So I am still freezing my buns. But a look at my latest gas bill will indicate that I haven’t been freezing my buns too much. For the month of January we used 66 ccf and in December we used 53 ccf. This translates into 54.33 and 67.65 therms respectively. Since I am also rioting, these numbers are very close to what the average American consumes at 83 therms. The riot goal is 1 therm (base being per month). Why are our numbers so high? I have some ideas.
1. We live in a house with two floors. This is alot of space to be heating up even if we turn on the heat once or twice a week for a few hours. This is not by design. We needed to move quick last year when the pipes in our old apartment froze for more than 1 week. We took over a lease that someone else was breaking. And we just stayed here as the place is fairly inexpensive. But we will be moving in a few months to a small space with a short term lease.
2. We live in a drafty house. While we’ve plugged every leak, there may a few we missed. And we have single paned windows.
3. We have friends over and we like them to be comfortable when at our place. So during these occasions we turn on the heat for more than a few hours.
4. We have long showers in hot water and do dishes in hot water. Hot water is heated with gas.
I don’t know if we can reduce this consumption any further. I’ll try to be a bit more conscious. But I am a bit sick of this winter.
