damn natral gas is to much

im guesiing its 2.23 per therm here.what do you pay?and whats the cheapest ya ever payed my gas bill was like 43 last month just to have hot water grrr.im about to turn off water heater electric was only 32 bucks and that is for all my electric stuff

Raggie,
I am going to freeze all winter because of the gas prices. My heat is on 63 and I am freezing right now. I bought 2 electric heaters to run in the rooms I am in. It really sucks for people to not be able to have heat so Nicor can get richer. I can't wait to see my gas bill.

im still in shock lisa i keep my room with no heat at all its around 52 in here this am but its like 32 outside so im happy.i still cant belive my gas was more then electric all i have is gas water heater. i live alone and i guess ill have to take cold showers now brrrrr man i hope gas drops hope ya get warmer to

ChocolateLab33,

When I used to heat With electric space heaters I hated them. The ones with fans cost a great deal to run as they must heat all the air in the room you're in. I finally got an electric radiant heater and while they, too, have their drawbacks, they are much cheaper to run as they just heat whatever you point them at. (Yourself) I saved a lot of money with mine.

My electric bill was $323 last month, no AC running, I do not heat with it or warm hot water with it, only stove and dryer are electric but, I do have a wife and four teenage kids that are home all day long with TV's and computers running. It is by far my largest utility bill, even with the increase in home heating oil at $2.10 a gallon for 1000 gallons is only $2100 over 12 months

i always read my elctric meter usaly 1 per day so i stay under 10 kilowats perday today i can use 20 if i want cause i had some low usage days .i turn off my pc and tv even when i wanna use it to stay in my budget my compter is the bigest user of power if left on 24 hours a day it will use like 4 to 5 kilowatts whcih is half my budget for power .

The bad part is that we ain't seen nuthin yet as far as energy prices go.

Raggie, your gas water heater (and electric ones) has a thermostat on the valve (pilot) assembly. It's generally a round knob/dial with temp numbers on it. You might experiment with turning it down to save a few $$.

hiya ron i turned it to where its cold at shower head when only hot water is on. i guess shower head chills the weater a bit cause its waremer at faucet i think shower head adds air so it feels cooler

Raggie,

You did not say exactly what your gas bill was (and only approximated your electric bill)...

Several things... For your stove, if it any where near modern, it should not have any pilot lights. For our furnace, if you are not using it, you can turn off the pilot light (call the gas company if you decide to turn it back on later and need help). Third, watch your gas meter and make sure that it is spinning only when your major gas appliances are actually on (water heater, stove, furnace). Make sure that it only spins very slowly--or not at all when your appliances are turned off (each pilot light seems to be able to use $2-$5 of gas per month).

Same thing with your electricity--make sure that the meter only spins when you are, knowingly, consuming power. (Didn't you earlier change to CFL on your common area lights that are powered from your meter???).

It is possible that either accidentally, or on purpose, somebody is sharing your power connections (I believe that you live in an attached condo).

I know that you try and live pretty frugally--I would hate to see you struggling because you were paying for somebody else's power. I pretty sure I suggested the same thing earlier--so these suggestions may not apply.

-Bill

hi bb my gas bill was 42 bucks if i recall only gas i have in this place is water heater my heat is ygas but i turned off pilot light

Sounds pretty high for just Hot water for showers for one person (especially if the hot water temperature is very cool and you are using a low-flow shower head). On my hot water heaters--I could take a cool/short shower using just the pilot light for heat only every couple of day (but I live in a warmer area too).

Is the billing something special (averaging payments over one year--missed payments, or very high minimum charge)? Some companies offer a service to average your bill payments over one year so that you have a reasonably flat bill.

Usually, your utility company would be very happy to come out and look at your home and see if they can find a reason for a high bill--should be free.

Give them a call!

Good Luck,
-Bill

My gas is free for cooking, water and heat. My power bill was 26 dollars this month. If it werent for sleeping with the tv on, running 3 lamps and using a toaster oven twice a day, it would be way lower.

If I had to pay for gas, I would try to find or get an alternative. Nice mid grade electric heater or some pellet stove. If i got a pellet stove, I would get one that can run on batteries or rig up an inverter and power supply so it works with the power out.

Energy, will be one of the big issues of our time.

I heard a presentation recently (recorded on EVWorld) at the first annual "Peak Oil" conference. Many of the folks attending this conference were petroleum industry types.

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=934

One of the things this guy said was about "Crying Wolf". He said that people complain that our energy issues are like the little boy that cried "Wolf!". Meaning that there is no real substance to energy issues. However, he pointed out that in the story of the little boy that cried "Wolf!", the wolf did eventually come, and ate the little boy.

Do we have our attention on a sustainable energy future?

Not enough in my opinion. Fossil fuels are running low compared to demand and will get increasingly expensive. Are we researching inexpensive alternatives vigoursly enough? I don't think so. Why not? I believe it is because our short sighted corporations are so focused on "next quarter's results" that they lobby against nearly all forms of a different energy future, even though this would really be in their own best interests.

If we want our heating costs (and other energy) to not run our lives, we need to put some attention on alternatives to the status quo.

raggie, in the short run, you might need some quick fixes (there are a few).

