Natural Gas Suppliers & Rates

Our Natural Gas Supplier (Pepco) is no longer providing annual "locked" rates, or even providing Natural Gas at all (guess it was a $$ loss). We have been pushed back into Washington Gas as the distributor and the supplier.

Has anyone recently tried to "lock-in" a Natural Gas Supplier, with an Annual rate/therm?

I have only been able to find 2 suppliers so far:

NOVEC $1.48/therm
WGES $1.46/therm

these rates are locked in for 12 months, and DO NOT include the distribution charge, currently @ $.45/therm.

This is a HUGE increase (80%) over last winter ($0.81/therm) and will put a big dent in the wallet.

Anyone been down this path??

What rates do you have "locked"?

Michael

 

On a similar vein-we were thinking of signing up for the "budget plan" through Washington Gas so that they will take the average of the LAST 12 months of use and charge us monthly based on that average (so we can defer the huge increase until next year). Are there any thoughts on this?

 

After having one gas bill last year that was over $400 we called and switched to the "budget plan" for this coming winter. I think we're paying somewhere around $160 a month based off our usage for the last 2 years. $160 a month is much better than what will most likely be a few months well over $400 this coming winter.

I've also installed new smart thermostats in the house set to 67 during the day, 69 when we are home, and 68 at night for this coming winter for the top floor. The bottom floor is one degree lower on each. Last year I had it set to 68 during the day, 72 when we were home, and 70 at night. I've also closed off a many of the vents in the rooms that we don't use as often.

We also installed a whole house humidifer which should also help. When the humidity is higher you can deal with colder temperatures apparently. The air feels warmer. We'll see if that holds true. Even with the whole house humidifer we had to put a large portable humidifier upstairs to keep the humidity in the house around 30-35% last winter. The winter before that I saw the humidity in the house drop to extremely low unhealthy levels. Not to mention that the poor cat kept shocking herself everywhere she went.

 

IMO the "budget" plan isn't needed because gas > electric in winter and vice versa in summer, thus providing more or less the same sum of costs...

Re: temps... we do 58 at night (love the down comforters!) and 68 day in the winter months. We like it cool at night... cheaper to shed layers of bedding vs. heat entire upstairs/house!

 

geez, there is no way I could do 58 in our house. 65 is about as low as I could go. any lower and I can't get out of bed.

 

Last winter we had a couple of gas bills that approach $500 in the coldest months. We have not done the budget plan as of yet because our elec and water bills increase in the summer months which kind of offsets the decreases in the gas bill then, but still they are not anywhere near $500. This winter I am fearing bills much higher, although we will be keeping the house much cooler (probably by at least 2 degrees on average with the programmable thermostat). I told my family to get used to sleeping in long johns, socks and gloves!

 

well yeah, we have the heat come on abut 30 minutes before we get up and it's back to 68 =)

 

I find the budget plan very easy to deal with. We actually do the budget plan for both the electric & the gas. It keeps the bills at a consistent level with no real surprises.

 

Is it possible to do both the "Budget Plan" and to "lock-in" an annual Gas Supply Rate? Anyone done this? With the "Budget Plan", when do the true-ups occur?

 

The plan I am on with WGES is sort of a combination "budget" and "lock-in" plan. I pay $185/month for gas regardless of how much gas I use. There's no catch up fee at the end of the year. My renewal cycle is Feb 1, so my rate is locked in until then. What the renewal rate for the following year is, I don't know.

 

cliff, you should resell your nat gas =)