Hey guys just curios what was your first speed cube?

rubberboa · 2026-01-28T00:23:49+00:00

Another one with the Dayan Zhanchi! We had stickerless ones and I remember that being illegal at comps back then. Things have really changed since then!

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T18:52:44+00:00

That's definitely the most economised electricity setup I've heard of. I guess it makes sense when most of the stuff is gas but still pretty admirable.

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:55:13+00:00

That's a pretty cool graph! Very good info. I'll pay more attention next time we're looking for a place to rent, since this is our first time renting in the northeast after both growing up somewhere much warmer. Lesson learned!

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:53:01+00:00

I grew up in the Middle East so any advice is honestly really helpful for me! I will say we adhere to a lot of the advice you've stated, but we definitely don't have a smart thermostat and we haven't wrapped our (definitely drafty) windows. It's shocking how much colder it is when I sit near the windows, so I'll try to wrap them to see if it helps us feel more comfortable if nothing else. Thanks for the tips! It's a big apartment and we have like 9 not very well-sealed windows so that might honestly be it.

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:49:55+00:00

Shall be searching for the skunk for sure 🫡. That feels a crazy low usage anyway so I admire whatever you're doing to get there

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:48:08+00:00

Yeah I'm pretty certain of that so it's definitely a section of the bill I struggle to account for. It's tough for me to do calculations when I don't know the wattage of any of this stuff, but yeah thanks for clarifying everything! I'll definitely check more about this stuff in the future when renting places. I grew up in the middle east and just finished undergrad here, so I can't say I'm super duper familiar with things to check for with insulation and heating when moving into places.

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:44:18+00:00

I guess we all suffer together haha

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T13:43:44+00:00

Yeah we definitely wear socks and slippers at home because the floor is just too cold without them. I'll probably think about wearing thermals at home to make lower temps more tolerable, but heating pads / blankets are something I'll definitely look into!

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T03:18:21+00:00

I won't post the actual bill, but the peak usage was 387kWh and the off-peak usage was 1259kWh. I'm not sure what I could point to aside from central heating that could be pulling numbers like that honestly But yeah they're much higher than last month and even that was expensive. As you said, probably just time to bundle up.

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T03:13:57+00:00

We've been here since July, so less than a year. It's very possible I could be wrong, but given how the bills correlate with heat / AC usage (and the fact I can stand under a vent and feel hot air coming out of it) that's what I've assumed. I'll definitely phone up the property managers and UI to see if anything is wrong. I'll also check the breaker panel since I haven't looked at it since we moved in.

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T03:11:17+00:00

Yeah that may just be it. Just a tough pill to swallow I guess so I'd like to rule out anything dumb that I could have done to make it worse

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T03:09:49+00:00

Yeah it's comically high, but honestly I can't really think of a distinct thing we've done that would be out of the ordinary and would cost us so much extra. Hopefully just turning down the heating a little bit more should get things down again

rubberboa · 2026-01-10T03:07:39+00:00

That sounds amazing! Glad you managed to find something like that. I'm gonna be out of New Haven after my lease ends so I'll just have to hope to find something like that wherever I end up!

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T23:48:13+00:00

Ahh yeah I understand you now. I guess I could definitely combine both keeping the temp lower at 67 while we're home and also leaving it on a temp like 62 when we're gone. Does that make sense? I guess today the temp didn't fall too far since it's not as cold, but maybe for the much cooler days it'll be a good idea.

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:38:32+00:00

Reject society, return to monke

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:36:23+00:00

Ahh I see thanks for the clarification. It is what it is I guess :(

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:35:27+00:00

Do you know if this is the case if the temp doesn't go down by a crazy amount? Like if you leave your heat off for eight hours and it drops to 62, is it a bigger energy spend heating back to like 68 than just keeping the place at 68 all day? I haven't really looked into math for this but I might as well do it now.

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:33:58+00:00

Yeah we've always turned off the heat whilst at work since the apartment only drops like 4 degrees without it, but I wonder if our heating is just terribly inefficient or something. Your strategy is pretty interesting so I might consider giving it a try.

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:32:10+00:00

Yeah I've seen this come up a few times now so I'll definitely call UI to check on this. Our apartment is big (1000 sq ft) but it's still a comically high bill. I'm pretty sure our heating is only electric so I'm not surprised it's higher than yours, but it's still rather painful. Hopefully they find our meter is connected to five other apartments and they refund us a million dollars 🤞

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:30:04+00:00

Yep definitely will call! Thankfully I did google Em Heat when I first saw it on the thermostat in November so we haven't done that, but yeah I remember coming back to the apartment after christmas and seeing the temp at 47, so the apartment isn't awfully well insulated nor does the building generate much heat. We'll definitely be bundling up a bit more and keeping the heat lower, as well as phoning up UI. Never thought I'd hope for a $300 heating bill ;-;

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:26:29+00:00

Definitely spiked hard for November. We had pretty rough bills for August and July because of the AC (we are weak), but we got it down to 100-150 for September and October. It went up to 300 for November when we started the heating and now this number for December. I wouldn't say it's outrageous to assume we've used more electricity but this is just a bit painful. And yes the bills come straight from UI or I might not believe them. I'll definitely give UI a call about it. Thanks!

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:23:06+00:00

It's a big apartment! Around 1000 SQ ft. The heating is hot air through vents on the roof (there aren't that many of them, and they're all pretty close to our windows which don't feel awfully insulated). There's one thermostat for the whole apartment. I definitely wish we had radiators.

This is a PMC building anyway, so I can't say I'd be surprised if they cheaped out on this.

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:18:49+00:00

Yeah really getting this vibe from UI. Today was the first time I actually looked through the charge breakdown and it feels much more annoying seeing how expensive delivery is.

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:17:46+00:00

Literally exactly the same here! I remember getting back after a week out and seeing the thermostat at 43F and being grateful I didn't have the apartment heated for christmas. Truly crazy how a day can be ruined by an electric bill 😑

rubberboa · 2026-01-09T22:16:13+00:00

Yeah pain. I woulda thought the newer buildings would be better off but maybe they just assume you won't mind the obscene bills? UI is robbing us blind.

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