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The latest gas bill had an unpleasant surprise. Not just more money, a lot more money, $270. And not just from running heat more. Symmetry Energy's gas procurement charge jumped from $1.55/therm to over $5/therm. PG&E saw an increased but nothing like that. Symmetry has news articles about price gouging customers in 2001; perhaps it's one of those "flexible pricing" options? Someone in charge of this house made poor past choices...
I finally considered space heaters again. Since the one in the house is nigh useless, I impulse bought two Lasko ones from Amazon. Similar, basic 'ceramic' heat and fan. I had second thoughts about getting two but it was two late to modify my Overnight order.
They're here, and work well, and don't make measured VOC worse than usual for the house. But I had second thoughts about whether it will save money. The electric bill wasn't high but I haven't been using much; doing the math, the average cost (after charges and rebates) has been 30 cents per kWh, and the marginal cost looks like 50 cents. I was used to 12 cents in Boston. Running a kilowatt heater full time would be $360 at 50 cents. And would only heat one room. Granted I don't run it full time, but still...
It has been nice getting a specific room cozy, and feeling virtuous because I'm not heating a 1600 sqft house. OTOH I still have to pass through the rest of the house, and spend time in the kitchen, and doing that at 50 F / 10 C has been getting unpleasant. I had gotten 2 heaters largely for the convenience of not moving one around, but right now do I have both running: one in the office that I started using again, and the bedroom one moved temporarily to the kitchen so I could cook without feeling miserable.
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I finally considered space heaters again. Since the one in the house is nigh useless, I impulse bought two Lasko ones from Amazon. Similar, basic 'ceramic' heat and fan. I had second thoughts about getting two but it was two late to modify my Overnight order.
They're here, and work well, and don't make measured VOC worse than usual for the house. But I had second thoughts about whether it will save money. The electric bill wasn't high but I haven't been using much; doing the math, the average cost (after charges and rebates) has been 30 cents per kWh, and the marginal cost looks like 50 cents. I was used to 12 cents in Boston. Running a kilowatt heater full time would be $360 at 50 cents. And would only heat one room. Granted I don't run it full time, but still...
It has been nice getting a specific room cozy, and feeling virtuous because I'm not heating a 1600 sqft house. OTOH I still have to pass through the rest of the house, and spend time in the kitchen, and doing that at 50 F / 10 C has been getting unpleasant. I had gotten 2 heaters largely for the convenience of not moving one around, but right now do I have both running: one in the office that I started using again, and the bedroom one moved temporarily to the kitchen so I could cook without feeling miserable.
Comments disabled due to a flood of spam.