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Mundane Heating Bill Question

00:23 / 23.10.05

Over a year ago I signed up for a payment plan with the gas company so that they'd charge me throughout the year for heat. The idea is (since it was my first year here) they would look at the average gas usage for this apartment per year, and divide it by 12, so that my winter bills wouldn't be unmanageable.

The monthly bill turned out to be $174. Is it just me or does that seem staggeringly high? In the past, when I've just paid per my usage, I've never had a bill higher than $200 (for other apartments). I'm not good enough at math to figure out what my monthly bill would be off the payment plan, but something smells fishy.

I suck at estimating square footages, but it's a first floor two-bedroom with baseboard heating. We try to keep the heat off completely from May to November. We also have a gas stove, a gas dryer than was out-of-service for about 5mo, and we pay for the hot water. We have new windows.

What are other people's bills like? Please tell me the gas company has somehow fucked up. I apologize for the boringness of this thread topic. But you are just so smart, witty, allknowing, and sexy that I had to ask you and only you this important question. Plus you have excellent shoes and your breath smells nice.

00:51 / 23.10.05

I can't remember my exact utilities bill but $174 does seem rather a lot. Did they read the meter?

00:56 / 23.10.05

Well, I've never seen anyone come by and actually look at the meter, but there is an "actual usage" figure on the bill. It seems our actual usage for September - this would be just the hot water and the stove/oven then - was $50. Also, I'm looking at it more closely now, we used 23 therms in Aug (lowest) and 302 in Feb (highest). So that would make our winter bill approximately - $600???

01:16 / 23.10.05

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita kicked the shit out of the Gulf Coast, which is where most of the natural gas refineries in the US are—and many of those refineries are now either shut down, or operating at reduced capacity.

Natural gas is now in short supply, and in high demand—something like 97% of new construction is heated by gas—so the price of heat is going to skyrocket this winter. $600 for December or January is not out of the question.

My advice: buy a couple of sweaters. Turn your water heater down a notch, too.

rising and revolving

01:27 / 23.10.05

Er, where are you, geographically speaking? Makes a bit of a difference. If you're in Montreal, that's not too bad - and why haven't you come to say hello?

If you're in Australia, you're being ripped off.

01:39 / 23.10.05

According to ibis's user profile—which you can see by clicking on hir username—s/he's located in Boston, Massachusetts.

rising and revolving

02:21 / 23.10.05

Oh.

I feel dumb now. I've just become accustomed to people listing their location as "The Land That Thyme Forgot, but Rosemary Recalled" and such ... didn't even think of looking.

Boston gets cold. Buuut - I'd call and ask them how they're working the bill out, because in theory they should be using last years numbers ... which means you may not benefit so much from reducing your usage, until you get your rebate. Which is great if you can spare the cash now, but not so hot if you can't.

12:53 / 24.10.05

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita kicked the shit out of the Gulf Coast [...] Natural gas is now in short supply, and in high demand—something like 97% of new construction is heated by gas—so the price of heat is going to skyrocket this winter. $600 for December or January is not out of the question.

Yeah, the scary part is that was LAST winter's bill. This winter gas is expected to go up almost 50%. I guess this is just the cost of living in Boston.

I would like to try to work something out with the gas company but they don't like me too much because I haven't been current on my bill in months.

I will try to get the landlady to turn down the water heater (we don't have access). I hope she'll go for it... she's pretty batty and likely to think we're trying to put one over on her somehow. I admit that in the past I have been a bit heavy-handed with the thermostat, but I guess I've learned my lesson. I'll just have to tie the dog to my icy feet to keep me warm.

foot long subbacultcha

15:14 / 24.10.05

Are you in a new place that's bigger than where you've lived before? Is it less well insulated? Does your thermostat not work so well any more?

17:31 / 24.10.05

It's bigger. I think the insulation is fine. There are some problems with the thermostat (a few times we'd turn it down but the heat would BLAZE madly). We had the landlady in to see for herself, and she told us basically it was our imagination. But it's not her imagination telling her the garbage men are in on a conspiracy to dump her trash in the street.

01:25 / 25.10.05

Let's see, last year's highest bill for us was January... that was $128.47 for 103.22 therms. This is for a two-plus bedroom duplex with central heating and all gas appliances. Our thermostat is set at 68 & it's programmed to go down to 60 when we're asleep and when we're not home.