Electric/Gas Bill way high

Joeslop

So it's December, which means it is usually cold. I've been running the heater at 70 degrees, which isn't very high. My bill last month for utilities was around $110.

I just got the bill for the last 30 days and it's $210. The gas usage is over 4 times what it was on the previous bill! Is something fishy going on or is this typical?

It should be noted that this is the first place I've lived where I had to pay utilities so I have no prior experience to go by.

Nerdtendo

Sounds pretty normal to me. You could winterize your home with a few of those kits, they're a bit of a pain in the ass to put up, but the added insulation could save you some cash in the long run.

The house we live in over here is huge, and it's insulated extremely poorly. We just don't turn on the heat unless the house is in danger of dropping below 35 degrees. A single month's gas bill last year was 1300 dollars. We're not planning on renewing our lease another year.

Space heaters are a life saver for us, you could also consider the same thing. Turn down the heat, and stick to your room for most of the winter with a small space heater.

PeregrineFalcon

You'll have to tell us more - what kind of house, how old is it, what gas-fired appliances if any you have, and what kind of heat (direct gas heat to the furnace, or gas-heated water, or what)

For comparison, my gas bill this month (last 30 days) was about CDN$70, at ~4.0m3 a day.

Djeet

That's kinda to be expected as you're running the heat a lot more now. I'm assuming you've a gas furnace.

I think 70 is kinda high, especially if you're trying to economize on utilities.

PeregrineFalcon

Nerdtendo wrote: »

Sounds pretty normal to me. You could winterize your home with a few of those kits, they're a bit of a pain in the ass to put up, but the added insulation could save you some cash in the long run.

The house we live in over here is huge, and it's insulated extremely poorly. We just don't turn on the heat unless the house is in danger of dropping below 35 degrees. A single month's gas bill last year was 1300 dollars. We're not planning on renewing our lease another year.

Space heaters are a life saver for us, you could also consider the same thing. Turn down the heat, and stick to your room for most of the winter with a small space heater.

Either you've got one too many zeroes or what the fuck man.

Joeslop

The house is fairly recent, though I'm renting so I don't know for sure. The only gas appliance I have is the heater, my oven is electric. Not sure what kind of heater it is.

Lord Malory

Sounds pretty typical. Ive personally experienced this. Running the heater at 70 may not be a big deal, but you are definitely using FAR more than 4x the amount of heating gas/fuel than you do when you do not run it at all. I know gas is supposed to be cheap. But running it for a few hours a night, or even all night, definately adds up. I used to live in an old house with gas space heaters. In the winter it would add 70-100 bucks depending on how much myself and my roomate were home.

OremLK

Yeah, that kind of thing is normal. We get the reverse thing here in Texas--in the summer, our electricity bills double or triple compared to the colder parts of the year, due to the air conditioner running so much more. I imagine that's the same sort of that is happening with your gas heater.

Dman

What happens with some of my bills is that they figure out what you use on average and just charge that amount every month. Then months later they actually check you meter and you get a bill that is strangely high or low to make up for the fact that they were billing you the wrong amount all along.

Crashtard

I'd definitely call the gas company and make sure they aren't going by an average like Dman said. They might be getting that figure based on last years usages. If you didn't live there last winter the person that did before you might have kept it 80 in there, and that would make a huge difference.

bowen

$210 for a month in a gas fueled house isn't out of the ordinary. Especially if you run 70deg all day and night long.

Get a timed thermostat and set it down to 50 when you're not home and 60 at night and get some blankets and watch your $210 bill drop to something more like $100.

Nerdtendo

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

Nerdtendo wrote: »

Sounds pretty normal to me. You could winterize your home with a few of those kits, they're a bit of a pain in the ass to put up, but the added insulation could save you some cash in the long run.

The house we live in over here is huge, and it's insulated extremely poorly. We just don't turn on the heat unless the house is in danger of dropping below 35 degrees. A single month's gas bill last year was 1300 dollars. We're not planning on renewing our lease another year.

Space heaters are a life saver for us, you could also consider the same thing. Turn down the heat, and stick to your room for most of the winter with a small space heater.

Either you've got one too many zeroes or what the fuck man.

PeregrineFalcon wrote:

what the fuck man.

is absolutely correct. The gas bills are insane. Even when we dropped the heat down to 67 degrees, it was still around six hundred dollars. We gave up after that.

To explain just how poorly this enormous house is insulated, in the morning, you can see sunlight through the slats of the wooden floor in the kitchen. The sun shines right into the basement, and through the floor.

It's also a four bedroom house, and the ceiling on the bottom floor is thirteen feet high IIRC.

edit:

I walk to and from work every day. When it gets colder, I'm wearing thermal underwear under my shirt as well as long johns under my pants, two hoodies, and a leather jacket. I usually just keep them on when I get home.

