OT Weather

Send some of that heat to Michigan! ;-)

Kate in MI

Gotta pass on the ice tea but I'll take an ice cube or two in my Pepsi. gonna hit 74 ° today-made it to 73 ° yesterday. Fellas tilled the garden for me and today I start the planting of the peas, carrots, lettuce, 2 tomato plants (by request), corn, etc. Had a gecko watch teh entire procedings:) Now to get chicken wire to keep the rabbits out. Saw a coyote go around the neighbors house then down the middle of the road as if he owned it. Just as pretty as you please.

Butterfly (Butterfly For President)

just curious as we dont have either air-conditioning or central heating in the house, lol. we cope, so no worrys.... what is the range when you dont use either a/c or heating?

i heard Bush in his state of the union address say he wanted americans to cut their dependence on foreign fuel by 20%? in some time frame that i forget at the moment. i wonder if the temp range was expanded a few degrees either side of what is comfortable for folks now would that make a difference to the consumption of fuel? just curious. jeanne

Today's temp is low of 59 high of 76. Ahhhhhhhh Florida

...cut... to

We have a well insulated house and our central heating always goes off at 11 at night and then comes on an hour before we get up. It is programmed to go off midmorning and then come on again as it gets dusk, though if its a really cold day and we are at home we can over-ride that. Our home catches the sun all day, so that makes a difference, if the sun is out!

Also we wear a sweater (a light wool one not heavy and thick) during the winter, not tee-shirts and summer clothes.

Also here the advice given on energy saving, is to turn the heating down by just a degree or two - if everyone did it it would make a difference.

Really the insulation/double glazing/roof and wall insulation makes a tremendous difference.

Except for sustained REALLY hot or cold, I try to keep my house within 10F degrees of the outside and just wear heavier or lighter clothin, etc. The change from toasty warm to freezing when you go out or just open a door in winter just makes the difference more noticed, and is a great way to get a chill IMHO. Ceiling fans and air circulation with good insulation should keep a house comfortable most of the time. And yes - I know some of us have far greater extremes to deal with and therefore have to have different heating/cooling provisions.

It hit 115F here late last week and I did not even think to turn on the split system a/c. The house remained a comfortable 77F even at the hottest part of the day. Why would I want to drop the temp to 70F? The difference between the inside and outside made the interior feel cool. In winter it can be 45F outside, but if the interior temp is

55F during the day and maybe just a bit warmer when I am sitting at night (with a quilt over my knees of course! lol) that is pretty comfortable for me. When I go to bed at night in winter I drop the heating to the lowest setting (about 48F I think?) and I don't turn it up the next day until I feel cold - which sometimes isn't until the next night.

I have never understood why anyone would want to live in house with a constant temperature year round. Not criticizing - just commenting. Energy concerns will probably force all of us (or at least our children) to adjust our expectations in the not-too-distant-future anyway.

We just moved back to the high desert and it gets colder and hotter here than most So. Cal. areas. We probably aren't a good reference cause I don't run the heat or AC as much as most. During the day I am home alone and I just wear long underwear and layers. My house is well insulated with double pane windows and will stay decent until about 2 in the afternoon during the summer if I open the windows early and cool the house down then close it up. It might be uncomfortable a couple of hours in the afternoon but I just park with a book and a bowl of ice cream til it cools off for the day. When it is over 100' though I turn the AC on but usually only run it to 80 unless we have visitors. DS lives in San Diego a few blocks from the water and has turned his heat and ac on only a couple of times in several years. DH is big on efficient equipment so we have fairly new machines. Heater is natural gas. There is a set back thermostat too. Now the pool pump is a big fat waster of energy. I feel really bad about that. It sucks up about as much electric as the AC does. If I had it to do again I would not have put a pool in. Tough to take it back though. (and don't tell dh, he didn't want the thing to begin with) I grew up in OC (near Disneyland) and we didn't have AC and survived ok. There are so many variables. Lots of different climates in the country. Housing standards differ and can make a huge difference. I would guess the bigger problems is vehicle use. DS, the new cop has cited no less than 4 people that were going to lose their cars. (enough infractions and they can actually keep your car I guess) He says he is doing his part to cut fossil fuel use. Taria

nzlstar* wrote: