Darn Utilities... but we are winning!

Last month our gas bill was the highest we've ever had in this house. Then we got the power bill, it was over double normal. We couldn't figure out what happened. So our goal for the month was to really cut back hard and see if we can get them down. So here's what we did for gas, it provides our heat, hot water, and dryer. We started by reprogramming the thermostad. It already lowers at night and kicks back on before we wake up and then kicks off again while we are at school, but we went ahead and lowered it 2degrees during the day and 3 at night. We put an extra blanket on the bed, wear hoddies more, and put Garrison in a sleep sack over his pjs. We went through the house checking for air leaks and sealed a few as well as put new weather stripping on the front door. We started washing all of our clothes in cold water (except sheets-hot to kill dust mites, diapers-hot, and whites-warm). We also turned down our hot water heater, started rinsing dishes in cold (the dishwasher washes them in hot why waste hot water rinsing), taking slightly shorter showers, and just generally trying to conserve water. We hang dry all our clothes in the basement except whites and diapers, there are just too many little things to hand, and diapers would take forever to dry. These changes really weren't enough that we noticed. They really were pretty small. BUT today we got our gas bill and we cut it by over a third even though January was colder than December. I'm pretty stoked to actually see a difference. The power bill hasn't come yet be we already figured out where the problem was on that. Justen used to unplug Tias heat mat and the sheep water tank heaters on warm days and at night. Well, in Decemeber he left them on the entire month. So we know power will be better just from that, but we've also made a few little changes there and we shall see how it goes. Isn't it nice when you see results from something you do. We are not only getting our bills down, but we are conserving energy which is always a good thing.