Utlilty Rage

If you have ever been to my apartment, you'll know that it is C-O-L-D! If you know me as a person, then you'll know that I like my surroundings a little bit on the cooler side, but even my apartment is cold for me. Anyway, if we turn our thermostat to 75, it's probably really like 68 degrees. CHILLY! It's also hard with a baby because she's always cold in our house and I can't get her poor little legs warm. On top of it being cold, our winter GAS bill is between $110.00 and $160.00. RIDICULOUS!!! My mother doesn't even pay that much for their house, and we live in an apartment.

It makes me frustrated to say the very least. So, I had Questar come and do a home energy audit to see if our furnace is even working properly. Much to my dismay (I wanted it replaced), the furnace is 80% efficient; however, it's what is called a "reverse-flow" furnace meaning that the vents are located at the top of the wall instead of the bottom, so it's sucking warm air in instead of cold air. Stupid. What else did they say? Our water heater needs to be replaced, our fireplace is "terrible" and "the worst you can have", our sliding glass door is "absolutely terrible" (which we already knew because we can feel the draft) and that there is really no way to improve our heat unless we put tons of money into it. We can put plastic over the window's and put insulation in the fireplace...that's it. Since our building is so old, the lame-o's in the 70's built things all wrong. they cemented the air ducts in the ground, so they are not only surrounded by the cold ground, they are not insulated, and if there is an air leak then, oops, too bad, you're out of luck unless you want to jackhammer the whole place and fix it. Oh, and there is no insulation in the walls because, once again, those genuis' loved to use cinderblock. I hate cinderblock. So, we're looking for a new place to live and trying to find a good deal. I mean, we have it pretty good here since we get a family discount so it might be cheaper than anything we can find, but I don't like paying $160 for an already cold house.

Anyway, this is me raging.