Report yr November 2007 natural gas bills

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petek

petek

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Just received my November billing and I'm always interested to see what others are paying for their gas and power. Well here's my November 2007
House is about 2500 sq ft, gas fired hydronic baseboard heating, gas water heater.

Billing from Oct 30 to Nov 28

used; 422 cu metres = 14903 cu. ft. $124.48
adjustment -$ 19.35
transportation $ 14.04
storage $ 3.93
delivery $ 21.80
delivery price adjustment -$ .20
Monthly charge $ 16.00
tax $ 9.65

total $170.35

We keep the house at a comfy 72 and the water heater is set low enough not to scald.

Anyone else care to share
 
Won't get my bill for another week or two.

It will proably be about half yours, since only had to turn on the heat a week or two before Thanksgiving. And while it's been chillier than normal here, it's still nowehere near what the Frozen North experiences.

I keep the thermostat at 66F. If I feel it's too chilly, I might increase it to 68F. Rarely more than that. The house is reasonably well insulated, although more could be done. It's a rambling single story ranch type cottage, so it has a lot of surface area up top to leak heat. Still, I managed to halve the gas consumption by addressing all the air leaks I could find and adding a lot of insulation to the attic, which was uninsulated previously. In addition to the lower gas bills, the home is much more comfortable because it's much less drafty.

The water heater is set to about 135F - a concession to the KD-2P Hobart/KA portable dishwasher, which has no internal water heater. Typically that consumes a few therms a month, but not nearly as much as space heating. I also line dry as much as possible during the summer. During the winter I will increase the machine drying (gas dryer) due to inclement weather or short days.
 
We're on the gas company monthly equal payment plan which is $173 per month. This is in stark contrast to when we bought the house last year November 15th 2006 and the previous owners same plan, same company was a frightening $270 a month. I soon turned off the ever running gas pilot for the gas log set in the living room fireplace and closed the then locked open damper (per code). I think that made a huge difference not having a gaping hole open 24/7. All I could see was my money fluttering up and out the fireplace chimney. Made an almost immediate difference and I called the gas company and told them to re evalutate the plan which they did. We're never in the living room anyways to use that fireplace, maybe over Christmas and I can always open the damper and relight the pilot if needed. Takes only a few minutes
 
Yep. As I went around looking for leaks, the worst I found were:

Stove hood: no damper whatsoever. And this was a big, almost free standing hood, exposed on two sides front and back, over a peninsula, with a six inch diameter exhaust duct going straight up to the roof. I fixed that by cutting out a section and inserting an automatic damper (opened by air pressure from the hood fan).

Fireplaces: This home has two brick fireplaces. One has never been used. It had a chunk of mortar blocking full closure of the flue. I fixed that, plus I had plexiglass panels made which fit snugly (with a bit of weathersrripping) into the fireplace openings. I put a little brass knob in each one to make it easier to remove. I know it's working because the fake light-bulb driven "fire effect" shade on one set of fake logs doesn't get enough draft to even turn any more.

Heating ductwork: There was a huge gap - big enough to stick a hand into - in one of the main forced air ducts under the house. Fixed that with fiberglass tape and mastic.

Other than that, I turned on all the lights in the house, went into the attic at night, and looked for light leaks. Where I found them, I either caulked the leak, or if it was too big, fashioned a cover from 1/2" plywood and caulked that in place.
 
Dampers and Flues

I lived in a rental for while that had no fireplace damper at all. I decided to duct tape a trash bag over the fireplace opening and that thing would alternately puff out and get sucked inward on windy days so I knew I had eliminated the biggest heat waster in that drafty house. Before that place, my partner's 1956 duplex had a fan in the ceiling above the stove area. No hood, just a fan way up there. The flue had a damper that would flip open with the fan's pressure, much like Rich described above. You'd think this would be a building code item with modern exhaust hoods.
 
Here is our Minnegasco Bill for Heat/Hot Water and One of Six dryers..

Total amount due $75.71

YOUR GAS USAGE Meter # M19790472554
29 Day billing period 10/04/2007 to 11/02/2007
Current reading 11/02/2007 7757
Previous reading 10/04/2007 7686
Metered Usage 71 CCF X Therm factor of 0.99689 = Therms used in 29 days = 71
Next meter reading 12/10/2007
Next billing date 12/11/2007

YOUR BILL IN DETAIL Residential Rate
Basic charge $6.50
Delivery charge $0.13684 per therm
Gas Affordability Program charge $0.00482 per therm
Cost of gas* $0.72577 per therm
Total cost of gas 71 THM 61.59
City franchise fee 2.89
City sales tax 0.33
County sales tax 0.10
State sales tax 4.30
Total current charges $75.71

Weather at MSP during this period:
TEMPS ACTUAL NORMAL DEPART
AVERAGE MAX 42.0 40.1 +1.9
AVERAGE MIN 27.0 24.8 +2.2
MONTH MEAN 34.5 32.5 +2.0
 
mine was

$37.75, that was the bill I paid on 11/26.

