Am I paying too much for gas? (Sacramento: how much, home)

[ferretkona]

Not sure if you have natural gas or propane.
My house in LA has natural gas and we rarely pay more than $10 a month for water heater, stove and house heater.
My house in Tuo. county I pay $175 a month for forced heat only on propane.

[davidt1]

Originally Posted by ryuns

Do you have access to the "My usage" section of the PG&E website? If the meter is new, it may not have any data to compare, but if it's there, that should tell if you're using a lot of NG compared to similar households. It shows the average user, the lowest-using quintile, and then what you're using.

Another thought is that that's not extraordinarily high for a darn cold January, assuming you haven't taken too many steps to reduce your usage. We only rung up about $52 this month, but our house is pretty well-sealed and insulated (the raised foundation is a bit of a heat sink, however), it's only 1100 sf, and we're almost pathologically tight with the heater. We usually leave it at 56 when we're not around and at night (usually only gets down to about 58) and then we only crank it up to around 65 when we're home in the evening. (It does come on when people visit though!)

If your house is inefficient and you're in SMUD territory, I'd see about getting an energy audit done to see if it's worth the investment to increase your efficiency. There are, of course, some lower cost steps that make sense for most people: sealing gaps and cracks, insulating your attics, installing a low flow shower head (surprisingly painless--mine works great), and using a programmable thermostat.

It's also possible that your old meter actually did have something wrong with it. It's apparently pretty common for people to get new meters and have sticker shock with their next bill, and suspect they're being overbilled. Usually, it's that the old meter was actually underbilling and the new one is accurate. That may or may not be the case here.

Hope that helps!

I asked the technician who installed the new meter. She told me there is nothing wrong with the old meter. She said they pick houses randomly to install the new meters because of some government mandate. Sounded like BS to me.

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by davidt1

My house is around 1600 sf. I leave the thermostat on at 70 degree 24/7. Is that too much?

I keep my temp at 70 degrees when I'm home except when I'm sleeping, then I turn it off, and my bill is way less (1/4) than yours. I've got similar footage, gas stove, and am in SMUD territory.

[NickB1967]

Originally Posted by caligirlz

I keep my temp at 70 degrees when I'm home except when I'm sleeping, then I turn it off, and my bill is way less (1/4) than yours. I've got similar footage, gas stove, and am in SMUD territory.

SMUD has natural gas? I am in SMUD electricity territory, but I still pay PG&E for natural gas.

[cb73]

My house is 57 at night, 64 during the day, and 66-67 when I'm home and cold. It never goes above 67 because I don't want to pay for it.

It's a trade-off. Either be nice and warm and pay the bill, or get some sweaters and good blankets and save the money.

[Bulldogdad]

Bout 78 cents a can is what I paid.

[davidt1]

I found a February 2011 gas bill that is almost half what I paid in February of 2013. The usage in 02/2013 is less than 02/2011, but the bill was almost twice as much. I am pretty sure the new smart meter had something to do with it. Why would PG&E install a new smart meter when the existing one was working fine. What worries me is there is almost no way to dispute this. With the new digital technology they can just charge you anything they want by changing the numbers at their computers.

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by davidt1

I found a February 2011 gas bill that is almost half what I paid in February of 2013. The usage in 02/2013 is less than 02/2011, but the bill was almost twice as much. I am pretty sure the new smart meter had something to do with it. Why would PG&E install a new smart meter when the existing one was working fine. What worries me is there is almost no way to dispute this. With the new digital technology they can just charge you anything they want by changing the numbers at their computers.

I know a little bit, but not much, about utilities in California. While I'm not going to stick up for PG&E, I will say that the meters they use are pretty well vetted before they go in. The utilities are highly regulated in California. By and large, they fleece the customers by convincing the Public Utilities Commission to accept their inflated rates as necessary for them to make ends meet. They don't, to my knowledge, fleece customers by overbilling the actual usage. It's not impossible, but I think it's more likely, just based on how most of that technology works, that the old meter was actually under-recording your usage. A couple other notes:

New meters go in for a lot of reasons. The old one may have been past its useful life. They also have grants and mandates to install smart meters, which let you monitor your usage. (Have you done that, by the way? Does anything look fishy?

Are you sure that you don't have any way to verify from the box? The smart meters I'm aware of still show flow, and the "smart" part is just a transmitter. Daily usage will show up online, and you can verify against the analog readings at the meter.

[lgt]

Originally Posted by davidt1

My house is around 1600 sf. I leave the thermostat on at 70 degree 24/7. Is that too much?

That looks about right then. If you don't have a programmable thermostat it would be a good idea to get one. They start at around $25. At that price it would pay it's self off in a month.

[jbmcd]

To be clear, the bill you found was for a previous owner/tenant, correct? So you don't know what temperature they kept the house at? Do you have a gas dryer?

Sacramento's climate can lead to wide variations in bills, I've found, because we're on the edge of needing heat at any given day; overnight sure, but in many houses on a sunny 40-50-60 degree day it isn't needed much of the daytime. More or fewer of those, plus keeping the heat off or lower at night (when it would cycle on the most) can easily make your usage vary by 2x or more.

You'll be able to tell in the next month or so; you won't need the heat after March, so the usage should be lower. Ours in spring/summer months averages 9-10 therms/month; that's with a gas dryer, water heater, and stove.