Happy 4th to you too, Barbara. You're right about the heat. It's time to sit in an air-conditioned house, read novels and hope the garden survives.

This is the hottest I've ever seen it get here. Going outside is like walking into an oven. Staying inside isn't that much more comfortable. I set the thermostats to 73 and the AC runs all day long and never gets below 78 until late at night.

Some like it hot. A few days back and before the rain, it was 95 degrees at my house and I worked outside from daylight to dark putting up a wooden fence. I knew it was hot but I didn't know it was THAT hot. I drank lemonade constantly. I hear the garden calling - gotta go.

You set the thermostat to 73? Brrr! Mine is set at 79 ... and the family has gotten used to it.

Here's something fun: Click on the link below then click on the black area.

Fireworks

I don't have a choice, I have to go our later and tie back some climbing roses because our house is being painted. But I'm waiting for the sun to get lower.

That was fun, ellen but it froze up my computer right when I was in the middle of something.

I try to maintain a constant 71.5° all year round or I am uncomfortable. In this big house with all the windows it's really tough to do that.

There was a commercial on tv that I saw from GA power on the benefits of keeping your thermostat at rediculously uncomfortable levels. It said you can save up to $100 a year!
Oh boy... really!?
No thanks. I think I'll spare myself the pnuemonia and heat stroke and forfeit the $100.

I'm sorry about the hang up, Todd, I checked it out myself and it didn't give me a problem so I thought it was safe to pass on.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday and that we all get rain today. There seems to be a decent chance at last.

We keep our themostat set at 79. At night we turn it down to 78! if company comes over, we might turn it down to 76.
In the winter, it's set at 65.
We use ceiling fans and I have a table fan in the kitchen but we're comfortable. I don't feel like it's a hardship at all and it feels almost cold after being outside for awhile.

I have had a hard time getting out to do anything in this heat. You just can't go out for a minute without having to shower when you are done.

As for inside, I find that the only time my 78 degrees feel uncomfortable is when it is not that hot out, then the air conditioner is not running frequently enough to remove the humidity from the house, otherwise mine stays at 78 except for from midnight to 6am when I drop it down to 76 so it doesn't get too humid in the house. sometimes if I have been outside working on a hot day I come in and that 78 actually feels cold. My neighbor's house is so cold she had to keep her kids in blanket sleepers with feet in the summer. I just don't have that kind of money to throw away, I can tell you from her electric bills it is a lot more than $100 a year. Some months her electric bills are over $100 higher than mine. In the winter we keep it at 68-70.

I have about 3300sf, lots of windows with no coverings and very inefficient electric heat pumps. I have two ac units and a 2 story greatroom and relatively open plan which is tough to cool and heat efficiently. The highest bill I've had yet was $290 in the winter but I average around $170-$200 a month for power. This is also with leaving a lot of lights on and a couple of computers running 24/7 with monitors on most of the time. I do have gas oven/stove though so that tacks on another $25-$50 a mo. My last house was half the size and the power bills were about the same thing except in winter it was cheaper.

I'm curious to know what others are paying who have set their thermostats to near 80 and 65 in the winter. I'm sure there must be some savings but can't imagine it being a huge savings.

The worst weather in my opinion is when it's in the low 50's out and rainy/humid. It gets like this a lot in the spring. This stinks because it's too cool for the AC to come on and too hot for the heat so the air inside the house is very humid and there's no circulation. It gets so stuffy that I have to set the heat to come on. That's when I am the most miserable. I'll take the freezing temps and I'll take the hot temps but it's that "in the middle" zone that I don't like. I don't know how the people in the pacific northwest deal with that weather.

My house is about 2800 sf, also dual zone with a two story family room and open floor plan. We keep the downstairs at 78 and the upstairs at 82 until bedtime, then it reverses, except it goes down to 74 upstairs. We have a basement with only one window north exposure and I think that helps keep our house cool. Our electric is budgeted at $110 a month.

Gas is another story. This year we kept the thermostat at 65 and used electric heaters in the bathroom and if we were sitting watching tv. It helped a lot and our heat bills never got over $125. My house plants loved it too! No heat stress.

If your electric bills are fitting w/in your budget, that's amazing. Iforgot to mention I have Jackson EMC and I think their rates or at least their base charge are lower than Sawnee EMC which I've had and possibly GA power which I've had for both residential and commercial.

I also forgot to mention in the winter, I use a 1500 watt space heater for about 8 hours of the day which can't be helping my cause any. And I do about 2 loads of laundry a week or 2 weeks so my consumption is pretty high.

My gas bill one month this winter was $400, I almost had a heart attack. We just moved up here to GA a year ago and it was our first winter. We are finding our utility bills are very high. We have window air conditioning units and gas in our home which was built in 1812 and is about 3700 square ft. We did have insulation put in our ceiling and I think our air conditioning bill is a little cheaper. Right now we have the windows open and the only one who is using air is my teenager who has his window unit on and the door closed.

This was our electric bill which is seperate from the gas bill:

June 2006 1,860 $191.70
May 2006 1,195 $95.02
April 2006 2,590 $190.37
March 2006 2,473 $182.38
February 2006 2,523 $185.81
January 2006 2,484 $183.14