Let them wear hats

Last year at our house, we reduced our heating bill by some 20%. I made a joke at my networking meeting about how I was going to write the White House about my new energy policy and call it “Let Them Wear Hats”. I was wearing, at the time, my English grandmother’s faux fur hat, which has a rakish peak. It was a stylish addition to my outfit.

But hats are only part of the story of our energy conservation. First the heater had to break. It’s an old fashion gas heater with two large floor registers coming up on either side of a wall. Essentially it only warms the bedrooms a lot and the living room and kitchen a little. The furnace is right under the floor and the heat coming from the register is intense enough to dry my clothes when I hang them on a rack next to it.

When the repairman came to replace the broken part, he discovered that the programmable thermostat, which had been installed over 10 years ago, would no longer work with the heater. These old heaters are rarely compatible with programmable thermostats, he told us. He suggested replacing the whole system with a modern central heating system that he would be happy to install for us. I was close to throwing a fit. No way would we put in central heating. I was sure that all that ductwork and the warming of distant parts of the house would send our bill sky high. Gas prices had doubled as it was.

But I was more upset about the programmable thermostat. I had fine-tuned the program to trim our heating use. It exuded control and was a sort of clock. In the morning the heater coming on woke the cat up and I knew I would soon have to feed her. When it came on in the early evening it was time to start dinner. The heater brain was taking care of us, part of that automatic house concept that was expected of my American life, just like in the Jetson Family cartoon.

Energy Bulletin