House: Adjust temperature at night?

Shana and I often debated whether or not to turn our thermostat down while we're gone during the day or asleep at night.

We never could figure out, though, if the furnace actually works harder to go from, say 63° to 73° than it does to maintain 70°. According to Doug Anderson, the national home sealing project manager for ENERGY STAR, "It is true that the furnace will have to work hard for a short period of time to get the house back up to your 'comfort zone' but that saves more energy than keeping it in the comfort zone continuously." Consider that mystery solved.

Days after reading this, we watched Al Gore's global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Anderson's advice coupled with the movie's powerful message led us to turn our heat down to about 63° last night — and for many nights to come.

Add the movie and its web site to your list of "living green" resources: www.climatecrisis.net.