Djeet

Since the furnace is the only gas appliance it sounds like a totally legitimate bill.

A programmable thermostat can help. Basically you'd program it so 15-20 minutes before you come home it kicks up to 70 (from say 60). And then it's programmed to drop down to 60-something 30 minutes after you see yourself tucked warm in bed asleep. And then it would kick up to 70 again 15-20 minutes before your alarm goes off.

They aren't cheap, but over 3-4 months cold weather they could feasibly pay for themselves. Plus some municipalities will install one for free as part of an energy-efficiency initiative.

EggyToast

Get them on eBay! They're cheaper than crappier models sold at Lowes/HomeDepot. L/HD only sells the 2/5 models, the ones that let you set a weekend temp and a weekday temp. While that's fine for some people, you can save yourself about $20 and get one that's fully 7 days programmable through a reseller on eBay -- same manufacturer (Honeywell) and everything. Most thermostats are very simple, as well, with just a wire or two to hook everything up.

And yes, until you get that, turn your heat off when you go to bed, wake up and rush to the shower and then to get dressed, and head out. Turn the heat on when you get home; it won't take long to heat up.

Heating a house 1/3 of the time is a wallet-saver. I've got cats but fuck the cats, they've got fur and can stay warm on their own.

We keep ours no higher than 68; 65 on the weekends. If you have some routines, such as doing your hair in the morning and you're in front of a mirror for an hour, buy a space heater rather than heating the entire house. Or do it after you're dressed.

Fireflash

I don't know if you can do this where you are, but here we have the option of balancing out the bills throughout the year. Basically they charge you more per month during summer and less during winter, making it so that your bills are more stable throughout the year.

EggyToast

Fireflash wrote: »

I don't know if you can do this where you are, but here we have the option of balancing out the bills throughout the year. Basically they charge you more per month during summer and less during winter, making it so that your bills are more stable throughout the year.

This is often referred to as a "Budget Plan," and most companies (in the US) offer something similar so that people aren't surprised in the wintertime.

Seaborn111

EggyToast wrote: »

Fireflash wrote: »

I don't know if you can do this where you are, but here we have the option of balancing out the bills throughout the year. Basically they charge you more per month during summer and less during winter, making it so that your bills are more stable throughout the year.

This is often referred to as a "Budget Plan," and most companies (in the US) offer something similar so that people aren't rendered homeless in the wintertime.

fixed.

mcdermott

I just got the bill for the last 30 days and it's $210. The gas usage is over 4 times what it was on the previous bill! Is something fishy going on or is this typical?

Yes, this is not unusual. Our bill usually ramps up for December-Febuary, and amounts of 3x what we pay in October or April are not unusual. It gets colder, and the heater just has to run a lot more. Depending what you have your thermostat at, and how your house is insulated, it may be running nearly full-time.

EggyToast wrote: »

We keep ours no higher than 68; 65 on the weekends. If you have some routines, such as doing your hair in the morning and you're in front of a mirror for an hour, buy a space heater rather than heating the entire house. Or do it after you're dressed.

Also note that many space heaters aren't meant for use in bathrooms, at least not when the shower is running. The humidity in the air can fuck with them. But yes, you can save a boatload by keeping your house colder and using space heaters for only the rooms you're in.

We own two for just this purpose. One has a handy carrying handle for moving from room to room. A space heater can get a bedroom-sized room (with door shut) from "oh fuck it's cold" to "it's downright toasty" in no time flat.

bowen wrote: »

$210 for a month in a gas fueled house isn't out of the ordinary. Especially if you run 70deg all day and night long.

Get a timed thermostat and set it down to 50 when you're not home and 60 at night and get some blankets and watch your $210 bill drop to something more like $100.

Depending where you live you may be able to get this subsidized somehow. I know up here for the last couple years Northwestern Energy has offered like a $20 rebate or credit or something if you buy one.


Also look at how your house is insulated. It's silly, but check that all windows are firmly latched...I think we lost like $100 last year just because one of our downstairs windows in a room we don't use was closed, but not latched. Check doors for drafts...in our case, our downstairs back door leaks horribly, so I ended up just sealing it off for the winter (used clear tape all around the frame). Cut our costs dramatically. A lot of people will also put plastic over their windows (on the inside), which helps...we don't, but just because our cats like to sit in them and they'd be.....displeased.


EDIT: Also, if it's possible you may want to cut unused or less-used rooms off from heat entirely. We keep our two upstairs rooms shut and the heater thingamabobs closed, so for the most part we don't waste energy heating them. Enough heat seeps into them to keep them well above freezing, which is all that really matters. Then when we want to use them, we just use the space heaters. In a smaller apartment this will probably be less critical.