Washington Gas bill

I would like to mention that people outside of Broadlands are receiving painful bills as well.

Case in point: family member lives in Reston in a home w/out a basement (it is older home with block/brick construction) and their bill was $700!!!! That's even with new windows. Ouch

 

January was a tough month....probably the worst since December 2000. My bill was $520 that month, but only $350 last month (I puchase my gas from WGES, not Washington Gas) which has proven to be a real savings over the last several years. Their prices per therm have been cheaper.

 

Whats WGES stands for ? Any website for WGES to find current rates ? Whats the procedure to switch ?

Thanks

 

Our price per therm is now 81.1

What have others jumped to?

 

Is that with Washington Gas? Where do you find cost per therm? Our overall bill was $380.47, with 322.9 therms used, for an overall cost of $1.18/therm. This probably isn't the best way to calculate it, though, because there are "fixed costs" involved in this overall price. Here is how the relevant portion of my bill reads:

TOTAL THERMS (TH) USED 322.9
DISTRIBUTION SERVICE
DISTRIBUTION CHARGE:
25.0 TH @$.4540 $11.35
100.0 TH @$.2918 $29.18
197.9 TH @$.2448 $48.44
SYSTEM CHARGE $8.80
PGC @$.8491 $274.17
NATURAL GAS SUPPLY SERVICE
LOCAL UTILITY TAX $2.70
ST.& LOCAL CONSUMPTION TAX $5.83

TOTAL GAS CHARGES $380.47

What is my cost per therm? Is it PGC? It looks like I pay a base cost of $.84 per therm (PGC), with a surcharge based on how many therms I used ($.45 for the first 25 therms, $.29 for the next $100 therms, and then $.24 for the last 197.9 therms).

Here's an important question: do I pay a penalty for going on the "budget" plan? That is, is my cost per therm higher because I am on the budget plan?

I would be interested in finding out whether everyone is paying the same rate (even amongst Washington Gas customers).

 

I'm on the budget plan. I'm charged a flat rate for 11 months, and there is a settle-up billing in the 12th month. Last year, I paid $55 per month for 11 months. The 12th month I was billed around $165. My usage averaged $65 per month due to the exceptionally cold winter last year. This year, they raised my budget plan to $56 per month.

Each month my bill showed what my charges were -- calculated just like they would be if I paid in full each month. There's a running total on the bill -- total $$ used and total $$ paid. Right now, I've used $500+ in 5 months, while total billings are $280 (5 months at $56), so as of today, I owe them more than I've paid. Theoretically, this will even out in May, June, July, and August when my gas usage drops significantly. I suspect I will owe them money in month 12, but I doubt it will be more than $150 or so.

It has worked pretty well for me. I have my electric bill on the budget plan as well.

 

Question on both your gas and electric budget plans: What if you overpaid by that 12th month (meaning your usage is less than your monthly payments) would they give you a refund?

 

I can't say for sure since they've never owed me. A friend of mine in on the budget plan with BG&E in Baltimore. She usually is "owed" money. She winds up with a credit that is applied against her future bills. I assume Washington Gas would work the same way.

In my case, if they owed me $100 at the end of the 12 months and my budget payment remained $56 per month, I'd get a $56 credit on the next bill (meaning nothing due) and a $44 credit on the bill after that (meaning $12 due).

 

Pats_Fan

yes, I was refering to your "PGC @$.8491 $274.17"

That is the price of the Natural Gas supplier. I believe I have PEPCO as my supplier (don't have the bill in front of me), and just re-locked in at $.811 for 18 months (I had been at .52 for 2 years and was quite PO'd that I could not keep that) since that is over a 50% increase in price for me.

 

I've been on the payment plan for several years. WaGass monitors the actual payments & total accrued amount. In the past we have been both above and below the amount in the several months prior to the end of the 12 month cycle. If you are over, they will scale your monthly payment down to help decrease the overage. They have also increased my monthly payment to help cover the shortage.

If at the end of the 12 months, you are still over, they will apply the extra to you next monthly payment(s). Overages are appplied to next statement. Hopefully, you will notice how much extra you owe, so it wont be a surprise. This last year, I noticed that we were severely lacking in the amount we had actually paid, so I started paying extra before WaGas increased my bill. That helped spread the cost out also.

 

WGES stands for Washington Gas Energy Services. You can sign up with them to supply the gas to your house. For comparison, the contract I am on runs from Feb. 1 to Feb. 1. The locked in cost per therm last year was .585, as opposed to the .8491 Washington Gas charged in January. The new rate for 2/04-2/05 is .71/therm.
Even better, they offer a fixed rate payment that remains the same, regardless how cold the winter gets. There is no "catching up" charge at the end of the year. They can terminate the contract if they determine you increase your gas usage by more than 20% than your profile. This profile is also shown on your bill. It lists the average temperature for the month and how many therms/day you used.
WGES phone number is: 888-236-9437.
Cliff

 

Thanks. I appreciate it. Thats what I thought browsing the web for WGES and again confused as there is smilarity in naming "Washington Gas" and "Washington Gas Energy Services". I will give em a call and see to get a better cost effective plan.

 

I was shocked when I got my last gas bill. Never have to pay this much in my life. It was almost $400. I moved in since last May to this SF in Southern Walk, about 3,000 sq ft living space. Temp set at 70 in both upper and lower units. Hadn't cooked much nor used fireplace and dishwasher. Was it about normal? Or do I have energy lost in my house? Shall I hire someone to check for heat lost? Please HELP!

 

My guess would be that these abnormally high gas bills has nothing more to do than with the current escalated cost of natural gas, plus
a colder than normal January. Hang in there. With spring around the corner, most of us won't have to deal with this until next winter again.

 

Dragon, my last three gas bills were $260, $280, and $423. You are not alone in your shock. It is just me and my husband in the Southern Walk section. We programmed our thermostats pretty low but the price of gas is really high.

 

We live in a single family home in Southern Walk and our bill was 440 last month. We do have a programmable thermostat which keeps it at 68 during the night and 74 during the day. I guess the high temperatures we like is affecting our bill...

 

We are in a Birchwood in Southern Walk.

Be very careful with the budget plan with Washington Gas. We went on the Budget Plan March 2003. The amount to pay each month was $75.00...well our catch up amounts for the last three months $340.00, $289.00 & $557.00. I called Washington Gas to complain to a deaf ear...NOTHING!

I am looking for other options. I appreciate your information cliff.

Has anyone else experienced the same?

 

I can see people with large home (2500+ sqft) having gas bills over $200. I'm in a small townhouse and my gas bill is normally below $100 and thats because I forget to program my stat. It's usually around $70s even on a cold month.

I usually have my temp set around 68F when I'm the only one. If the girlfriend is over, temp is set to 73. Try lowering the temp to something slightly below 70 and just put on more clothing. No need to walk around in shorts and t-shirts.

Solution: Invite lots of people over to watch a tv show or movie. You get lots of free body heat.

-Teak

 

Your gas bill does show how much you have used/been charged and how much you have already paid. I keep track of these numbers, so I do not have a shock towards the end of my plan year. Last year, I noticed that my payments were considerably less than the amount used, so I started paying more a lot sooner than WaGas noticed. My last few payments did not hurt as much because I kept track of these numbers.