Warming to the challenge

Many in N.E. scheme to save on heat this winter

Susan Greene of Bolton, with daughters Norah and Fiona, is determined to stick to a heating budget of $259 a month. ''My theory is: Find a blanket,'' she said. (Aram Boghosian for the Boston Globe)

Margaret St. John and her husband, Mike, usually turn on the heat in their 55-year-old Billerica house when it gets chilly in mid-October. This year, they will wait until the frigid winter has set in and they cannot take it anymore.

Sandy Asad, an administrative assistant in Johnston, R.I., is trying to wait until December, and even then she will keep the thermostat below 62.

Susan Greene, a mother of four in Bolton, is bundling her children in sweaters and trying to stay toasty by the fireplace to avoid using her home's oil heat.

Across New England, residents staring at rising fuel costs and the dismal economy are tapping a deep vein of Yankee thrift and holding off on heat to save money this year, planning to rely instead on wool, down, and fortitude.

"We just put on some more sweaters and put more layers on the bed," said St. John, who works in information technology. "We want to make sure that if any one of us gets laid off, we've got extra money."

Every winter, New Englanders fret over how much heat they can afford. Usually, the most painful decisions are made by the poor and elderly. But this year, an increasing number of middle-class families, long accustomed to paying for heat as a winter necessity, appear to be planning to cut back as well.

Greene, 34, said she contacted her oil company, cut her scheduled delivery of oil for the winter, and ordered an extra cord of wood to heat the four-bedroom house that she and her husband, a marketing executive, moved into last fall. The family, she said, is trying to get by on a heating budget of $259 a month.

"Everyone has the fluffiest slippers you can find, extra blankets, flannel sheets, and even my 5-year-old, who hasn't worn pajamas in years, is wearing footsy pajamas," Greene said. "Basically, my theory is: Find a blanket."

Kathy Driscoll is keeping her thermostat at 62 and relying more on the woodstove in the basement of her 1,200-square-foot ranch house in Hyde Park, so she does not go over her $200-a-month heating budget. A 59-year-old computer technician for Dedham public schools, she goes for walks after school to warm up, comes home for dinner, and sits by the woodstove.

"Sixty-two is kind of cool - but that's my pain threshold, let's put it that way," Driscoll said. "Instead of turning up the thermostat, I put on a few more layers of clothing, and if that includes a hat, that's what I do. I don't suffer completely. That's just the way it is."

Asad said her husband and three children have started to complain about the chilly house, but she tells them to put on a sweater. After paying $300 to $400 a month for heat in past years, she has budgeted $124 a month for heat this winter.

"I don't want my family to freeze, but it's all what you're used to," she said.

Nationwide, heating a home with oil this winter will cost $450 more than a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The Northeast, where a third of homes use oil, will be hardest hit, with an expected average heating bill of $2,388 for October to March, 23 percent more than last winter. Northeast homes that use gas can expect average bills of $1,345 for the same period, a 19 percent increase.

Philip Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, said his senior staff members have talked about trying to keep the heat off in their homes until November.

"I would expect continued high prices in the future, and that's a key element for folks to realize," Giudice said. "It's great to take frugal measures now, but it's also important to look at insulation . . . and get efficient for the long haul, because this isn't just a temporary circumstance."

Some homeowners have taken the advice to heart.

Jason Ross, a 34-year-old systems administrator and married father of two, recently went into the attic to evenly distribute the insulation in his 3-bedroom ranch house in Shrewsbury. He plans to seal the corners of the windows with putty and use a space heater in his baby's room. His 3-year old, he said, is learning to sleep with the covers on.

"We don't have a lot of extra cash to go out and buy fancy windows now," he said.

Katey Corrigan nearly went bankrupt trying, with three housemates, to pay the $1,100-a-month heating bill in an old federal-style house in Ipswich. So she recently moved into a smaller duplex in Amesbury. A 26-year-old who makes letter-press stationery, Corrigan set the thermostat at 62. "It hasn't kicked in yet, which is making me very optimistic," she said.

"I'm sick of being broke all the time," she said. "I had enough of that in college."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.