The Weather Notebook: Roasting and Freezing

Roasting and Freezing
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.

Getting the thermostat just right isn't easy; whether the season is our coldest or warmest. But commentator Peg Devlyn offers a suggestion.

Recently at a conference in New England on energy I heard a speaker complain that our building was too hot. "All winter," he said, "we have to have our thermostats set to seventy-two degrees. We buy winter clothing but we can't even wear it indoors. But in the summer, we won't stand for thermostats at seventy-two. We have to have our air conditioning at 68 degrees, and we're all putting on sweaters."

I don't know what else he said. I just keep thinking, what if, all over America we switched that. What if we heated just to sixty-eight and put on sweaters when we feel cool, and what if we set air conditioners no lower than seventy-two? Then we could enjoy our short sleeves in season. I wondered how much we would reduce our energy demands and our costs? So, I looked it up. The U.S. department of energy says that we can save about one percent of our energy for heating or cooling for every one degree that we change our thermostat to heat or cool less over an eight hour time span. Got that?

Living more in harmony with the weather and the changing seasons. Now there's a novel idea. It's like cutting down on the food bill by not cooking enough to throw away leftovers. It's a no-brainer, as they say, and I suspect no brains are just what are at work when we can't pay the heat bill, and we can't stand to wear that warm winter shirt indoors.

Commentator Peg Devlyn writes from her home in Colchester, Vermont. Thanks today to executive engineer Sean Doucette.