Is my baseboard heating messed up?

[MommyAllison]

Anybody who knows about baseboard heating on this board? :) I am wondering if our baseboards are not working correctly. Here's the story:

We have a gas fireplace in our living room, which we use primarily to heat our home. We have baseboard heating throughout but only turn the baseboards on in our bedroom, and DD's bedroom. I was nervous to open our utilities bill this winter due to the natural gas prices, but surprisingly our natural gas bill is almost nothing. It's our electricity that's crazy! The reason I'm wondering if we have a problem is that each room's baseboards are adjusted with one of those thermostats with a round dial that has markings for 50, 60, 70, 80 degrees, etc (not digital). We only have to turn them on to about 60 degrees to keep our room at probably 70-72 degrees constantly. The doors to the bedrooms are closed a lot, so they are probably not getting heated by the gas fireplace from the other room. My dad thinks that our baseboard/thermostat is probably not working right and is probably causing us to pay more in electricity bills because it is heating above and beyond the temp that we set the thermostat to. True? We are renting so I'm wondering if I should call the landlord but want to make sure this is truly a problem first. :) TIA!

Allison
http://b1.lilypie.com/XvRAm8/.png (http://lilypie.com)

[daniele_ut]

How long have you lived there? I'm wondering if this is your first winter in that apartment or if you can compare it to what you paid last year. My first thought is that electric heat, especially baseboards, *is* pretty expensive. We tend to use more electricity in the winter (though we don't have electric heat) since it gets darker earlier and light later in the morning. We also spend a lot more time indoors so we use more electricity. It is possible that the thermostat is inaccurate, especially if you have it turned to 60 and it is keeping the rooms that warm. We just changed the thermostat in our home for that reason. At 65 on the dial, the room was 76 degrees.

I would at least have the landord check the thermostat, but you might want to check with neighbors and see if your electric bill is in line with what they are paying.

[MommyAllison]

Thanks! It is our second winter in this apt and we are paying more than last winter, though we're using less natural gas. Good idea to check with the neighbors - and I think I'll check in with the landlord too. Did changing the thermostat help for you guys? Thanks so much!

Allison
http://b1.lilypie.com/XvRAm8/.png (http://lilypie.com)

[daniele_ut]

Changing the thermostat helped a little with our usage, but the rate for gas went up another $2 a unit this month! It was also colder here this month, so the furnace definitely had to work harder to heat the house.