Gas bill

I got a shock when I got the gas bill for December and it was slightly lower for Jan. I live in a small VM TH and my bill for dec was in the 250.00 range. I know that last couple of months were frigid, but I am trying to figure out if I am paying more than the average ..Wondering if need to get an energy audit for my house.
Anyone willing to share their experiences ?

 

I live in a (drafty) single family house. Our December bill was $250 and our January bill was $309.

 

I'm also in a Townhouse, my January bill was $210.
I have a programmable thermostat and I keep it pretty cold (according to my wife at least...) I keep it between 65 and 68 for a few hours a day when we are at home and awake, and 62 all other times (about 18 hours per day.)

So it sounds like your $250 bill is not all that out of alignment with other bills, just sucks that it costs so much. My old apartment was never more than $70 per month to heat...

 

Our SFH was $389 for Jan.

 

I've been questioning our gas bills as well. Although we are on a payment plan (but not a set rate), I always look at the usage dollars to compare. Our December usage $ was SO much higher than what we thought it should have been and then it went up as we expected it would in January.

The rates were about the same, so I started to question if the reading was wrong. Especially since we were on vacation for 8 days at the beginning of December and kept the entire house at 62. We have programmable thermostats that are at 68 when we're home (~15 hrs/day + Sat/Sun) and 62 otherwise.

I'm starting to question if our windows are letting too much out, if our insulation isn't working, if our system is just crappy or if the months were just *that* much colder on average vs. the prior years (but I have yet to look that up online).

So for what it's worth, my SW VanMetre single family bills are in the $400-$500 range for December and January :scaredeyes:.

 

This may be a chicken or the egg argument, but is it better to let your heat go down during the day when you're away or keep it at a constant (68) setting? Our HVAC repairman has said to keep it constant if we wanted to keep our costs down. Ever since we've kept it constant, we have had cheaper rates and have noticed that the heat doesn't run as much as it did when we let the temp dip to 62 during the day. Then again, we've only tested this for two months. Thoughts?

 

Huh. And I thought the energy efficient people pushed the programable thermostats. Makes sense to keep it constant, though.

 

Depends a lot on the type of heating system you have. See this:

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12720

 

We kept ours constant and then noticed a savings when we started using the programmable thermostats.

 

SW SFH - 67 degree setting $390 for JAN. I called WX Gas to complain urge others too as well. WX Gas says 1) coldest JAN on record 2) A gas reader (humanoid) read the meter this month ergo it can't be wrong.

 

They didn't say anything about December did they? Our December bill was insane compared to expectations. I usually expect our Jan and Feb to be about where we got it for Jan.

 

SW SFH (Cedarwood w/ Basement) and lots of windows Dec $318...January $489

Main Level (and basement) set @ 67
Bedroom Level set 64

 

SW SFH (Parkdale w/ Basement) January $389. Both floors set at 70.

 

GAS USAGE$177.24
2 floor condo. ive kept it at or around 70 and lower during the day
my jan and february were pretty steep
this month doesnt seem right either