[delsolcruz]

how much are you paying? what are your heating habits? i swear there is something not right here. my bills are outrageous!!!!! my parents have a MUCH larger house and their bill was $10 less than mine last month.

1,000 sq ft townhouse (plus a basement). Consumers Energy is the supplier.

9/17 - 10/17 used 46 CCF and the cost was $40.59
10/17 - 11/17 used 84 CCF and my cost is $67.32

i'm being charged .541000 per CCF for the cost of gas and .140380 per CCF for the distribution charge, plus $7.50 for the deliver charge. Readings are actual.

while at home, my temp is set at 68. during the week when i'm at work, it's set to 60. however, it never gets below 63. i have neighbors on each side of me, so i only have three exposed sides to heat (front, back, and roof).

 

[LureMaker]

Let's do the math:
.541000+.140380=.681380*46ccf=31.34348
.681380*84ccf=57.23592
sounds like someone at the gas company needs to check their math skills to me
Could be that the Calculated Cubic Feet is just that, ....calculated. How long have you lived there? It might reflect the previous occupants usage habits and when the actual reading is taken there will be an adjustment made to your bill to reflect your acual usage. If not I think you need to make a phone call! Good Luck!

 

[TripleG]

I'm on a budget plan. I pay $58 every month, all year long.
Works out nice, I always know what I'll have to shell out each month.
I do the same with my electric.......

NoCode

 

[Pandora]

if your read is actual it has nothing to do with the past usage, that is only when we cannot get in to read the meter or you do not send in the reads. you can call and talk with an account specialist, they may be able to look up past bills at your adress. shut everything off and watch the two little test dials on your gas meter, one should be 1/2 ft per revolution. make sure that dial is not spinning. you may have a gas leak. i have seen plenty of those. remember if it is leaking it is going through your meter first. not all leaks will blow up your house. you need around 15 % air gas mixture to explode. some leaks are in walls that vent through the attic out the vents you never even smell. but anyways you can have your meter checked as well, if they do see a big increase in gas. also your furnace may be out of wack, gas valves do go bad they have a regulator inside, dropping the house gas pressure of 1/4 lb to 7 inches of water column. your furnace may be using too much gas. i have seen that a lot. it set set for a certain btu rating, it can be high and you would never know it.
or you can just come on Pandora next summer enjoy a free beer or two and quit whinning, if your billl wasn't so high i couldn't put gas in my boat...lol have a great day. man it's getting cold out, you better turn up the heat...

i just remembered if you have an outside grill that is the biggest sourse of leaks... any questions pm me

 

[CBJ]

My house is heated by natural gas.

I live in the Shores, I pay more for where my water goes then the actual water itself.

 

[The Perfect Fit]

Our house is in the country and heated by propane.. We pay $1700 this year...

 

[bobrob]

sounds high to me julie. on budget plan 136.00 a month 1650 sq ft house .. and thats having pool heater on too all summer . and pilot on it all winter plus gas fireplace.going lot of the time. ive had them read my meter and say it was actuall then i call and come to find out no one really read it at all.edison is good for this writing actuall when its not. call them and read it to them over the phone,they say they read it but half the time they dont.

 

[delsolcruz]

thanks all!

pandora, i'll print this message out and follow your instructions to see if anything is going on.

i guess a lot of people are on the budget plan...i'm not, so my bills, of course, are much cheaper in the warmer months.

i'm looking for peeps to post how many CCFs they use per month, temp their house is kept at, is temp kept the same all the time, and the size of their house.
i have a newer furnace (2001). i tried reading the book it came with, but i just don't understand the info and BTUs.

 

[delsolcruz]

come on peeps, post your info. i'm really curious to know if my gas use is exorbitant.

 

[Capt'n Mike]

Julie, we have an almost identical setup, except that my furnace is much older. It sounds like our temps are kept about the same.

Here's my previous two months;
9/17 - 10/16 (30 days) used 22 CCF and cost was $23.48
10/17 - 11/14 (29 days) 33 CCF and cost was $31.18

I'm using a digital 7 day (5+1+1) 4 setting programmable thermostat to turn down the heat at night, and during the day. What are you using?

 

[delsolcruz]

mike, a honeywell digital thermostat installed a year ago.

it appears there is a problem, and it's costing me lots of money.

i'll follow pandora's suggestions and hopefully i'll have a clearer direction after that.

i'm really at a loss of why i'm using so much gas.

