Day 4.d

(OK, I really hate these numerical titles but I started it as a chronology of my vacation so I sort of feel 'stuck'. I'll figure something out...later).

Our electric bill arrived - and for the SECOND month in a row, we have a credit balance!! Which means that me, running around this house being the electric police is WORKING. We used 12 Kwh LESS per day this year than last. That's PER DAY. That adds up to a $150/month reduction! Yeah!

We have warm days but no direct sun, largely because there are so many wild fires burning all over the state, we have a thick, smoky white haze everywhere. The air is full of 'smoke'. It's gross. It looks like there's fires in our city - but there aren't. On a good note, it's keeping the sun from being 'direct'. There's no sun shining 'cuz there's too much smoke in the air. But on a bad note, the air quality is horrible - and it's staying low 'cuz there's absolutely no wind. Where is the wind when you need it? We need a good, stiff breeze followed by a rinsing rain. Hopefully, it will blow away soon.

The thermostats are set for 80 when we're home. 84 when we're not. We don't run the air at night much - all the bedrooms have fans, all pointed at the beds. It helps. The upstairs is getting pretty warm and we do run the A/C when we're up there, but if the kids come downstairs, I remind them repeatedly to turn it back up to 82 so it shuts off if possible. At the same time, though, we've learned to not keep it much higher than that - too high, and it's just sweltering hot up there and never cools off.

On J's chore list this weekend is changing the unit's filters, which also helps. Our PGE rep (from work) says that changing the filters monthly can save up to 10% on cooling costs - not sure I believe that, but we haven't changed them in awhile so it's worth doing again.

Hoping we continue with the trend. And hoping we're due for a 'balanced payment review' soon - our monthly payment should be going down a bit soon - we have a current credit balance of $59 - which is $25 higher than last month's credit balance. YEAH! I'm typing this in the dark with only the TV on - and it's so worth it!!