What do you....

Same with ours and we're paying half as much... wtf.

With a hot tub and a girl scared of the dark.

Like I said, it's Maryland:

Salary in Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick MD:
$70,000
Comparable salary in Tampa FL:
$51,847.97

If you move from Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick MD to Tampa FL...

Groceries will cost: 8.452% less
Housing will cost: 48.583% less
Utilities will cost: 23.616% less
Transportation will cost: 9.674% less
Healthcare will cost: 14.224% less
 
I prefer the air temp to be as cool/cold as possible when I go to sleep. Then I just pile on more blankets.
 
I leave my ceiling fan on almost year round. Only a couple months in the dead of winter do I shut it off. It helps a lot to recirculate the cool air in summer (or in my case the warm muggy air) and the heat in the winter.
 
space heaters and fans, m'dear.

They run on electricity too. Space heaters are actually energy hogs. We don't mind the bill so much. I just look at other people's complaints and think they are funny. Still, it's the price we pay for living here, and we love living here, so it's totally worth it to us. Ohio was soooo much cheaper, but really, who wants to live in Ohio except some frogs we know?
 
pre-kids, we kept it fairly uncomfortable just to save the money. with kids though, especially since they don't keep the blankets on at night, you have to keep it pretty consistent.

i figured if you turned down the heat and used a space heater in the room you were in, it'd be cheaper.
 
get a programmable thermostat, they're easy to install if you have some electrical know-how, and are alot more energy efficient.

in the winter mine's 68 at night and when i'm at work, 72 when i wake up and get ready for work, and 70 when i'm home at night.

in the summer it's 70 in the morning/at night when i'm home, and 73 during the day and at night.

some other energy tips:
replace your 10-15 year old AC/Heater with something newer that's hellaciously more energy efficient. they really will pay for themselves with the savings.

use those new low wattage lightbulbs. it's simply common sense.

walk around your house with a candle on a windy day to find all the drafts and fix them (usually window sills and doors). Drafts can make your house lose something like 30% efficiency... that hurts.

put new/more insulation in your attic. the stuff is cheap at home depot, doesn't take much time or effort to shove it up there.

keep your fridge full. seriously, refridgerators are one of the highest energy users in your home, and they're much more efficient if full... keeping a pitcher or two of water in your fridge can make it much more efficient.

also thorn bird, on the subject of space heaters... i'm not to sure those are much more energy efficient since usually your central heating is on gas which is much much more efficient than the electricity your space heater runs on... especially since space heaters usually draw 10 amps which is an ungodly amount. however, as far as AC can go, low profile high efficiency window units don't use much energy at all and can cool a bedroom or something very well (i actually use this method... keep my room cold and let the rest of the house heat up a bit). you also don't want your house getting to hot though, the moisture/heat is bad for it.

look for a high EF rating when buying AC's and what not, the higher the EF rating, the more efficient it is.


i work for a "green" company, as in, we go around making commercial/industrial buildings alot more energy efficient in the name of saving lots of money. while i'm on the fire/security side and not the energy side, i still know quite a bit about it just because it's the nature of the business. we do quite a bit of stuff to make buildings more energy efficient, but replacing old AC/Heating units with new ones and replacing lighting with new low wattage efficient bulbs are probably how we acheive 80% of the cost savings when making a building "green". These are things you can also do in a residential home very easily.
 
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We could probably save a few shekels by replacing our furnace and A/C unit. Unfortunately, it'd an all-in-one compact unit with the furnace, forced air unit, and A/C all in one and will cost over $5000.

The other problem is that our front door leaks air like an open window. You can actually see light around some of the edges-- it's that bad. The problem here is that it's a non-standard size door, so we either have to pony up big monies for a custom door, or have the doorframe modified to fit a standard size.

/edit: Oh, and we recently replaced our old thermostat (it was fitted with the latest in "what the fuck temperature is it" technology) with a nifty little electronic job. Now we actually know what temperature it is. It's novel.
 
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We are using them, but I really wonder about these new lightbulbs and if they are really more environmentally friendly. They've been getting a lot of bad press recently. Sure, they save money for the individual, but what is their overall environmental impact? I worry myself with these things. I'm waiting for LED bulbs to become better and cheaper.
 
We are using them, but I really wonder about these new lightbulbs and if they are really more environmentally friendly. They've been getting a lot of bad press recently. Sure, they save money for the individual, but what is their overall environmental impact? I worry myself with these things. I'm waiting for LED bulbs to become better and cheaper.

I haven't thought about the evrio impact, but I HATE flourescent light - gives me headaches and isn't bright enough.

I too, am waiting for the LEDs to get cheaper.
 
I haven't thought about the evrio impact, but I HATE flourescent light - gives me headaches and isn't bright enough.

I too, am waiting for the LEDs to get cheaper.

I was afraid of the flourescent lightbulbs too. Fluorescents tend to cause migraine, which I suffer from badly (about 3-4 days a week). I finally switched because I care more about the environment than I do about my own health and it honestly isn't that bad. It's not like office lights or industrial lights. The compact fluorescents just don't seem to be as harsh on the flickering (which is what generally causes headaches for people). Also, now you can get them in bright white, soft white and full spectrum, so your choices are as wide as they are for incandescents. In my home I don't notice a difference in brightness anymore.
 
compact fluorescents definitely give off a much higher quality of light than the old office fluorescents.

IBWIP: there are tons of different types of weather stripping you can get to make the door seal without having to replace it.
 
CFLs do contain trace amounts of mercury. Most places that sell the lights should also take the old ones back for proper recycling. Also getting higher quality CFLs means better components when compared to the cheap models, thus longer use.
 
I was afraid of the flourescent lightbulbs too. Fluorescents tend to cause migraine, which I suffer from badly (about 3-4 days a week). I finally switched because I care more about the environment than I do about my own health and it honestly isn't that bad. It's not like office lights or industrial lights. The compact fluorescents just don't seem to be as harsh on the flickering (which is what generally causes headaches for people). Also, now you can get them in bright white, soft white and full spectrum, so your choices are as wide as they are for incandescents. In my home I don't notice a difference in brightness anymore.

Nope, I've tried 'em - and I hate 'em :fly:
 
I can't 'set' my thermostat at anything. It's a piece of shit. It will overcool or overheat the apartment, so I basically turn it on when I'm uncomfortable and turn it off again when I'm...uncomfortable.