The Thermostat Wars have begun again.During the summer months, I had the thermostat set at 85 degrees. That may seem extreme for those of you who do not live in the desert, but in August in the Valley, 85 degrees is still 30 degrees cooler than it is outside.
However, the roommate, whose rent includes utilities, was not concerned with the electric bill. He consistently turned the thermostat down to 78 degrees whenever he got home. Sometimes he'd get up in the middle of the night to turn it down again, after the pre-set program turned the temperature back up to 85. I let him get away with it most of the time, though, because I understand that normal people can't handle an 85-degree home.
For the last several months, we've happily been able to live without the air conditioning. But now it's starting to get cold (if you consider 50 degrees cold). When the weather started cooling off in November, the roommate took it upon himself to turn on the heater. I turned it off again, & it remained that way for several more weeks. But now it's cold every day, so the heater is officially on for the season.
I have the heater set at 70 degrees. I came home a few days ago & the temperature was up at 74 degrees. Hmpf. So the Winter Thermostat Wars have begun. This time, however, I hope to win. It's one thing to expect people to sweat to death in the dead of summer, when there's no relief from the heat. It's an entirely different thing to ask the roommates to find comfort in more clothing.
I found the above LOL Cat, & hung a copy up next to the thermostat. Hopefully this will deter any more mutiny from the roommates.
4 comments:
Many years ago I had a roommate who insisted on running my air conditioner far more than I thought made sense. One July afternoon after returning to a chilly, unoccupied house, I proceeded out of anger and frustration to remove the thermostat from the hallway wall. After carefully pushing the wires into the hole in the wallboard and applying some spackling compound, no visible evidence remained of the missing thermostat.
An hour later I came to my senses and reinstalled the thermostat before my roommate arrived home for the evening. He might have been furious and thought I was crazy.
I haven’t turned on the heat yet this season. Usually by the second week in December I would run the furnace occasionally to maintain daytime temperatures above 61 degrees Fahrenheit, but due to drastically downsized income, retirement investments, and home value, I’m trying to go without heat altogether.
The way my metabolism works, overeating results in the generation of additional body heat rather than weight gain. So while it’s currently 57 degrees in my master bedroom and 61 degrees in my living room, having recently eaten a big breakfast, I remain comfortably warm as I sit warmly dressed at my computer.
I haven’t attempted to estimate the cost of the additional calories I’m consuming compared to what I’m saving in maintenance and natural gas by not running my furnace, but I assume I’m saving some money.
OMG you ARE INSANE!!!! I'll come visit your frozen corpse at the graveyard!
I'm getting cold just reading this.
...there, I just went and turned my heat on for the first time. Thanks a lot!
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