Saint - 1, Icy Fingers of Death - 0

Yes, that's right, I have won the heating war and sent the Icy Fingers of Death back to its home in the spare bedroom.. and sometimes the bathroom.

Those portable baseboard heaters that we bought from Canadian Tire really came through for us and for the second morning in a row I was able to hop out of bed and not fear the icy grip of subzero temperatures calling to me from under the carpet. Its so good we actually had to turn the heat DOWN last night.

I'm debating whether or not we should take one of the heaters back because so far we haven't really needed to use it, but I bet I'll be kicking myself come next November so maybe we'll keep them both. The nice thing is they should be much cheaper to use than the oil furnace - the calculator at BCHydro.com said it would cost about $65 a month to run one heater 24 hours a day. That certainly beats the $150-$250 we've been spending for a month's worth of heating oil. Of course that may be due to the outrageous price of gas at the moment (just saw the 96.9 price tag and thought I was going to have a coronary). Heating oil is close to the same price, which is about double what it apparently cost a year or so ago.

To further aid in our battle against the cold, we picked up a heat conservation kit that has window covers and special plates for electrical outlets and light switches that are supposed to cut down on drafts.. which would be nice as our place seems to be more draft than house.

Well that's one battle won.. onto the next!