My gas bill!
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My gas bill!
| Thu, 01-12-2006 - 4:40pm |
My gas bill for December was $271.00! Now, I'm not heating a mansion. Our furnace is older and so are our windows so I'm sure that contributes alot but still.....Plus I keep the dang thermostat at 67-68 for most of the time. I about flipped out when I saw that bill. I don't know how some people can afford to heat their homes at all. I really don't know how people can afford to heat these great big huge homes. I just don't get it. Our upstairs is heated w/ baseboard electric heat--we don't have heating ducts upstairs. Why, I'll never know but I plan on adding duct work up here when we have central air put in--yes, I'm from the dinosaur era-we do not have central air yet.

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Well, our oil bill has not dropped below $350 since last year! I turn the heat off when I leave to take my daughter to pre-school (we leave by 8am and do not return until 12pm). I NEVER turn the heat up over 65 during the day and the upstairs is 50 or below (basically on just enough to keep the pipes from freezing!) and it goes up to 64 during the night. I have found that we can STREEEEETCH our oil if we do not take as many showers/baths (husband is good for at least 2 per day!). I generally wash dishes by hand so I have more control over how much hot water is used. Also, I generally wash clothing with COLD water (most labels call for it anyway).
This year we switched oil co's and pre-paid for a certain amount of oil. Only thing is that they want us to fill out a credit application and our credit is not so great right now.
Best of Luck!
Wow! I just got mine, and it was $153.31. We have a 3000 sq ft house (split level) in Atlanta (low cost of living compared to many places up North, I think). Last year at this time, our bill was $108.54, so it hasn't gone up hugely from this time last year. I used the same amount of therms, amazingly, last December and this December (67), but my per therm rate jumped from 1.099 a year ago to 1.779 this year. I figure that must be the difference in total bill amount.
We keep our thermostat at 63, much to my husband's dismay. Ds and I can just dress warmly and even sleep in our clothes if we have to to stay warm, but Dh wants it toasty enough to wear shorts and go shirtless around the house. LOL!
Pat :-D
We are on a budget ($66/month), but I think this month we ran up a $120 bill. We live in a 1,300 sq foot second floor apartment.
We both like it really warm...so the lowest we have been able to set the thermometer is 74. I am just thankful that Indiana hasn't had a nasty winter (so far!). I don't think the heat kicked on more than once today, if that.
~Aravis~
There was a story on our local news here in Atlanta about a woman who received a bill for $874!! That was more than her entire monthly income! She was such a sweet older lady, and I felt horrible for her. She said she was just going to have to make payments until it all got paid off. She was so calm as she spoke about it, while I was watching her with my jaw in my lap.
I've heard some families in Houston, TX had their bills increase over 500%! There has to be something wrong here. Is there such a thing as 'gas-gouging' in the Natural Gas sector, such as there is in gas stations?
Pat
I live up in Canada, so it can get pretty cold here. Although we have been very blessed this year with mild weather (so far, knock on wood).
We too have a very old house built in 1926, so the insulation in the walls are still sawdust and we have single pane windows. We currently can't afford to upgrade the windows or the furnace, which is over 30 years old.
These are some of the things we did.
We have put plastic on our windows (the kind that seals with hairdryer). We've also installed programmable thermostat (totally worth the money, at around $20-100). I think we recouped the cost of the thermostat within 1-2 months during a very cold winter. We also put heavy blankets in front of doors that lead to outside/anywhere cold. We've added foam insulation around the doors jambs(the one that just sticks on).
As a big ticket item, we added insulation in the attic, as most older homes do not have enough if any insulation in the attic.
Good Luck.
Donna
I think I can even beat you, tlenad! I'm a single woman, living in a brand new, 575 sq ft apartment in central Ohio, with plastic on the windows, and a thermostat set on 60 (2 or 3 times a week, I might turn it up to 70 for about 10 minutes, just to get some heat circulating, though)...and my gas bill was $85!! And I wasn't even home for 5 days out of December for heating the hot water tank with showers and dishes, etc!
I really don't get the difference, b/c my friend lives in a 1000 sq ft townhouse with a basement (which isn't added into that sq footage, so it's probably more like 1400 sf), keeps her thermostat set on 70, and her gas bill was the same as mine! She has a different gas company, though, so I think that's what the problem is. I have some dinky little Ohio company, while she has Columbis Gas, who might not charge as much.
All I know is...what happens if everyone can't afford to pay their bills, and they just stop? I think it's illegal to completely shut off someone's heat in the winter, isn't it? The gas companies are sure going to be seeing a lot of their charges going to collection companies, I'll bet...
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