I’m in St. Louis and am at home all day with twin 2-year-olds and a dog. At some time perhaps we’ll turn down the programmable thermostat, but it’s usually set around 70 or 71 degrees in the daytime and 68 at night. My husband doesn’t like to have the house cold at night. In the winter we add plastic to some windows, use blinds and thicker curtains, and keep doors closed when rooms are not in use. And for years we have taken advantage of our utilities’ budget billing option. Most utilities offer this to customers with good credit records. I know a lot of people don’t want to go this route because they want to overpay at any time… then they complain about sticker shock. Our rates stay basically the same from month to month and rarely go up or down by more than $10/month from year to year. We’ve never been hit with an end-of-year “make-up” bill exceeding $150, and often we’ve received refunds as rates are adjusted twice yearly.

Hubby likes to wear t-shirts in winter so we fight over the thermostat occasionally. Whereas I found I don’t get uncomfortable until it gets below 64. (lower at night of course.)

I do have a question though…when you talk about heating zones are you just closing the doors or actually closing the vents in the room? I heard that closing the vents in the rooms can cause stress to the furnace because of the size change… any truth to that?

Some extra blankets and sweaters seem to do the trick pretty well here. If I get cold, I do the dishes by hand to help warm up my fingers!

I’ve combined many of these suggestions. I wear my fluffy robe over my clothes when I’m at home. When I get chilly, I move around–vacuuming will work up a sweat in no time! My living room is full of blankets and throws to wrap up in. My two cats are happy to curl up on your lap and keep us both warm.

Heat zones have worked best for me, though. When I’m in the bathroom changing for bed, I have the space heater on in there. When I’m sitting in the office, I move the heater in there. When I’m in the living room, I turn on the gas fireplace and the ceiling fan. While I’m getting ready for bed, I put a heating pad at the foot of my bed to warm up the blankets, then turn it off before I go to sleep.

What saves me the most is working evenings. When the sun goes down and temps drop, I’m in a brightly lit, toasty warm workplace! May not work for everyone, though.

Basically fill a cotton bag with dry uncooked (not instant) rice (or corn, or probably most other grains, but rice smells the least, I’ve found) and microwave for ~2-3 mins. Cuddle!

And if anyone has any recommendations for stopping up door gaps in rentals, I’d love to hear it. I definitely have some spots around the door that leak air like no other, but I’m not sure how to fix that.

I wonder if wrapping your hot water heater in a blanket is a fire hazard?

One last point about electric blankets and mattress pads – they have been linked to infertility in women. I am not sure if the studies are conclusive or peer reviewed. It has been recommended that if you use those, use them to knock the chill off the bed but do not sleep in the bed with them on. For couples considering starting a family this may be of grave concern.

Humid air feels warmer. Turn off your humidifier, set a kettle on the woodstove, or use plants to add moisture to the air. Hang clothes to dry indoors. Some people even unhitch their dryer hoses to add warm moisture to the air (that can be controversial, and I’ve never personally tried it.)

Winter is the time to use your oven. It will heat up the kitchen, at least! While in the summer I make pot roasts in a slow cooker on the porch, in the winter I make it the traditional way and use the oven to help heat the ambient air.

Drink hot things. Even changing your water from ice water to lukewarm will help you feel warmer.

Pay attention to your feet. If your toes are cold, you’ll feel cold too no matter what the temp is. You might even need to change your socks if your old ones get sweaty and wet.

Another lesson learned: before you start playing with the programmable thermostat make sure you understand your heating system. I grew up with forced air and thought that it was *always* most efficient to program the heat much lower at night and when away during the day. Wrong!

My house has a boiler and radiant heat in the basement and first floor (second floor has radiators). I set the temp to 60F at night and found that in the evenings the boiler was continuously running and that it could never make it up to the “at home” programmed temp of 68F. I thought there was something wrong with the boiler. The serviceman checked the boiler and explained to me that with this type of system I could not vary the temp by more than 3-4 degrees; the concrete basement floor (which is part of the heating zone and has the heating pipes embedded in it) was always going to take a very long time to heat up, so I really couldn’t drop the temp dramatically at night or when I wasn’t at home.

My main way of keeping the gas bill manageable is to never set the thermostat above 68F, dress in warm layers, wear socks and slippers, and drape myself with throws if I’m chilly while sitting still. A warm dog helps keep me toasty at night, too.

One more thing to do are the plastic window insulators that look like saran wrap and you seal with a hairdryer. They do make a surprising difference. So do socks, which I always wear around the house, so I can keep it a little cooler.