to turn on the heat yet. I don’t do it on any principle unless that principle is “Screw you old man winter!”
We can afford to heat the house, but I grew up poor and I am definitely indoctrinated with the “put on a sweater” and “don’t be a wuss, it’s only 60 in here” mindset.
It’s a bit of a game for the husband and me. How long can we go without turning on the heat?
And this is the crux of it, too. I stay at my SO’s parents’s house and they have the heat set to 70 or so at night…and I can’t sleep. It’s too damn hot. I have an incredibly hard time sleeping when it’s hot. Ours runs at 60 at night, and sure it’s cold if you get out of bed and have to go pee, but i sleep like a baby because it’s just the right temperature.
I agree with the OP, that if you can afford it, there really is no reason to make yourself miserable like the other thread, and turn on the oven instead of the heat to warm up.
I do understand, however, how many people do it because money is tight. I’ve been there.
Mangetout, this is what autoshutoff switches were made for. Best. Thing. Ever. (Besides the programmable thermostat.
depends on where you live. and if you have to go outdoors much.
if you live where the winter is cold (snow, ice, frozen ground) then if you get all wimpy now then you will have a miserable winter. you need to face the cooling temperature now and let your body acclimate, it might be uncomfortable for a number of days over a few weeks transition, but it will pay off in the end.
same in summer with teaching your body to sweat. if you live in AC and go out on a hot day and have to stay outside for a while you risk heat exhaustion if you don’t train yourself to take the heat.
having indoor climate control is nice sometimes but we do live on the earth.
Ha! As the person who started the thread mentioned in the OP, I’ll gladly explain myself in more detail.
It’s about 50% this:
In the past week our weather went from being almost perfect to cold and rainy in about a day. I can accept that summer is over (I actually really enjoy fall) but I was really hoping for a few more weeks of sunny mid-70s days and crisp 60-degree nights. I’m just not ready to give in to the encroaching damp yet!
The rest is mostly practical: The forecast has the weather warming up in the next couple days. We have an old hot water radiator system that will take a couple days to heat the thermal mass of the house up anyway, so there’s no sense in turning it on if it’s not going to stay damp and cool for longer than that anyway. Also, I somewhat exaggerated how cold it’s been in the house. It’s been hovering around the mid-60’s, which is actually about where we set the heat in the winter. It just feels cold because I’m used to summer weather. Also, heating oil IS pretty expensive.
Incidentally, I got the upstairs up to almost 70 by simply cooking a chicken, which is something I might have done anyway (air flows from our kitchen straight up the steps).
I have split-AC units in all the rooms in my apt and basically run them year round. Just inhumanly hot & humid here all year – 'cept for a few night in Dec/Jan. Supposedly ‘autumn’ now and my thermometer tells me it’s 89.7 with 72% humidity outdoors. The inverter tech of my units really does help bring the energy bill down as opposed to the conventional ones I had before, but in any case, I’d rather spend my money being comfortable at home than broiling in order to save for some resort-trip or expensive weekend outings. Which is what some people tell me when I visit their homes, see the AC is off and watch them sweating away. Needless to say, I don’t stay long.
Different priorities I guess…
I try and delay turning on the heat as long as possible, not because I’m poor but because I’m cheap. In the winter the thermostat is set to 60 and if you need to be warmer then that I have blankets and jackets. I’m much better then I used to be, when I was single, where I would wait until my nose hurt sticking out of the blankets I was wrapped in, some where around 45 or so.
I live in a house without an AC and only a swamp cooler in one bedroom so in the summer if it’s too hot you’re screwed. I’ve slept with a bag of ice on the back of my neck before I figured out how to get the swamp cooler running. I don’t get people who waste money on minor things like temperature control.
I have a great temperature control, called my finger! When I’m cold, I turn the heat on. When I’m hot, I turn the cool on.
Part of the reason I do indulge this comfiness is that I spent many years trying very hard not to spend money on heat and AC, and it was never, ever, worth the few bucks it saved; it just was never a significatn savings.
So fark it. I’mma gonna be comfy 
Now, if I ever owned a house, or even rented one for a significant length of time, I’d invest in weatherstripping and insulation and all that; no need to waste money out of laziness. But as I am usually in apartments or condos where I’m not allowed to alter anything, pfft.
Right now we’re in a house, rented from ex- in-laws. And the electricity bill is, somehow, about the same or maybe LESS than what we paid at the tiny condo we were at before. I can’t figure that one out.
Hello, yes, thank you! I’m unemployed, and currently living off the dregs of my IRA. (The one that was supposed to provide for my retirement, insert hysterical laughter here.) I don’t use A/C or heat. Ever.
(I also don’t entertain or host! Well, duh!)
You do realize that this started because of people who would not turn on the heat/air because it was not time yet, not because they could not afford it?
That makes your opinion retarded.
My TV takes a minute or two to boot, so for a SHORT pause, it really is more of a pain to turn it off and back on.