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

novelist, I planted the leeks on the 4th of July believe it or not. It takes so long for them to grow and they don't like it Hot or dry, so I grow them in the summer the same way that I grow Nightshades or other warm loving annuals in the spring ( I put them outdoors in conditions they like but keep them in pots so I can bring 'em indoors when conditions are not to their liking, which, for leeks is above 27C/80F ) The Onions were definetly an experiment so I won't say ( yet ) how well it worked. Since Onions are daylight sensitive I am very interested to see if they bulb up or not, I have these planted in the same bed as this year's crop of 'Candy' Onions so that I can compare the results. I transplanted the Onions and Leeks outdoors several weeks before I thought the winter would kick in and tell them to 'sleep', which, last year was mid November. So they were 4 months from seed but still very small plants because I kept them in their seeding trays ( which were recycled fruit berry containers ) I am not going to say how well this worked until I see the results but, so far the onions are about the same size as the ones I planted this March and the leeks will be hilled this weekend. Our lows this winter were just above freezing - not below zero this year. Hope this was not too wordy

What I do now is keep them in my cold attic, right by a window sill. Temps get into the 30's, but I've never seen any water freeze. Do you have an unheated garage with a window? No garage or attic, I live in a teeny little house! The coldest part of the house is the kitchen floor, it's like ice when it's cold outside, but I don't want to risk him getting too warm and I worry about my devil cat eating him if he's on the floor in there. She mauls my little baby Violets enough as it is, I'm surprised I have any survivors to give away for x-mas! :) I do have an unheated metal shed in the yard, but no window, I think that would be just the same as being outside, but without any sun! :P So far I've been bringing him in whenever it looks like it's going to get under 30 degrees. That's been working great, in at night, out during the day. I guess I'll leave him in the fridge today, surely one day won't hurt, it's supposed to be 33 and sunny tomorrow so I will set him back out then, and they're calling for warmer temps for next week, so he should be able to get out every day. J

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.