Has anyone had to turn on the furnace yet?

[dietzamom]

It's getting pretty chilly at night, but so far we have not turned on the furnace. We are trying to get through at least October before we turn it on.

We haven't even used the fireplace yet! Saving the wood for really cold nights. I hope this helps bring down our energy costs!

[kate42]

It's starting to get chilly and I'm tempted.

I'm trying to hold out until November 1st, though. Scared to death of heating costs this year.

Bundle up, mama!

[mom2alexandcalynn]

noooooo, :LOL we just bundle up and wear like a sweater and double in layers. we try to hold off, so we dont have to waste our oil b/c we dont have a lot of money. we also have our flannel sheets on and our quilts and we ALL have one. they are nice and thick and you dont freeze in the morning which is great.

[becca011906]

NO WAY, well even if i wanted to we wouldn't be able to. bc we don't have any gas in our tank yet, b/c we still owe on the last tank that has been gone since may. we plan to get it filled this week when we get our insurance check from a break in, but i still refuse to turn it on till nov 1 then it won't be set over 65 at the highest, i have the kids in heavy jamies and 3 blanket on their beds and my youngest cosleeps so she stays pretty warm all night. we have turned on an electric space heater last night just to keep it above 60 in here. Oh i'm so worried about gas this year... me and dh are going to look into a wood burner when we get the insurance $ also.

[CarolynnMarilynn]

We turned it on this morning as it was 7 celsius outside and the inside was a bit chilly at 17 celsius (about 64 far.). I am a wimp for enduring cold.

Saying that, my son was running around in his skivvies and said he was just a bit cold, but no, he didn't want any clothes on :LOL

DD is like me: she gets cold when there is more than a slight breeze. We have a gas furnace, but a small home, and so the cost isn't too great. I will turn it off in a bit and let the house settle again until tomorrow a.m. if it is still cold then.

[jenoline]

LOL!!! i just had to turn the A/C back on (which i was fighting mightily, but it was just too humid & sticky)! I live in NC...fall hasn't quite reached us here, although it's trying. It's easy to forget how different temps can be in different parts of the country.

[nwaddellr]

We haven't had to yet, but I fully expect to in the next week. Fall weather has definitely hit, and its supposed to be cold (40-low 50s) and rainy for a while and while our house does a good job holding on to heat, if there's no sun it's going to get cold soon.

[Meli65]

Today was the first day I've been tempted -- it was 65 in the house and damp and chilly.

Sheesh, I am dreading this winter. We have a new baby (born in June) and I don't know how cold I can/should keep the house.

[UUMom]

I was aggravated because it's been so sticky and humid here, I had to turn the AC on to dry the place out yesterday.

I should not complain...MA winters are sooooooo loong.

[momto l&a]

We have been using our wood heat most everyday since mid September.

I dont like to be cold and being our wood heat is cheap I figure why not.

[snuggly mama]

We turned it on Oct. 1, just for a few hours. Since it was 61 in the house, I figured I had to give in! Shopping for comforters, flannel sheets and warm jammies this weekend, though

[dietzamom]

52 degrees in the house is about all I can stand. Heat is still not on, but the fireplace is burning the wood that we cut this summer from dead trees in our yard.

That goes back to being a kid too! Luckily our house was weird and the fireplace was inside, not on an outside wall and it was all brick. Couldn't even touch it, it would burn you. Kept us plenty warm, especially when we ran out of oil.

I still can't sleep in a house that is too warm, so 52 degrees with flannels and layered wool blankets keeps us snuggly. Generally, my daughter pops into our bed to keep warm and she is a heater all by herself!

[Village Mama]

Weve had ours on for a week... but I am on the west coast of Canada! It has gone down to freezing temps a couple of nights the past week.... we tried to hold off, but its our only form of heat. We put plastic up on all of the windows already though and that saves us a huge amount of oil in this ol drafty house.

[oldcrunchymom]

We are very, very lucky so far. It has been unseasonably warm here and we haven't had to turn on the heat once yet. I'm hoping to make it through to Nov 1 but that's probably wishful thinking. We have electric heat and our bills are SO high in the winter.

[judybean]

We've had ours on... for probably most of September actually. It's dropped into freezing often and just on Tuesday we had a HUGE winter storm that knocked out power to much of the town. I figure it's okay to turn on the furnace when it's snowing.

Gotta love WY weather. But at least we got our storm windows up and our swamp cooler winterized before that. We don't have all the plastic up yet though. We need to do that with our original-to-our-1942-house windows.

We have a natural gas heater, so I'm totally worried about the cost of gas this winter. At least last winter we replaced our furnace (as it was original to the house as well... this is So Much More efficient!)... and right now we're on budget billing so our bill is the same all year long... that's nice when it comes to winter-time and sky-high costs. Hopefully we don't end up paying the difference (if it comes to be more) at the end of our budget year!

[late-night nan]

We were tempted yesterday, too, but I put on a thick wool sweater and pulled out the wooly socks and slippers. I keep thinking, "just like the British"! :LOL

[umami_mommy]

last night be had a generator ordeal.... we lost power (no bad weather, it just randomly went out) and figured we should do a test run on the generator. we had some issues but finally figured out the whoel thing and power was back on by 8:30 and everything was fine. except is was a bit nippy in the house. 60 degrees nippy.

so i suggested to cheapie lp that we turn the heat on a bit. he looked at me weird and said "it's a bit early for that dontcha think?" which it is not, since by late sept. we usually have had it on a few times already. which we havent' this year. so i shrug, go in the attic, get the space heater, set it up in the bedroom and ds and i go to sleep with 3 layers of blankets and the space heater turned to low.

he comes to bed at some late hour and at about 3:30 i hear him get up and open the heat vent in the BR. "what's wrong honey?" "i'm freezing!! i turned the heat on." :LOL

and it's still on. it's cold inside because it's so windy out. stupid farmers cut all the trees down and then the county turns into a tundra. burrrr....

BUT we haven't frosted yet, which is very weird.

[Alkenny]

I turned it on briefly this morning just to take the chill out of here...it got down to 35, was only about 55 in the house. Brr!

[CarolynnMarilynn]

Originally Posted by lckrause

We are very, very lucky so far. It has been unseasonably warm here and we haven't had to turn on the heat once yet. I'm hoping to make it through to Nov 1 but that's probably wishful thinking. We have electric heat and our bills are SO high in the winter.

Heya -- have you seen those oil-filled radiators that are electric? The idea is that the oil in the rads (sealed, don't leak) get heated up by the electric element and then the element shuts off for a while (thus saving electricity) and the oil radiates the heat for awhile. These saved our butt when we had electric heat. They are especially suited to smaller areas, like indidual rooms. You can even put your tootsies under then while you are sitting around. They are hot enough for a child to burn if they actually kept their hand there, but not super hot. My kids touched them once or twice, and didn't get a wound or a burnt spot, but it was hot enough to make them jump and stay away. There is a metal cage around them to avoid casual contact, btw. They are about $80-100 CAD.

[oldcrunchymom]

Originally Posted by CarolynnMarilynn

Heya -- have you seen those oil-filled radiators that are electric? The idea is that the oil in the rads (sealed, don't leak) get heated up by the electric element and then the element shuts off for a while (thus saving electricity) and the oil radiates the heat for awhile. These saved our butt when we had electric heat.

No, I haven't seen those! Can you just plug them into an outlet or what? Our house is tiny so they might work well for us. The electric baseboard heat kills us in the winter. Last year we fell behind on our bills because the electric was so high.