I am fortunate that my home is fairly energy efficient. It must have pretty good insulation to keep the heat out, because I barely have to run my air conditioning in the Summer. The Winter is a different story. It gets so cold where I live that the heat has to run often just to maintain a temperature of 72º F when I'm home. My smart thermostat drops to 70º F while I'm at work and 66º F when I'm sleeping. The cats don't seem to be much bothered, but they have heating pads to sleep on if things are too chilly for them. As for me? I wear wool socks and extra layers... and I have a heated throw for my couch and a heated blanket for my bed. It's not ideal, but it aves me a lot of money on my energy bill. And it works.
Except when it doesn't.
At around 2:30am I woke up with terrible leg cramps. And I was freezing.
Apparently the heated blanket on my bed has died.
The coldest I've ever been was not Antarctica. Not even close. The coldest I've ever been was at a Berlin train station in the middle of Winter. It was so cold that I couldn't feel my legs... and my fingers and toes (once I managed to heat them back up) were tingly for days. The second-coldest I've ever been was on top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine waiting for the sun to rise. That one was on me. I just had to get photos from the first place to see sunrise in the United States. Worth it though...
This morning was nothing that bad. But it sure felt like it. And so I guess I need to order a new hot blankey. This is a no-brainer purchase because the money saved on my power bill will pay for a new blanket in just one month. I toyed with the idea of trying to repair it, but I think an electric blanket is one of those rare cases where that isn't an option. It's just my luck I would screw something up in the electrical system and the blanket would burst into flames in the middle of the night.
Slightly worse than waking up cold, I think.
A shame it couldn't have failed closer to Black Friday though.
That's also just my luck.
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I’m probably too,late with this suggestion but have you checked Kohls for a new electric blanket? They’ve got Black Friday sales going on already and I know tomorrow there are extra discounts.
I have Kohl’s Cash saved up as well… but they didn’t have the brand I was looking for. Kohl’s has never been a total game-changer when it comes to saving money, but if you game their system with sales, stacked discounts, and Kohl’s cash you can save on stuff!
I think the coldest *place* I’ve ever been was on a plateau in the Alps between Italy and Switzerland where it was -40º. C and F. And very windy. But I’m pretty sure *I’ve* been colder in warmer places where I wasn’t bundled up in skiwear.
Yeah, that definitely sounds cold! — To this day I have no idea what the actual temperature was in Berlin that day. But since I live in an area where I’m accustomed to temperatures easily dropping way below freezing AND there’s no wind blowing in a train station, I’m willing to bet it was pretty cold. The Cadillac Mountain thing was cold because of the wind. The temperature always feels worse when the wind is gusting non-stop, and it was relentless. Sure I could have sat in my rental car, but miss that sunrise? Nope! Oddly enough, in BOTH of these scenarios I had long-underwear on. Did nothing. What I need is nuclear-powered underwear!