kantonburg

Are you serious? Your cats? Hell I keep mine at 68 just for me. My cat would be lucky to get 62...if I had one.

PeMo

If it helps, here are the details of my latest bill:

Therms used in 35 Days: 164

Basic Charge(??):........................$5.00
Delivery Charge:..........................$0.12857 per therm
Cost of Gas:...............................$0.83783 per therm

Total Cost: $0.966490..................$158.49
Interim Rate Adjustment:................$2.01

Total:.......................................$165.50

Average daily temp this period: 20 Degrees
Average daily gas usage: 4.7 Therms

Gas price from supplier:..................$0.95 per therm (up from $0.88 last year)

matta

The joy of natural gas prices.

What blows me away is the prices they charge for natural gas. My girlfrien's bill was around $4/Therm a few months ago. The natural gas price to utilities, at the same time, was $0.433/Therm ($4.33 / MMBtu). All the utility company does is receive the gas, route it to you, and bill you, and they charge you a 10x price increase. I know they have to do monitoring and own pipelines, but if they can't keep their operating costs to less than that 90% of the gross revenue, they shouldn't be in business.

matta

That's not too bad in terms of $/therm, but if there's no way they're paying that much for a therm unless it's gold plated and signed by Elvis.

Jonny2k1

Our December bill was around $400. We rent the top level of an old drafty house, but the $400 includes the entire house which is split amongst the tennants (the weirdest way to do it, IMO).

GoVegan

Agreed. I've got two cats, but they're gonna be seeing some below 60 degree days as soon as I bother to figure out the thermostat. It'll be like giving them a taste of the great outdoors.

WarriorPrincess

I have to keep the temp at 72 degrees or my cats get sick - vet bills cost a whole lot more than my natural gas bill, let me tell you. (when they get a cold their asthma and heart conditions act up, so off to the vet they go - not fun for anyone). I have a gas heater, water heater, and stove. My place is about 900 sq. ft., and the bill is approx. 10-20 during warm months, 50-115 in cold months. This year is brutal, because it has been consistently 30's at night, 50's during the day, easily 10-15 degrees colder than any year I remember. My electric bill is only $20-30 year round, so I guess it all evens out.

GoVegan

Ah, that makes sense. I wasn't taking into account cats with medical problems. You don't have to explain your desire to avoid vet bills to me. I've driven an hour away to a veterinary teaching hospital to get my cat into surgery, so I'm familiar. I'm sure my cats would prefer an 80 degree house, but that's not going to happen. If they required a certain temperature, that would be a different story.

kantonburg

ditto

Xndman

I live in a 1,800 sq ft rancher in Baltimore. In the winter months my bills run from 300 - 400. Summer bills (with AC) about 140. The walls in my brick house (built 1950) have not insulation. Just brick, wood, and plaster. Sucks for winter but I should be ok if a tornado ever hits.

madara

I think my dad's is $250 here in wisconsin. He not at all happy about that. He told me flat out there is no way they can retire here in WI between property taxes and heating for winter months.

SpaceBoy

Here in Boston, my 2 bedroom apt gas bill was 160 this month, and 90 the month before that. Seems high to me, but I had around the same in Chicago so I guess it's right...

Ergyu

My gas bill this last month was $252.00, and the month before it was $180. I live in a 4000 sq ft house built in the 1920s that is incredibly drafty. We've since gotten used to being freezing cold.

Just Lurking

A co-worker bought a 3 story victorian house that was about 120 years old. It was in rehab area that the city was trying to get people to rehab. He started remodeling it in the early spring. He talked non-stop about how great it was to revitalize a old neighbor instead of contributing to sprawl. Well he quit talking about has fall rolled around, everyone thought he was just getting tired of the remodeling. Then winter came and he did not mention anything at all. Then all at once, his family was living moved in with his parents. Seemed that he got a few winter natural gas bills - November was $1100, December was $2500, January was $4000 and February was over $5000 when he gave up and moved out.

He believes in sprawl and well new insulated homes now.

Sloth911

I posted about this before. My gas bill is always $7.19 each month. I have a gas furnance, gas stove, and gas water heater. My thermostat is always at 72.

The catch? MY gas meter has been broke even since I bought my house 20 months ago. I realized it in December of 2003, I had been keeping my house at 60/68 degrees for two months, but my gas bill never went up, I looked at all my gas bills together, and I realized the initial/final meter reading was the exact same on every single bill.

I called PECO in Dec 2003 to ask them about, they said my meter must be broke, and that someone would be out to fix it in two weeks. Well, that was over 1 year ago, and it is still broke.

DVD Polizei

I stopped using gas over a year ago. Way too expensive. Instead of a $120 a month gas bill + a $45 electric bill, I now only have a $95 a month bill when running an electric space heater I bought.

das Monkey

My gas charges run about $10/month in the winter, but all the base fees and service charges push it over $30. I have amazingly good insulation and almost never run the heat (haven't turned it on yet this season).

das

Pato1

another vote on getting a programmable thermostat. Make sure you can program your temps indivudually for the week.

greg9x

2600 sq/ft townhouse and bill has been ~$40 so far this winter....of course it's been like spring for most of it so far. Highest i've had is $170 but that was like a freak one and haven't had another close to it, usually ~$100 for a fairly cold winter month.
Oh, stove and water heater are also gas. And yes, get the progammable thermostat !

kvrdave

Just got my new one. an average of 6 therms per day. Taxes, etc. came out to exactly $200

nevermind

Just got the latest bill. 2 months (pretty cold too): $140.

Not bad, IMO

GoVegan

In case anyone's keeping tabs on my life, (Please don't. It's embarrassing.) I finally started using my programmable thermostat. I'm so excited. So very, very excited.

RevLiver

If they ever get around to fixing it, don't be surprised if they bill you for all of the gas you've used since then. I've seen news stories about people getting $10,000 gas bills in situations just like yours.