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Charlotte Frugal Living Examiner

Extreme frugality: Heating and cooling costs.

August 3, 12:09 PMCharlotte Frugal Living ExaminerMelanie Weaver
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Living in Charlotte can be a pain in the pocketbook when it comes to heating and cooling costs.  In the summer, we must deal with 90+ degree temperatures and two hundred percent humidity on a daily basis, and in the winter, we vascillate between days in the teens and days in the eighties, running the heat one day and the AC the next! 

How do you usually handle a hot summer's day or a freezing winter morning?  It's pretty typical to enter someone's home in the dead of summer and find the house a cool and comfortable 71 degrees, or to find their home a toasty 78 degrees in the middle of winter.  Have you ever stopped to think however, what a few degrees difference may make to your energy bill?  How much are you willing to adjust your personal comfort level to make a difference to your wallet?

If you give it a shot, you may find that 78 degrees in the summer and 65 degrees in the winter isn't so bad; your home will still be cooler or warmer than the outside temperature, but your bill won't make you hot under the collar!

Set a personal challenge for yourself this year.  Can you last the entire month of November without turning on the heat?  Can you manage the dog days of summer this month with your thermostat set on eighty?

Maybe the above are too extreme for you; that's fine.  Up your thermostat from 71 to 75 today and see what a difference it makes in August.  You'll barely notice the change, honestly.  Small changes can lead to bigger, more extreme ones, but they all amount to money in your pocket, and that's the most important thing!

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