It’s hot here in Southside Virginia. Right now at 10:18 PM, Scott’s Funeral Home Time-and-Temperature display reads 84 degrees. Which is actually not that bad, but inside the old Victorian it’s 90 degrees! Either that or the thermostat is stuck, but I really think it might be 90.
Last February, in a rush of save-the-earth, live-simply enthusiasm we jerked out the two big window air conditioners downstairs. We left the window AC units in the upstairs bedrooms, just in case we had company or succumbed to the heat in July. In February when the temperatures ranged from the 20s at night to the 50s in the day time, taking out the AC seemed like a really good idea. Tonight, it’s just plain hot.
Our house originally had “sleeping porches” upstairs, we think. Lots of old houses built at the turn-of-the-century did. Our next door neighbor’s house still has the upstairs sleeping porch in tact. But, ours were long ago incorporated into the upstairs master bedroom and bath, so no cool screened porch to sleep on for us.
The good news — last month’s electricity bill was only $76.40, the lowest it’s been since we moved here four years ago. Typically, the AC units run the e-bill up to over $200 per month in hot weather, so the savings is significant. Our hope is to get the electric bill down to about $50 a month, which means using the solar clothes dryer (clothesline), and figuring out how to cut back the hot water heater. I’ll keep you posted. How many months until February?
