I feel like people freaking out over touching thermostats is like turning on a dome light in the backseat of a car at night. In my 30's and also am a newer homeowner and don't give a shit if people touch the thermostat. Wonder what caused it to be to be such a hot button topic?
Finances. It costs money to run the heater, and working class families are on really regimented budgets. A difference of $30-$50 in your power bill can really mess things up when you're living on a strict budget.
Yeah, energy prices have skyrocketed these past few years where I live. Last winter we had as high as (equivalent) 1€/kWh. It really is anxiety inducing when you pull down the indoor temps to sub 15 celsius, almost halve your usage and still end up with the power bill tripling
At a certain point in this cartoon, I think it stops being entirely about the thermostat, and becomes more about Calvin doing what his mum told him to do.
Monitoring my electric and gas bills now as an adult and I get it. It's not too bad going from 65 to 68, but 65 to 90 would use up a lot of electricity in my case (and prior to my HVAC upgrade, uses gas which is cheaper but dries me out more). I'll still let guests do it to some degree, but we're talking a few dollars a day in the extreme. A month of my kid not touching my thermostat is equal to my kid getting a modestly priced video game.
Granted, I'm also the type to walk or bike a few miles instead of drive to avoid a few dollars in gas and maintenance costs. I'm not ecologically friendly, I'm just stingy.
hot button topic
finger guns
My older relatives still routinely cite the 70s oil/energy crisis whenever someone adjusts the thermostat. I think that kind of cross-societal scarcity of resources leaves an impact on someone for the rest of their lives.
(I'm assuming most home heating in the 70s then would have been gas or oil based)
It really is. I get it if you’re on extremely limited finances, but for most American families the $15 difference between a comfortable temperature and a uncomfortable one is hardly worth caring about compared to actually feeling comfortable in your own home.
I would rather pay 50 bucks than 75 to 85 bucks a month for my heat
It saves money and means I can spend 250 on something that matters. Whereas wearing an extra layer to be warm isn't hard at all, it just makes more sense
