• Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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    13 hours ago

    Yeah, nah, I’m on the side of the government paying for utilities. Human right to electricity. Figure out a system to prevent overuse, but everyone deserves to have heating and cooling when needed.

    That said, definitely wear a sweater in the winter if you can. Acclimate to the season and you’ll hate going outside a lot less, and need less heating in the winter. I typically don’t heat most of my home in the winter (I don’t have central heating). I just use a space heater in whatever room I’m in, and move it to the next room with me, and wear warm clothes. I’m in Tennessee, which routinely gets well below freezing in the winter. Not ideal, but it works

    • renzev@lemmy.worldOP
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      13 hours ago

      Figure out a system to prevent overuse

      If we’re going down the “government should pay for it” route, then a good solution would be subsidizing thermal insulation. It’s a big investment upfront, but will save a lot of money for both homeowners and the government in the future. Not to mention the obvious ecological benefits.

      • JordanZ@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I feel like it already is. Just not always from the government. I put three pallets worth of insulation into my attic(~$1500) and between the rebates from the gas and power company it ended up costing me like $350. I did have to front that cost though and the paperwork was kind of a pain. Had to draw a scaled picture of my house with the part of the living area covered with insulation on graph paper. They don’t pay for over the garage.

        Just looked at what I bought again and insulation has gone way up in price. It’s close to $2500 now. No idea if the rebates also went up but I kind of doubt it.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        13 hours ago

        Absolutely. We should be subsidizing anything and everything that helps decrease energy usage, especially in ways that mean we don’t have to make big changes to lifestyle. Though that’s a whole other discussion. :/ But utilities in general, electricity, water, Internet, gas (though if possible move that shit to electric) should be public and no cost at the point of use, imho

      • Emi@ani.social
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        12 hours ago

        That would require them to think long term and logically , Also i assume lots of companies would not like that they won’t be able to get as much profit.

        Don’t get me wrong I definitely agree but there’s just so much things that would work better, be cheaper more efficient and better for the environment but that would cost money and not make much profit. Sometimes I have hope people will get fed up with this BS and change happens but mostly I’m skeptical.

    • Aksamit@slrpnk.net
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      10 hours ago

      What temp is freezing in F? Is it still defined by the temp water freezes at, like in C, or do you guys have a different scale for this too?