Heat costs how much?
by Elizabeth Bendall
When I moved into my first apartment, I lived by myself and therefore, held the highest authority (with the exception of my landlord, of course). Save for setting things on fire and destroying the carpet, I could do as I pleased.
If I wanted to go a full week without washing my dishes, I did. If I didn’t want to put my clothes away correctly, I didn’t. And if I wanted to set the heat at 76 degrees – at all times of the day, even if I left for the weekend – then so be it.
Living on your own, however, does not translate into living without consequence. Leaving dirty dishes in the sink, for instance, results in curdled odors not easily masked by Febreze. The clothes piled on the floor? While it saved me the energy of putting them away, it cost me my mornings while I searched for the least wrinkled of my shirts before I went to work.
The greatest lesson learned, however, came with the arrival of my propane bill. For the month of October, the propane totaled $105.06. I knew my utility bills were inevitable, but I couldn’t believe that heat and hot water could cost so much.
And I would have assumed this was normal if I hadn’t talked with a co-worker who lived in the same complex. My co-worker was married, with two children, and a nearly identical apartment. Her bill? No more than $55.
After a quick poll of the office, I found that most people capped their thermostat off around 69 degrees. And if leaving for the weekend, they dropped it to 55 degrees.
While I would have preferred to stay toasty in the mid-70s range, $50 was a lot of money to give up for a mere 7 degrees. So I sacrificed. I too stayed in the 69 degree range (70 if I wanted to indulge), and dropped it to 55 degrees when I left for work.
The arrival of my next propane bill was better. At $70.09, I knew that I had saved money but the arrival of Northern Michigan snow and low temperatures provided ominous foreshadowing. My little Chevy Cobalt has always been sensitive to the cold, and I had noticed an increase in the number of times the alarm would go off once the temperatures dipped too low.
Then one day, while preparing lunch in my kitchen, I felt a breeze. It was December. Clearly, no windows or doors were open, but somehow, wind was making its way into my apartment. Closer inspection revealed that my living room window was letting enough wind into my apartment to blow out a candle flame.
I went to Home Depot and purchase the plastic wrap you tape onto the frame of your window and then blow-dry until it’s tight and translucent. It took me almost two hours to complete the windows in the living room and bedroom (the kitten that was rolling in the heaps of excess plastic didn’t make it any easier). But when I was done, wind no longer crept through the window frame.
Somehow, however, the propane bill for December jumped up to $136.36. I won’t pretend to understand how much energy goes into heating a home – all I can say is that I tried my best and from now on, I’m opting for space heaters.
