The Heat Is On

 And my electric bill is about to go up!  (Actually it already went up prior to the heat going on...)

I was in NJ for more days this week than I anticipated.  (That MAY be another blog post...if I dare write it.  Do I?)  In NJ we only have a heating system (a boiler that fueled by oil), no A/C.  (Unless you count the window units...which stay in all year around because with the wacky weather you never know when you are going to need them.  And to go off topic a bit here, when my grandmother was alive she didn't have any a/c.  There were portable fans and that's what you used.  For her last 3-4 years, she was bedridden [which makes me sadder now than it did then...I was an self-centered 20 something and I look back now and feel sorrow and shame] and only had fans in the bedroom.  [Which was not her bedroom.  It had been my mother’s/her daughter's and the caregiver stayed in the room that had been hers.  Now it's my son's and her bedroom, which is the largest in the house (not to say that it is large; it's not) is where my husband and I sleep.  Talk about keeping it in the family!]  I wonder how she felt during those summer months.  Of course back in the 1990s, summers were not quite so hot.  At least not in my memory.  In my family's house we didn't have a/c either, but we did have lots of ceiling fans and for the most part that worked.  Schools didn't have a/c either.  Again, not really needed.  But climate change IS a thing and I can't imagine having to survive in a home without some sort of a/c for the summer.)

Okay, let me TRY and get back on track here.  As I started to say, we have no a/c in NJ, just a heating system.  I never turn OFF the heat; I just set the thermostat to 60 so that it doesn't come on.  That also keeps the house "warm" enough when I am not around in the winter. (Last year I did raise it a bit because it was so cold and we had so much snow...I didn't want to have frozen pipe problems.  I don't want to even think about it!)  Even when I am home, I try to keep the temperature down.  After all, I spend most of my days in the office in Newark and when I get home it's only a few hours before I go bed, so I'd want the temperature low.  And yes, I'm trying to save money (aren't we all) as fuel costs continue to go through the roof.  (No comment, although I noticed the other day in NJ, the day AFTER I had filled up my car's gas tank, that gas costs at the cheapest station had dropped from $4.15 to $4.09 and I was kicking myself for filling up the day before, but who knew?  When did $4.09 become "cheap?"  I didn't, but again that's another story...)  However, last week, when I got back to NJ I felt cold and even though it wasn't yet October, I turned the heat "up" to 62.   My thought was to just get it a little warmer.  (Plus I know when I set the thermostat to 62 it will actually get a little warmer than that before it shuts off.)   But I also felt guilty because I had the heat on before October and did I really need it?

This week, October, when I was in NJ, I did the same again.  Although I didn't feel as guilty.  And for the 3 nights that I was there, because the days actually got warm, I only had to "pump up" the heat once.    Of course, my son is coming home this weekend, so he'll probably want to turn it up.  And that's understandable as he will actually physically be in the house for more time than I would be.  I just need to tell him to take the heat off "hold" and let it run on the set schedule AND remind him to lower it and put it on hold when he leaves.  

Meanwhile, back in PA, we've had the HVAC system turned off because thankfully we did not need the a/c much during the summer and we didn't need the heat.  Or did we?  It was getting pretty chilly in the mornings, but with the days would be moderately warm, so I was holding off.  The minute it got as warm outside as it was inside, I was opening windows and trying to "encourage" the warmer air to get in the house.  (Crazy I know.)

However, when I was in NJ and checking on the house temperatures in PA, I could see the system was still off and it was 58 in the house.  Ugh!  I knew that it meant we needed to turn on the heat.  Texted my husband and told him to turn it on.  Sigh.

Came home to PA and the house was nice and warm.  That's good.  Woke up this morning and the house was comfortable.  Heat came on at the designated time.  House got warm.  That's good.  But hearing the system run and run...yes, it gives me anxiety.  We still have half a tank of oil from last season.  How long will that last?  How incredibly expensive will it be to fill the tanks that feed the furnace?  Last season we had it filled two of three times (it was COLD up here).  Prices were high then; they will be higher now.  That's got me shaking in my boots!

I try to be smart.  I am on a "budget" plan in NJ and PA.  I pay a set amount of money each month, so that when they fill the tanks I don't have to shell out a chuck of change (and these days it's not change) at once.  But my "budget" amount is quite a bit (over $600 a month split not quite evenly over the two houses) and if at the end of the season I've spent more than what was budgeted...well that's going to hurt.

But let's not worry about that now.  (Yeah, right.)  I can worry about that in June.  For now, I'll just keep jumping every time I hear the heat click on (to maintain the house temperature) and wonder, could I go solar?  (There's another headache for you!)