You said it in the first sentence. It's widely available. The one in my town is closer to my house than the other grocery stores, but if I'm gonna buy a lot of stuff I'm willing to drive further.

Contemporary heat pumps are great, I agree. Perhaps /u/Traditional-Oven4092 was merely covering the 'power is out' scenario.

It's within walking distance of my place and I'm lazy.

If you browse for sales, comparing the weekly ads, Stop and Shop is worth going to once in a while. Their prices (and Roche Bros) are straight up atrocities unless you look for sale items but some of us plan these things strategically.

Before anyone says it, I mean sure, Market Basket almost always has everyone beat, but in exchange for having to shop at freaking Market Basket.

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I don’t know why people keep saying this. The Mitsubishi HyperHeat H2i units offers 100% heating capacity at -5 degrees and 70% to 81% heating capacity at -13 degrees. I have three minisplits in my condo and never had a problem with them keeping up during the extreme cold. These replaced my electric resistance baseboards.

Shitpost

At least in the greater providence area, I’ve never seen a blinker used once.

I shop Walmart for basics and when higher quality matters I go to the Big Y ,I only rarely go with Shop & Shop unless I'm nearby.

As long as there are other stores available where you can shop, why do you care?

Some people live near them and don't have cars. Some people prefer to shop in their own neighborhood. Some people like knowing it's a union shop. Some people don't think about other options. Some like to stay with what they know. Some people don't care about prices. There are some possible reasons why.

Not sure. Just guessing…

Could be cleaner or closer or faster?

Or, if you get familiar with one store layout and shop there for years, it’s easier/faster to shop where you know where to find everything.

We’ve got a Bosch with auxiliary heat coils and it’s doing great with low temps.

Op is new to the house, could that be unpaid prior owners?

Jesus... I've got gas / forced air in a 1000sqft 2BR. We keep the temp locked at 72F night and day. Total for gas & electric last month was ~$300.

If that is an accurate bill, then I am never buying a home with electric heat.

Get a wood stove, wood is cheap and free if you know where to look. Get a window ac for the hot summer months. Heat pumps are useless after 20 degrees.

Electric heat, that's about right. I used 1200kwh of heat alone last month, bigger house though, using a heat pump (which would have used about 1/3 of what an electric baseboard used), and my thermostat set to 64° the 11 days I was home and 55° the rest of the time.

Plus the rate is not 33¢, that's just supply, with delivery and MassSave it's almost 48¢.

Most people with baseboard keep their heat in the low 60s or even high 50s.

Get a heat pump for next year. Get Inspire as your electric provider, if you sign today it may start in February for your March bill.

January is looking to be a little colder and less sunny than it was in December, so if you don't change your thermostat, your bill will be about 15%-20% higher.

Yeah, I set my theromostat slightly higher for my small office because I feel a bit colder naturally but other than that most rooms are 65 at night and the main rooms really the only other one I raise to about 70 during the day if its really cold. Only done that a few times.

I did have meter issues where the previous owner did some funky stuff but I've been checking the meter since. most rooms are set to 65 and my office is set to 71. I lower them down before bed. I have a dishwasher, washer/dryer but other than that idk.

You are doing something odd lol

Your electric bill was nearly $1700!?!? WTF. I was upset mine was $60 this month. Electric heating is a killer though. I have gas. $107 month for 800 sq ft. Thermostat set for 67 during the day. 63 at night.

Thank you again!

Thank god this is happening.

I think there’s some confusion here when it comes to health insurance and being trans, which makes sense because navigating health care while trans is absolutely mind boggling. I’ve went through hell the last year navigating it myself, but I learned a lot.

Health insurance companies by law are required to cover treatments that are medically necessary which, if your doctor follows WPATH, is generally considered to be HRT at the bare minimum with sex reassignment surgery also being a commonly accepted necessary surgery. Having a blanket statement stating no services for treating gender dysphoria will be covered is illegal on the grounds of gender discrimination(often coincides with sex-based discrimination), flat out.

Now, how that works with Health Plans essentially being a processing plant, I’m not entirely sure. I would assume the company would take the role as the insuring party, but it seems complicated and a I can see why it would seem like a grey area when it comes to holding them to the same standards. I would be interested to see how this plays out.

I would also like to point out that cosmetic surgery is not always considered elective, at least in the way some commenters are saying. With many more procedures being deemed as medically necessary for transgender individuals, some on a case-by-case, many procedures such as laser hair removal, tracheal shaves, and some forms of FFS are falling under the umbrella. It’s the opinion of WPATH and much of the medical community that these are as elective as a facial burn victim getting reconstructive skin grafts are. People like to minimize this because its a weird middle ground between mental and physical issues, but these surgeries are often life-saving and have massive rates of improving the condition of the patient overall.

TLDR: this shit is complicated and we all know health insurance will always try to fuck you.

Sources:

• WPATH Statement
• Blurb on insurance exclusions
• healthcare.gov on trans exclusions, half way down page
• Section 1557 Affordable Care Act

You don’t think the non-trans staff can get hormones or medically recommended surgeries? I bet they can. Turbocam is calling out a specific class of people and denying coverage. If the health plan rules said “Black people can’t have surgery to fix broken bones”, they would lose instantly.

This is “medically recommended surgeries”, not elective.