We've Stopped Freezing Our Buns!

See that?  Oh, sure, doesn't look like much from here, but trust me:  This is fabulous.  This is the door to my sunroom thrown wide open, letting cool breezes and positively summery air come flowing into my house.  Bliss!

As you know, every year we participate in The Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Yer Buns Challenge, in which participants are challenged to keep their heat as low as possible during the winter months.  We keep our day temp set at 65, and our night temp at 57.  This works well for us, especially because our bedroom collects all the heat in the house and is warmer than 57 degrees all night for all but the very coldest winter days.  (It is also a good 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house in summer, too.)

This year, the winter was so mild that we had no problem with the temperature in the house (although I was always cold, no matter where I went, whether I was paying for the heat or not -- that's just how I'm built).  Then, the Midwest has been blessed with some unseasonably warm days, and we turned the heat off all together.  The heat wave actually caught me by surprise; although I intellectually knew it was warm, it didn't occur to me to shift to spring mode until one night when I discovered that my usual nighttime arsenal of flannel sheets, two blankets, one bedspread, and two quilts might be overkill.

We are now enjoying a few days of 80 degree weather, and our bedroom is warm enough that we have taken to sleeping downstairs on the couches, because I'll be darned if we are going to turn on AC in March in Ohio!  It will cool off again, and we will probably get at least one more short period in which we have to turn on the heat.  But that will be sporadic and kept to a minimum, and we will see how many days we can go without turning on heat or AC and pocketing the savings!

The Analysis:  Special "Freezing Buns" Edition


Fast:  Keeping the heat turned low is not an issue of time; it is a mindset and a thermostat-set.

Cheap:  This is the benefit for me!  If I think about it, I realize that we cumulatively rack up about 90-120 days each year without using the heat or AC, which means lower bills for us!

Good:  Save money, save gas/electric, save your sanity with the peace and quiet in your house.  This challenge has something for everyone.