Reply #32: We did the same thing [View All]

[MissB]

We replaced our old oil furnace with a 90+% efficiency natural gas furnace last summer. Last winter, we didn't get a bill over $150 at the peak of cold weather. (Compared to the previous winter when we paid $1200 within 60 days to fill our oil tank several times - and this was keeping the thermostat at 68 degrees).

I think natural gas went up about 25% last year. This morning, the newspaper said the gas company is looking for increases of between 13 and 18 percent. They'll get it. We'll just reduce our heat a bit.

As far as the clothes drying is concerned- I use my dryer for just a few minutes to heat up the clothes which softens the fibers. Then I hang them to dry. We have a partially subterranean basement - unheated and uninsulated. In the summer time, the clothes dry in about a day (clothesline strung across the basement - clothes on hangers or on a wooden drying rack). In the winter, it may take two days to dry, or I take some of them upstairs and put them on the shower curtain rod.

But drying them for a few minutes first keeps them from getting stiff.