Natural gas estimate help (Fairburn: appliances, how much, buying a home)

[sammykjo]

Hey all,

My husband and I are looking to move in about a year. We will be moving to a much bigger house, and most likely gas instead of electirc. Our house right now is electric, and most places we have live have been...so we don't have much experience with natural gas bills. I understand it is usually more expensive, but I would like to get an estimate for the size of house so I can better try to figure a budget for us.

The house we are looking at is about 4300 sq ft living space and is located in Fairburn. Is there anyone that lives in a house about this size that is gas and could tell me what their bills average in the summer and winter?? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[sammykjo]

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[chiefs fan]

Hi,

My home is nowhere near the size of yours, but maybe this can at least give you a rough idea. Our home is 1938 sq.ft. above grade, and is a two story with an unfinished basement in West Cobb (basement not cooled/heated). In the winter, our natural gas bill is at its worst $225/mo. Our home is 20 years old, so it is probably not as energy efficient as I would like to see-we are working on that. We use natural gas for heating our home and for the water heater. Our stove is electric, but a lot of homes at least in my area use gas stoves.

[vst]

$225/month to heat with gas???

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

That's what you get for buying a home with Gas appliances.

My worst bill during the past 7 years for heating a home with all electric appliances was approx. $125 (that's including EVERYTHING running night and day when my spouse wasn't working).

On average, my electric bill doesn't get over $85/mo during the winter and approx. $40/mo during the Summer.

Ask anyone with gas to tell you how much they've paid in gas and electric bills for the life of their home.

[DoveDiva]

Georgia Public Service Commission This site will tell you the average for each month, sorted by provider. Hope this helps!

[chiefs fan]

Originally Posted by vst

$225/month to heat with gas???

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

That's what you get for buying a home with Gas appliances.

My worst bill during the past 7 years for heating a home with all electric appliances was approx. $125 (that's including EVERYTHING running night and day when my spouse wasn't working).

On average, my electric bill doesn't get over $85/mo during the winter and approx. $40/mo during the Summer.

Ask anyone with gas to tell you how much they've paid in gas and electric bills for the life of their home.

How big is your home? None of the homes we looked at had all electric. We had a tough time finding a home with an electric stove, for that matter. This is the only place that I have lived that I had such high gas bills (and I lived in ID and MO). Our home loses a lot of heat & cooling to poorly sealed windows and such, but we are fixing that. Our electric bill is much worse. Plus both of our furnaces are 21 years old, and are terribly inefficient.

Also, $225 was our worst after two winters here; not our average.

[Georgia]

225 for Gas???
All I know is they must like it "HOT"
I have 3200 sq foot with one room having 20 foot ceilings.
The highest gas bill I have ever had was $167.00 for the month during Christmas with the big Christmas dinner, along with my elderly parents with both furnaces running full bore. Therm set on 75 degrees.
During that time I was sitting out side with shorts on:-)

Make sure of one thing over gas and / or electric.
Make sure you know the builder, make sure you monitor the build of your home, make sure if you buy a re-sale it is fully inspected.
Not so much electric cost vs gas, it is insulation and quality of the pump or furnace that will give you the heebie jeebies.
There are many shotty builders in the south, so make sure you investigate fully.

[movingtohenry]

This question goes to VST .What's the size of your home?

[Yeorwned]

If you're buying a 4300sqf house, allotting for natural gas bill shouldn't be that much of a problem. Unless something bad happens to natural gas pipelines, it will be cheaper to heat your home with a furnace rather than a heat pump. The water heater is the same story unless it is a tankless unit, which either electric of gas can be better, depending on the model installed.