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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Space heaters

So remember how I said I love our oil heat despite the fact that it's expensive? Well, I still feel like it's a comfortable form of heat, but I'm liking it less and less now. A little while ago we got some oil for $485 (I know, it's a lot, but I thought it would last for a long time). Well guess what. $485 worth of oil lasted us one day less than a month. That's right. It cost us that much to heat our house using oil heat for less than a month.

And here's the kicker: we keep our thermostat set at 58 degrees. Because we wanted to conserve the oil. It's probably regularly in the low 60's, but it's set at 58. PLUS, for 8 days of the 29 that the oil lasted, we were at home visiting family for the holidays and had left the heat set at 50. So now we don't know what to do!! We can't pay $500 a month to heat the house, so we're trying out a couple space heaters...


...and we're going to see how things go.

We're also improvising :) Using forms of heat for warmth that we hadn't considered before!

I guess we'll keep you updated!

7 comments:

Dorothy said...

Oh no! Maybe you have a leak in the tank???

maggie said...

i'm so sorry! that is crazy! i recommend making lots of soups to keep you warm and def space heaters. I hope it gets better!

jennie said...

that is INSANE. i'm so sorry! ya'll are always welcome to spend a warm night in charlottesville!

Patty said...

Oh, I feel so badly. I would call the landlord and ask him to have the tank checked. I'm sure it's a combination of old windows, heat escaping, etc.

Catherine McPherson said...

Its a conspiracy!! Ours just went out too and it should have lasted into February! We woke up yesterday to a freezing house and no hot water...ugh! We only put 100 gallons in because it's so darn expensive...guess we'll get it checked monthly!

LA-jan said...

Is there no gauge on those tanks to know when you are getting low??

Elizabeth said...

yikes, that is ridiculous! i have a heating pad that i use for injuries that functions nicely to keep me warm ...maybe you could get some for when you're sitting around?