 

[Capt'n Mike]

QUOTE(delsolcruz @ Nov 23 2003, 10:25 PM)mike, a honeywell digital thermostat installed a year ago.
Programable? Or do you have to manually drop the temp when you leave or go to bed?

 

[delsolcruz]

QUOTE(delsolcruz @ Nov 23 2003, 11:25 PM)mike, a honeywell digital thermostat installed a year ago.

it appears there is a problem, and it's costing me lots of money.

i'll follow pandora's suggestions and hopefully i'll have a clearer direction after that.

i'm really at a loss of why i'm using so much gas.
programable.

my parents tell me i should leave the temp at a certain degree all the time. however, i prefer to turn it down while i'm not at home, so mon-fri it's down while i'm gone and the weekends it stays at 68.

 

[Goose]

if you are having more than a 2-3 degree swing in temperature settings in a 24 hour period it is innefficient and actually costs more to reheat the house than to leave it at a certain temperature

for example, if you keep it at 68 while you are at the house and turn it down to 60 when you leave, and if the temperature in the home drops more than about 3 degrees, like to 63 as you say, it costs more to heat it back up to 68 than if you just turned it down to 65 and it held the temp there

what ever the highest temp you like to keep it at, only drop it no more than 3 degrees if this is done over 24 hour period, like a night

if you are away from the house for a couple days then it makes sense to drop the temperature more than 3 degrees from your comfort range

try this and see if it helps

 

[Capt'n Mike]

QUOTE(delsolcruz @ Nov 23 2003, 10:45 PM)programable.

my parents tell me i should leave the temp at a certain degree all the time. however, i prefer to turn it down while i'm not at home, so mon-fri it's down while i'm gone and the weekends it stays at 68.
I can see the thought behind that theory, but with the newer thermostats, I don't think that is as much of an issue.

I can't recall what the feature is called.... it's "Smart" something. What it does is learn how long it takes your system to get to the temperature you request.

So on the older thermostasts, if you set your temp to be 68 when you got home at 4L00, it would kick on at 4:00 and crank the heat until it reached the temp.

The newer ones may start as early as 3:00, and gradually bring the temperature up so that at 4:00 when you walk in, it's already 68. So it just works a little more efficiently that way.

Not that I think this would change the cost of your heating bill buy a drastic amount, but I think it's an answer to what your parents are telling you.

 

[delsolcruz]

mike, do you have a gas hot water heater? i do. i can't believe how different our CCF usage is for the same type of home.

i'll keep the heat at the same temp at all times. i'll see if that makes a difference. however, so far this year, i don't think the temp of the house has dropped down to 63 as it's still early in the year.

my highest bill last year was $108 for almost 200 CCFs.

 

[bobrob]

ever look in your attic julie to see what r rating insulation is? 19 or better would help. plus a hot water heater blanket.. and turning down hot water heater some so its not all the way up. window leaks?? they used to offer a free energy check of your home edison. they might still do this. figure its free.

 

[delsolcruz]

QUOTE(bobrob20 @ Nov 24 2003, 12:46 AM)ever look in your attic julie to see what r rating insulation is? 19 or better would help. plus a hot water heater blanket.. and turning down hot water heater some so its not all the way up. window leaks?? they used to offer a free energy check of your home edison. they might still do this. figure its free.
i have never been in the attic. it's a shared attic with the neighbors, so the person who lived here before had it nailed shut. i've never tried to get up there. i don't know what type of insulation is up there.

the hot water heater isn't all the way up. it's up because i love hot showers, but it's not up all the way. maybe it can be turned down a little.

i have horrible windows in the back of the house. really bad!!!!!! i'm hoping in a year or so, i can afford new ones. i use plastic to help keep the cold out.

 

[NoMoreDrama]

I have TWO furnaces AND a gas fireplace in this big old house. My bills in the winter go up to $250...AND when
I don't have my kids, I am rarely here. NOW THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS.

.....one of the many reasons I am selling my house.

 

[Capt'n Mike]

Yes, I do have a gas hot water tank also. Mine is turned up pretty high though. The shower runs through the tank pretty quick though, for whatever reason. So I don't think that part is very efficient.

I do have all new windows which I'm sure makes a huge difference. My blinds no longer move in the wind with the window closed!

The one basement window was pretty bad though. I just sealed it better about a week ago, so I hope that makes even more of a difference.