Unintended consequences of energy efficiency or why I miss my down comforter

Just over a week ago we completed our latest home project (by which I mean contractors finished the work).  Our 100 year old house is now way more energy efficient than before so now we can feel like such uber green environmentalists, right?!?!   Oh wait, I think the green we had in mind was greenbacks as we’ve spent a lot of money letting the heat out of our house.  We’re not new to this game actually as over the 14 years of home ownership we’ve slowly been checking things off the list -

• Replace all the louvered windows because who has those in Wisconsin.  This isn’t Florida people.
• Improve our attic insulation beyond that of an unfinished garage
• New furnace, air conditioner and water heaters because ones from the 60s just aren't that groovy anymore

This time we went all out and joined the Green Madison program, got an energy audit and did all the recommended items on the list. 

• In wall insulation because crumpled up newspapers just aren’t as cutting edge as they were 70+ years ago
• Insulation for the basement joists and window wells because it's nice to be toasty when you're down in a stone basement waxing some skis
• Insulation in the crawl space under our back room (Dave won’t have to freeze when he sits in his "man closet" any more)

The upstairs apartment renters said they could feel the difference immediately which is awesome.  The unfortunate "downside" to all this energy efficiency is that our apartment is noticeably warmer as well.  It was so warm that I had to take our down comforter off the bed because it was way too warm.  I don’t like that.  I love how cozy it feels to be under the down comforter when it is a little bit cold.  Now don’t get me wrong I find it absolutely impossible to get out from under the comforter in the morning if it is cold.  Really though who doesn't like to be all warm and cozy under a warm comforter when it's cold.

Why not just turn down the thermostat you ask?  Here’s the thing – one thermostat for two apartments.  Two apartments means two different opinions on the temperature.  It wouldn’t be as bad if the upstairs apartment wasn’t a couple with a new baby so they are often up at night.  Oh yeah, and he’s a medical resident so he has a variable schedule.

Of course the thermostat is in our apartment and we’re the owners so we really could just be mean and turn it to whatever we want.  The only problem with that plan is we gave them a key so they could get in our apartment to adjust the thermostat during the day if they were too hot/cold.

The true victims of this story though are our cats.  They are not very happy about the loss of the down comforter to sleep on all day long.  They were very displeased when we put the comforter away.