thermostat

For decades, environmental advocates have called on people to make sacrifices for the greater good — to bike instead of drive, eat more vegetables instead of meat, and turn down the thermostat in the winter.

In San Diego, a high-density urban development known as Civita is outfitting every housing unit with a water meter panel, like a thermostat, to keep residents informed of their water consumption and help them catch leaks.

The question is, when the temperature drops in winter, will pensioners who lose out look at the thermostat and think, those blasted Tories?

They also wear more clothes so that they can keep the thermostat low and stay warm in winter.

For their study, U-M researchers analyzed utility bills, thermostat settings and energy burdens -- the proportion of income that households spend on electricity and gas costs -- for 51 homes in Wayne and Washtenaw counties, half of them below median income levels.