Posted on 11/19/2022 6:22:58 AM PST by karpov
As the first frigid weather of autumn chills the Northeast, many people are faced with a tough decision: deal with the surging costs of heating their homes or live without it.
Home heating prices are skyrocketing yet again this winter, up 18% nationwide on top of last year’s 17% spike, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA).
Charmaine Johnson works in the call center at Philadelphia’s Heater Hotline, part of a non-profit that assists low-income families with their heating systems and bills. Johnson, 63, can relate to the concerns she’s hearing all day. She, too, is struggling to afford her heating bills.
With help from her son, Johnson just paid more than $1,000 to fill part of her oil tank, which she hopes will last her most of the winter.
Johnson says she doesn’t qualify for government assistance with her heating bills. As inflation also pushes up her food budget and other expenses, she is bundling up and keeping the heat turned down, hoping to stretch that oil for as long as possible.
“It’s miserable,” she said. “It’s like living in an igloo.”
Several factors are driving hikes in home heating prices, including the war in Ukraine, OPEC+ cuts, a surge in energy exports, lower energy inventories, and a high demand for natural gas in the US electric power sector, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
EIA projects heating a home with natural gas will cost an extra 25% this winter, and heating with electric will run 11% higher. The steepest hike will be on heating oil, which is expected to be 45% more expensive than last winter, squeezing roughly 5 million households, mostly in the Northeast.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Folks,
We adapt. even to stupid liberals.
Warmth is a relative term, not absolute.
I grew up poor on the farm. Water would freeze in the glass by the bed. Lots of blankets. Would get so warm, would have to stick a foot outside the covers to regulate comfort. But love sleeping in that cold air.
Even now, I turn the therm to 50, have a good sleeping bag to keep my aging feet warm. get too warm and have to stick a foot or hand out during the night. Turn the thermostat to 60 in the morning and it seems like a furnace.
Warmth is relative. We are more adaptive than we think. I have not slept so good for a long time.
“”What is a Garage Kit for a Refrigerator?
If you remember from earlier, the problem with refrigerator\freezer combo units with only one temperature sensor is that when the outside air gets between freezing and around 40 degrees, the freezer will start to thaw out because the compressor isn’t turning on.
The garage kit is a small heating element that wraps around the temperature sensor in the fridge and tricks it into thinking the air is warmer than it really is.
Thankfully both Frigidaire and Whirlpool sell heating kits for their standalone refrigerators. If you have a Samsung or LG, unfortunately you’re out of luck.””
What is a Garage Ready Refrigerator? (FAQ and Buyer’s Guide)
https://garagetransformed.com/garage-refrigerator/
You seem really in control of things at your house, I am the same way and prepared for it all in great detail.
If sitting for long periods, reading, watching TV, or using the computer, then indulge yourself by sitting in a sleeping bag with a blanket for your shoulders, it is far more comfortable than just using blankets.
Everybody here also needs to think of their car preparations for winter breakdowns or extended road blockages.
One trick to help stabilize the temperature is to save empty plastic bottles, fill them with water, and stash them anywhere that’s vulnerable to freezing. The thermal mass they provide should at least slow the rate of freezing. Depending on the type of jug, they might also serve as a backup water supply if needed.
Just make sure they don’t block airflow to the pipes themselves.
hat tip
LOL!
Actually,as I understand it, living in a igloo can be quite comfortable.🤔
Imagine if the fictitious “Global Warming” the politicians use to scare people was actually real.
The benefitsworld-wide would be enormous.
Here are a few - how many more can you think of?
Canada, and the northern border states would have a temperate climate similar to lower US states like Tennessee or Georgia.
Places that barely thaw out in the summer now would become warm enough to grow warm weather food crops.
Growing seasons around the world would expand and world food production would skyrocket.
The consumption of petroleum based fuels, coal or wood to heat homes, businesses, schools, government buildings would drop to a fraction of what it costs today
so the world would need to work less and spend less to produce sufficient petroleum, coal and to generate electric power.
Cost savings would be enormous - Using less gas/diesel, coal and wood would result in lower costs to heat homes, generate electricity, fuel farm equipment,
construction equipment, cars, trucks, buses, trains, boats, airplanes...
Roads would last longer without the punishment of freeze/thaw cycles and the use of salt and other chemicals to de-ice them.
The massive costs of coping with tremendous snowfall and icy road conditions would be greatly reduced.
The death toll attributable to winter cold temperatures, freezing and icing would drop significantly.
In newly temperate areas life would be better for millions - less time hiding from the cold indoors, more time spent outside enjoying warm weather activities.
I will not be surprised when Dems demand the energy sector be nationalized as a fix for the problem they created.
Charmaine, you may never learn.
That was the bait .... here is the switch
No more though, now that I live in a condo. One of the good things that an HOA pays for. I don't care so much for the daffodils planted in the common areas and new lawn chairs for the pool area.
I open the frig and stand in front of it to warm up.
$1,000 to heat for an entire winter ain’t too bad!!! That is around $150/mo.
“We are more adaptive than we think.”
But that’s the problem. We don’t think about adaption. We are told the government will take the problem away so there is no need to adapt.
Late 40’s early 50’s I grew up on a ranch on the west coast. Temps got under O degrees in the winter and over 120 in the summer. Air conditioning or forced air heating didn’t exist then so we got coal burning stoves and then in time oil burning furnaces with both being delivered to the ranch. That was high class at that time. And kerosene stoves were just peaking around the corner.
Most of the youth today would be in a real hardship to be workable in those days as they have grown up with most of the changes made to get rid of the weather problems. Comfort has become an expectation and they haven’t been taught to think for themselves to get it on their own. It has been declared a “right” to receive anything.
wy69
Bet Trump gets lots of donations from people in NW & middle America. Yesterday, temps were way low in Kansas + Oklahoma.
The profits are not showing up in my dividends, earnings or share prices. Where os all the profit going?
Yes, i think it is a lot greed as well as speculative profiteering.
You dont double the price of an air conditioner withou tje money going somewhere.
“Comfort has become an expectation and they haven’t been taught to think for themselves to get it on their own.”
Elon Musk tells his employees they will have to work hard and a bunch quit.
I work with a bunch of Gen Zers.
Many are narcissists and their lack of work ethic is through the roof!!!
It’s unbelievable!
Were they raised by social media??
When they are in charge, we are hosed. (Although we may be hosed before that.)
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