We heat our home with natural gas. The natural gas is also our source for hot water, cooking and our clothes dryer. However, up until this month our electric bill always trumped our natural gas bill - by quite a bit.
This morning I opened the gas bill. I was horrified to see we owe $333.26 for the month of November. The electric bill is a mere $120.52 in comparison. Dave and I do OK financially. We aren't setting the world on fire, but we get by. However, a utility bill of $333 is pushing the budget here.
Our house is an older, two-story farm house. We have three additions - two were added by us and one by the previous owner. All of the additions are on the first floor. The second floor remains its early 1920's original design.
Mom's addition on the south side of the house is the largest. It is a living area, bedroom and full bath. The addition on the north side is the master bedroom and bathroom. All of the windows in the additions are newer and pretty good at keeping the cold out (or in, depending on the season). The living room, dining room, kitchen and second floor have updated windows, but they are more than 12 years old.
After seeing the insane gas bill for the month of November, I have come to realize that weatherproofing attempts need to be addressed for the remainder of the winter. Here in Pittsburgh, January and February are our coldest months. According to local weather stations, November was colder than average, but not by much.
If I am expected to pay more than $300 for November, I can only imagine what I will face in the next three to four months of Old Man Winter!
Since it is out of the question to install layers of insulation in the walls and attic, my plan is to attack the oldest windows in the house. I picked up some "rubber foam weather seal self stick tape" from Home Depot. I also picked up a "roll-on premium insulating film window kit". This is one of those kits where you attach the clear plastic to the interior windows and seal it with a hair dryer. I have my doubts about these items, but I thought it couldn't hurt.
The whole time while I wandered through the Home Depot, the figure $333 was rolling through my head. I can't imagine what my parents would have done with a gas bill this high. I highly doubt they could have paid it.
I remember the winter of 1976 - at least I think it was 1976. My dad must have been struggling with the utility bills because he took to stuffing towels in the cracks of our old window frames. He stuffed a blanket under the front door and we all wore sweaters to bed and burrowed deep under the covers.
This was the coldest winter I can remember. One night, I awoke to the sound of my hair dryer running in the bathroom. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and followed the sound. I found my dad in his pajamas and bathrobe with his head under the bathroom vanity, pointing the hair dryer at the pipes. Apparently they had frozen. He managed to thaw them and we had to let the faucet drip at night from then on. Our house was old and obviously not very well insulated.
Even though we struggled that winter, we got by.
If my new-fangled rubber foam seal tape and roll-on window kits don't work well, you'll find me stuffing towels in the window frames and under the doors. If it was good enough for Dad, it's good enough for me.
