Just got my first gas bill. Wow.

[ramnj]

With a programable thermostat, what are you guys setting it at? I'm single and just bought a townhouse that is 920 sq feet and would like to reduce my first bill as much as possible.

[tahiti]

couple of things:

get on the equal payment plan, but since you don't have a history, they may not be able to do it. i get re-valed every 6 months, it just happened and I went up $10/mo. if you have a positive balance after 6 mos they'll take that amount off the next couple of bills until you start at zero again.

we have a programmable therm too - during the week it's 60/day, 64/night. weekends i think it's 64 all day/night. our last bill (actual) was $440 - give or take 3000 sq ft, including finished part of basement.

i work at home and lock myself in the office with a small $10 heater fan. mona - get one from Lowe's, turn your thermostat down, and run it. the room will warm up. also, it's completely white trash, but get plastic that you put over the windows and use the hair dryer to shrinkwrap it. i am all ready to do this, but my DH absolutely refuses.

[todd72173]

Originally Posted by tahiti

couple of things:

i work at home and lock myself in the office with a small $10 heater fan. mona - get one from Lowe's, turn your thermostat down, and run it. the room will warm up. also, it's completely white trash, but get plastic that you put over the windows and use the hair dryer to shrinkwrap it. i am all ready to do this, but my DH absolutely refuses.

I have 2 heater fans as well and also shrinkwrap my windows. Still, my bill was $450 last month. I too have a finished basement..I keep mine at 70 deg though with the kids home all day. Windows need replacement and 30 YR furnace needs to be replaced.

[billb7581]

Dont get a piece of junk Hunter thermostat, get a Honeywell vision pro, or something similar that has logic built into it to most efficiently heat your house to your liking.

For example mine is set to come on no more than 3 times per hour, and doesn't overshoot the setpoint by several degrees, and "learns" to come on early enough in advance of when I get home that the house is already warm when I walk in the door.

When noone's here I set it to 50. Who cares? noone's here!

[monack]

I think we're also going to look into the cost of a programmable thermostat.

[Irish Eyes]

I have a Honeywell too - 60 at night, 63 during the day, 68 for a couple of hours in the evening. I bought an electric heater for the bathroom. Wow, is a tile floor cold.

[ramnj]

Originally Posted by billb7581

Dont get a piece of junk Hunter thermostat, get a Honeywell vision pro, or something similar...

Went to Lowe's and could not find a Honeywell "Vision Pro". They all had model numbers, but no name.

Do you know the model number?

Thanks,