The heating-cooling machine in the basement is definitely broken (it is apparently something like 20 years old -- longer than its life expectancy). Thursday it shall be replaced by the landlords, or rather, their 'guy,' who can sometimes sell them a better appliance with cosmetic damage for the same price as the basic unit. But I digress.

They asked if we would pay a little extra (if and when we buy this place) for a programmable thermostat. Well, just the day before we'd been looking at the Low Impact Living Calculator, and it recommends just such a thing, with between 1-3% annual savings of electricity, water, and CO2, generating a payback period of between 8-10 months (depending on thermostat cost and size of house).

So even though it sounded like a boondoggle gadget, we said yes.