Furnace is set at 70 degrees. I didn't save the bill for detail.

Fred I would not be jumping up and down just yet, electric heat is WAY more expensive than natural gas, at least thats been my experience anyway.
 
Oh, the Joys of the Heating Season

Living in the midwest (Milwaukee) we started using the heat a little over a month ago. We have a red brick colonial ranch from the mid 60s (a little past mid century modern in style and a little over 2,000 sq. ft.) Our monthly budget for gas and electric is $252. The house has a high efficiency gas furnace, a 2 year old 50 gallon hot water heater and everything else is electric with all newer energy efficent appliances. The house is well insulated, could use a few new windows and has an automatic thermostat that manages the heating cycle - when home the temp is set at 69. One thing that would help this house would be to replace a few of the remaining original windows. Oh well.

Robert, $75.71 seems very reasonable for your house given the size (based off the pictures you shared). What do you set the heat at and do you adjust it up and down based on when you're home??

And Fred, granted you're now in a warmer part of the country but be careful with electric heat. If you ever run into a cold snap, it could get a bit expense depending on how warm you keep your space.

Pat
 
We pay $128.00 a month all year for our gas budget and most the time pay maybe $18 for July. We also have an HE gas forced air funace, 30 gallon water heater and new GE Profile gas dryer. The main house is set to 66 degrees when we are not home and 68 when we are home. We use our gas fireplace in the family room where our TV is.
Mike
 
I'm looking at Roberts wondering why so little gas used..but that's October to November...do you have your November bill yet?

Strange I thought that was the November bill, when I go on line that is the latest bill shown.

The weather averages shown are for the month of November. Since we had brand new windows put in the house last year the gas bill has been cut in half!
 
Oct & November

Here are mine. I included both Oct and Nov because they estimated in Oct and Nov was an actual read.

9/26-10/25-
Therms used 37.51
Cost per them $0.6732
Therms x cost $25.25
Total Bill $40.59

10/26-11/27
Therms used- 15.22
Cost per them $ 0.6958
Therms x cost $ 10.59
Total Bill $ 23.09

So, my total for 2 months was $63.68. I live in a 3400 sq ft 2 story home in the Chicago suburbs. We do have a Venmar heat recovery system on the furance and it works very well. We keep it at 72, day and night.

I am going to miss these low costs when we move in 3 weeks!
 
We had mom here over Thanksgiving week, and had the keep the house at about 82 degrees, so I was dreading a high gas bill, but it only came out to 100.42.

Unlike electricity, we are billed every month, and they don't have a budget billing option. The worst it's ever been was about $200 in the dead of winter.
 
gas bill

from 10/09 - 11/07 oh boy another should come next week
29 days I used 55 therms total bill is 79.56 not too bad a month, next one will be much higher since the weather has been pretty cold here
 
Our last bill which was paid on 11/15 was $55.08. We used 50.1 therms which breaks down as follows:
Local Distribution Service
Daily Fixed Charge (31 days @ $0.3369) 10.44
Volumetric ($0.23400 per therm) 11.72
Gas Supply Service
Gas Supply Acquisition Service ($0.3680 per therm) 1.84
Natural Gas Costs ($0.62034 per therm) 31.08

Total Gas Charges $55.08

Not too bad considering we keep the thermostat at 68-70 degrees.
 
I think we're the Highest in the Nation

October 30 to Dec 2nd. Gas stove, furnace, hot water heater and dryer(with a pilot light), 1800 sq feet, well insulated home.

111 therms used. supply charge $101.62
delivery chg $ 35.96
total gas $137.58
total cost per therm $ 1.23
I think my friends in New Jersey pay more, however.
 
I never thought I'd be looking forward to a gas bill...

But it just arrived today...

11/06-12/06

Usage: 43 Therms, 1.4 therms/day. Last year: 1.4 therms/day

Baseline Quantity: 65.1 Therms
Baseline Usage: 43 Therms @ $1.21296, $52.16 subtotal.

