My Heat

[asterroc]

As you may or may not recall, I pay just over $200/month for my gas heat bill, but electric heat is free. I must have the heat on if it drops below 24ºF out - under that temperature, a space heater is insufficient to keep my bedroom warm enough for Gabe and I. The bedroom can survive higher but still cold temperatures, but the rest of the house will be cold - if it's under something like 40ºF out, without the gas heater the rest of the house will be under 65º, the point at which my fingers are numb when typing.

Now that this week is in the 50's and 60's, it's time to decide whether to shut the heat off. What do you think?

[Poll #955499]

Comments

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

Can you not turn it back on?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

The problem is that I don't have the tools or skills for turning it on or off, my landlord does it. It takes him some 5-15 minutes to turn the valve to turn the heat off, and around 30 minutes to turn it on and light it - with the related risks of having it spew out gas for a while before the light gets lit - ever hear the phrase "canary in a coal mine"? Plus it's hard to get ahold of my landlord to do all this in the first place.

Past years I've erred on the side of keeping the heat on longer than I should, rather than worrying about having to turn it back on.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Have you considered buying another couple of space heaters? They cost a lot less than $200.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I have three space heaters. My apartment has I think five different circuits, only three of which are able to handle large currents. I know this from tripped circuits (that circuit breaker is in the basement which I can't get to) and burnt out GFCI outlets. One of those three has all my office/living room electronics on it and a low power heater. A second is in my bedroom and has a space heater on when it's below 40. The third is in the dining room and has a 20' extension cord so I can put a second space heater in my bedroom when it does drop to the 20's.

Two space heaters runing on high in my bedroom makes it tolerable in the high 20's. I can only physically run three space heaters in the house, and three are not sufficient to heat the rest of the house, despite covering half the windows with plastic insulation.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Ah. Now it makes sense.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I chose the NE one, even though by virtue of it being NE, my answer has only a 50% chance of being right.