Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to GREEDY S.O.B. OIL COMPANIES

Another way to look at your problem
Larry J — (archived)

This isn't meant as a fisking. I'm just replying to your points one by one.

With the coming of the heating season here in the NE, I really don't know how our family is gonna keep warm with the price of heating oil and natuarl gas skyrocketing.

Yeah, supply and demand is a bitch, isn't it? For years, global demand for energy has been increasing faster than supply. Ever hear what happens when someone wants to increase supply by drilling for oil or natural gas? The NIMBY crowd comes out screaming, "You can't drill here!" We haven't built a new refinery in over 20 years, offshore drilling has been limited in several areas like Florida and the west coast, we've instituted "designer blends" for gasoline (reportedly over 40 different formulations) that hamper supply, and yet people complain when the price goes up. Go figure.

Thought about a wood burning stove, but local ordinaces make you jump thru hoops just to put one in.....Dittto for solar and other ways......

Once again, a certain segment is behind those restrictions and you can rest assured it isn't the oil companies. Wood stoves can be pretty polluting but some come with catalytic converters to reduce emissions. As for restrictions on solar, I can only guess who'd be behind that. It's possible that might not be a very good solution in the NE anyway, but I'd hate for artifical restrictions to prohibit people from trying to be more energy efficient.

Fearful of spending up to 1/3 more on a heating season, and turning the thermostat down will not work, for we have seniors in the house and any drop in temp will only result in a trip to the doc for treatment of an ailment.

anybody in same boat or any ideas on how to beat 'ol man winter?

Senior citizens are more vulnerable to hypothermia, so turning down the thermostat could be dangerous if taken too far. Back in 1980 and 81, I spent the winters in Nebraska. Let me tell you, that place gets damned cold! I rented a small house and lived by myself. The first winter, I tried to save energy by keeping the thermostat around 55-60 degrees. To keep warm, I used an electric blanket at night and dressed warmly inside. It wasn't fun. The second winter, I raised the thermostat to 68 in the day and lowered it to about 65 at night. My energy bill was virtually the same despite the second winter being much more severe than the first.

You could possibly lower the thermostat to 65-68 in the day and encourage the older folks to dress warmly. Wearing warm socks and a knit cap does wonders to conserve body heat. On sunny days, open the curtains to let the sun shine in. That can help a great deal in warming a house. Here in Colorado, the sun can actually make my house uncomfortably warm even on the coldest days, but the sun is more intense here than at sea level.

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