PG&E's Gas Procurement Cost is $.85153/therm

Gas PPP Surcharge: $1.65
Utility Users' Tax: $3.13

Gas bill total: $56.94
 
december gas bill

ok got the bill from 11/08 - 12/10 31 days 171 therms total bill 259.95 as we can see we have had price increases and much colder weather, only up and more from here to march at least. merry christmas to key span energy. bah humbug!!
 
Meter reading

Here in the Netherlands the meters are read once a year and the data are used to calculate your actual gas usage of the previous year and to estimate your gas usage for the coming year. You pay a fixed amount every month based on your estimated annual usage. At the end of the year the difference between estimated and actual usage is settled and you get a refund or you have to pay extra to make up for the difference.

Now my possibly stupid question: are US gas meters read every month? That seems very inconvenient to me. One has to stay home one day every month to let the meter man do his work.
 
Yes, the gas meters, and electric meters, are read monthly pretty much. Most meters are accessable outside the home so it doesn't need anyone to be home for the meter man to do his job.
 
And in situations where the meter is behind a locked door or gate (as in many city locations) I believe the gas/electric company is given a pass key so that they can enter and read the meters as needed.
 
This our bill as of 12/15/07 from 11/08/07 to 12/11/07
11/08/07 meter read was 2308 actual
12/11/07 meter read was 2439 actual
we used 131 ccf
Multiply that with 1.0415=136 total therms used.
Cost Minimum charge is $14.75
First 136.0 therms @.3871 = $52.65
Distribution adjustment 136therms x 0.04550= $6.19
That equals to a Gas Delivery charge of $73.59
Gas supply charge @1.19950/therm = $163.13
For a grand total of drum roll please....$236.72
Ouch!
We have Keyspan for gas here in Mass. we keep the heat at 65 during the day and 62 at night.
 
Hmm, the gas/electric meters are mostly inside the house here. I am not keen to give a key to persons that I don't know well. Besides, the meter man would have to carry an enormous number of keys, all of them labeled with the address of course. Doesn't seem safe to me. Then there is also the fact that you need 12 times the number of meter men that we need here. All to be paid by the customer.
 
Meter Reading, Seattle style...

In Seattle, electric meters are read on a 60 day cycle, and that is still a manual process, although they are converting to automation here in the next five years or so. The technology is pretty interesting: A signal is sent continuously to the substation to verify connectivity, and readings are collected by driving a special van around and picking up readings wirelessly.

This will allow us determine the extent of outages much more accurately. Theoretically, it will even let us cut power for credit issues from the system control center, although those will probably continue to happen from the pole because of the way people try to steal power.

This technology is not new. The private utility across the lake (the one with the higher rates and inferior service ;-) has had it for many years. But we're cheap.

One interesting side effect will be that everyone will get a new meter. Since meters tend to slow down as they get older, this will result in sticker shock for some ratepayers. We have the original meter from 1954 on this house, and I shudder to think about what will happen.

As for meter accessibility, it's in the city code that your electric meter has to be accessible to meter readers during "normal business hours". For houses, that means outside, for condos and apartments, that means give us a key.
 
Oops, I forgot to mention that most of the time a bldg manager will install one of our lock boxes on their building and put their key in it. That way, we have only a few keys to worry about. A similar system is used by the fire department.
 
Silly me. The electric meter on this house was making a faint buzzing sound when I moved in, so I called the power company and had it replaced. Probably should have kept it for lower rates, lol.

On most single family dwellings I've seen here, the electric meter is kept exposed on the side of the home, and the gas meter is often behind a little unlocked cabinet size door on the side of the home (usually near the ground, because they're heavy). My gas meter is under the house, accessible through a small door.

The power company periodically sends out messages with the bills explaining that if, for some reason, such as locked gates/doors, vicious dogs, etc., its meter readers can't get to the meter, then the power company will, by law, average the use for the past year and send a monthly bill based on that, and of course arrange for a safe meter reading to make adjustments on an annual basis.

Not sure how large apartment houses in The City arrange for meter readings. At my mom's old apartment building, the meters for each apartment were all in an enclosed ground level hallway behind a locked door to the street. I assumed the power company must have had a key, or some way (like a lockbox, good idea) to get into it. As I recall, she never had a key to that door, either, even though it functioned as a back door to the building. It is possible to make a lock that can have two keys - one which opens all locks like it, and another specific to that lock. The power company would key all the locks to such doors with the dual-key type lock, and keep the master key, while each apartment building owner would have a key that only opened their building's lock. This is the way many office buildings operate. And, I assume, older hotel rooms with mechanical and not electronic locks, so that housekeeping can get in to clean.
 

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