The simplest way to cut your heating costs is to not turn on your heat. This article tells of a no heat contest where people see how long they can go into the winter without turning on their heat. The family that won last year made it to December 31. They live in New Jersey so they must have been pretty cold. I’m a tight-fisted miser and all for being frugal but I think that is a little too extreme.
That being said I haven’t turned on my heat in my apartment yet. Since my apartment is on the the third floor it seems to be absorbing heat from other apartments in the building. Even though the outside temperature has been in the 30s, I don’t think the temperature in my apartment has been below the 60s. We do have several cold days forecast so I will probably have to turn on my heat sometime this week. Saving a little money on my heating bill isn’t worth being uncomfortably cold.
I live in the South so I have it easier than most (it’s 51 degrees as I write this at 7:23 AM)… but I still haven’t turned on the heat despite having a couple of mornings dip into the low 30s. I didn’t realize there were so many more people like me out there! I also challenge myself to see how long I can go without the A/C on in the summer.
Another challenge for me is reducing my water usage. The water/sewer bill is the biggest bill I pay every month, so I take really short showers most of the time.
All well and good until the pipes burst.