I have a room in my house that is very drafty and if I let it stay cold it keeps the rest of the house cold. I brought this heater from Target last year, I keep it on 24/7 on a low temp and after about a day running it has kept the room comfortable although not real warm. If I turn it up it will be smokey hot in there which I did not want to do. It has solved the problem. I checked my light bull and it did not change significantly over the year. I am wondering if this might be a solution for you? You are in zone 7 like I am and I have had no need for supplemental heat outside yet and my birds seem to be doing fine. Their whole pen is made of wire mesh with a box for them to go in at night. The temp has gotten pretty low and when it did the chickens stayed in their box huddled together for a while but for the most part they were business as usual. I did close their box on really cold nights though to keep out the drafts. HTH Here is a link that might be useful: heater

Great. Sound like you did not make the common mistakes. The problem out by the street is that the concrete and/or asphalt bathes in the sun all day absorbing light and converting it to heat. It stores the heat during the day and releases the heat all night. With 24/7 heat, the water in the soil evaporates faster there. The grass that was there died from drought. Then one week in the past, you got enough rain on a daily basis to sprout the weed seeds in the bare spot. Some of those weeds likely died for the same reason, but those which did not are likely doing quite well. To fix that problem you need to water more deeply next to the road. By watering deeply the roots will grow deeper where the temperature of the soil is cooler and evaporation is reduced. Measure your sprinkler output with cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That is your starting point for watering. If you have some cans that filled right up and others that took significantly longer to fill, then you might need to adjust your sprinkler heads. The worst case is that you might have to replace a couple heads with higher or lower output heads. That's not a big deal, but you need to figure out which ones, if any, need it. The time it takes to water a full inch is your starting point for future watering. Apply the water and watch how long it takes before the grass starts to wilt. This time of year, with mature lawn and "normal" deep roots, it should take at least 2 weeks for the grass blades to fold together or the grass to lay down when walked on. As soon as you see those symptoms anywhere in the lawn, water again right away. If it happens before 2 weeks is up, then water longer next time. When your daytime temps fall into the 70s on a regular basis, you should be watering deeply once every 3 weeks. Below the 70s and you can back off to monthly watering. Then in the spring, bring your watering frequency back up as needed. With temps eventually above 90 degrees F, you will be watering weekly. Why do this? To get deeeeeeep roots. Deep roots get their water from deeper in the soil and can go much longer without surface watering. Also you want to break the life cycle of weeds. Weed seeds need to be kept moist for several days to germinate. If you are watering every day, then you are creating perfect conditions for weed seeds. By watering deeply once and letting the surface dry completely, the weed seeds will never get enough moisture to germinate...that is until Mother Nature intervenes. But at least you don't have to contribute to your own weed problems by watering too often.

I live in house where my roommates and I rent the top 2 floors of a 3 story ~1910 Victorian. The 3rd story is a bit or a converted attic / servant's quarters. There is still a higher attic over part of the house. There are separate HVAC systems for the first and basement and the 2nd and 3rd. We get the benefit of the renter below heat and they get our AC. The 3rd floor bakes in the summer and bakes in the winter. I have completely closed all the vents on the 3rd floor (during winter) because the heater warms the 3rd floor excessively while the 2nd is still cold mostly thanks to drafty windows which we cover in plastic. Also the furnace is on the 3rd floor center and the thermostat is in the center of the house but right next to the open stairwell. The air return is in the ceiling of the 2nd floor right hall above the thermostat and right next to the open stairwell as well. The 3rd floor where I sleep is too hot (in winter). So I was wondering has anyone had luck with hanging a curtain to block the stairwell and to keep the downstairs heat down. Is this worth the trouble? What type of curtain should I use to be most effective? Clear plastic strips? Cloth? How about esthetics? Any suggestions on what might look - well - not that bad? Also, I was thinking that the air return would be better (for heating anyway) if it was closer to the floor to suck up cold air rather than hot. Would it be wise/worth it to extend this from the 2nd floor ceiling to the floor? I could take off the grate and put in a make shift duct for winter. It would look aweful but if it will save me a couple hundred on heating I would go for it. BTW our gas costs $1.30620/Ccf and our winter bills are $300-$350/month. And the 2nd floor is about 1300 sq. ft. and the 3rd is about 950 sq. ft. Too much info? :)

I agree with asolo's comments that guaranteed temperatures are a good thing to have even if the temperature setting iof the cycles is somewhat low. That one the main reason for me to get the Bosch washer. I am aware of the actual temperatures of the cycles and that the warm cycle is just 90 degrees (rather cold), but I can adjust the cycle selection accordingly. The sanitary cycle offers 170 degrees (for three minutes, then 150), the kids cycle reaches 150 F and the hot cycle 120. It would be nice to have a few more options, but I can definitely find an appropriate cycle for all my clothes, bedding and towels. jerrod6, the European FLs sold in Europe (220 V, 5-7 kg capacity) coldest cycle is a 30 degree Celsius wash, except for maybe the delicate cycles. So all those washers should heat the water to approx. 90 F which is still below body temperature so the vast majority of clothes won't get any damage... I am not sure if the smaller European washers offered in the US are exactly the same, I guess you'd have to check the specific manuals or call the manufacturer. To the OP, yes, I do think that tap cold water is too cold to get anything clean. It might work on clothes that are very slightly soiled or smelly, but for dog bedding or dish rags I'd always choose a much higher temperature. In our old TL we used the "hot" cotton cycle and the dish rags would still be smelly. The enzymes of the detergents are not active at temperatures below approx. 90 F and no bacteria or fungi get effectively killed at anything below ~140 F. Rinsing your dish rags in the kitchen sink with hot water will most likely get them cleaner than washing them at tap cold temperatures in a washing machine. One thing you can do to kill the germs in dish rags if you really can't or don't want to do hot washes is to put the wet dish rags in the microwave for a minute. Afterwards you can wash them and they should be fairly clean.