Quilted window coverings to slow heat loss:
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/85

Electric socks for personal warmth (use rechargeable NiMH batteries):
http://www.****ssportinggoods.com/sm-nordic-gear-lectra-sox-large--pi-876360.html
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/nc-d-adapters.htm

One more thing...

You can thank Congress for the high natural gas prices.

Why?

Prior to the mid-90's, it wasn't legal to build an electric generation plant using natural gas. Why? Because it is so useful to use natural gas for home heating and as a feed stock for various synthetics. Somewhere along in the mid-90's, Congress reversed course and made it legal to burn natural gas for electricity.

What happened?

Well, it is WAY easier to quickly build a natural gas electricity generation plant because natural gas burns cleanly with almost no need for extra pollution controls. Now...we have very effective pollution controls for coal fired electric generation but the initial costs are higher. So... our companies naturally choose the "get in quick for a low cost" way of generating electricity. Thank goodness that some companies are waking up to the clean and cheap option of wind energy!

So, when you find that you don't like the cost of heating our homes with increasingly expensive natural gas... remember to thank Congress for changing course!

To be fair, its a businesses responsibility to bring a return to the shareholders.

ikendu said:

Why not? I believe it is because our short sighted corporations are so focused on "next quarter's results" that they lobby against nearly all forms of a different energy future, even though this would really be in their own best interests.

Click to expand...

I dont think we need to do any research, alternative forms of energy has existed since the sun shines. Its just that these alternatives are more expensive than whats on the market. Reggie is complaining about the prices of gas while on a fixed income. Think he can or will get solar collectors or a pellet stove to supplement his heat? What about those things you suggested or even an electric heater for the short run? What about the others here? Quite a few cities have solar or alternative energy contractors, plenty of websites exist with plans and books, you just need to do the math to get something sized right and hire a contractor willing to do a good job of the work.

VA DOM POWER paid 500 million for a scrubber to reduce their emmissions. I almost thing it would be cheaper to do the natural gas thing. At least congress is trying to step in the right direction. I know the northeasts power problems was blamed on transmission lines, but out west its a lack of capacity. If the summers are getting hotter, demand is going up, the infostructure is ok, then build some more plants.

Ikendu hit the nail on the head. I was agast when our government allowed nat gas to be used for power production. In the interest of national security we ought to apply modern pollution controls to coal fired plants. The USA has an abundance of this natural resource.

A hand full of employees of a local nuke plant have managed to stop the progress of wind farms in my rural county. We voters aren't doing a good job of oversite. By and large it's our fault: we've become capitalistically comfortable and complacent. Next November it may be time to vote for a third party candidate.

I hate to get in to this but my father worked at a large local power company and often talks about these problems. While many of you know I agree with and support cleaner burning, more environmentally friendly power plants the power company's hands are tied. They are mandated to only build plants that meet tighter emissions standards and have to compete economically for the production of power. They can not raise their rates more then a certain percentage (and has to be passed by local and state government) and can not make more then a give amount of profit. This means they can not afford to build newer cleaner scrubbing coal fired power plants without passing HUGE rate hikes to the consumer, that's us. Natural gas plants are by nature cleaner plants and are ridiculously cheap to build compared to any other type of electrical generation. My father kept warning people at his company that this was going to push natural gas way up, but also saw they had no other alternatives given the federal EPA laws.

We are dammed if we do and dammed if we don't. If we want cheap gas and electricity we have to give in on something, if we want a super clean power plant we (that means you and I) have to pay twice as much to build the power plant, it's that simple.

I am willing to pay twice as much to build cleaner power plants, but many aren't and many have real issues with the cost of gas and electricity. Again the thing is any power company in the US can not make more then a few % more then they spend unlike many other companies un the US.

I just want people to understand the nature of the situation.

Oh and about 90% of the cost of natural gas is the natural gas cost itself. The only part a local power company can make money on is the supply and distribution of it. The cost of the gas itself is a straight pass thought to the customer by law.

cobb said:

I dont think we need to do any research, alternative forms of energy has existed since the sun shines.

Click to expand...

That is certainly true.

Both the Greeks and the Romans understood about passive solar heating and built buildings to use this natural, renewable source of winter heat.

As far as research goes... it does make a difference to explore more effective sources of renewable energy.

Wind energy has come down in price (both initial and ongoing) quite a lot in recent years as we discover more effective ways of harvesting the wind. Ethanol was once a net energy loser...but no more. Ethanol from corn is much less energy efficient from newer sources of ethanol like sweet sorghum or cellulose. Basic research on energy is good for our society and good for the economy (each new improvement often boosts productivity and our society generally).

What Brock says is true.

We can't really avoid the costs of energy. It would be nice to help people with the cost of heating. I hate to see people freeze in our society. On the other hand, making it cheap means there is no incentive to improve our heating to use energy more wisely.

I don't really know the whole answer. Wish I did.

My house is cooler this year but I haven't had a gas bill that accurately reflects my usage. The last bill was "estimated".

Unfortunately many people waste energy because they think they can afford it. Big SUV's, lights on all day, plasma TV's, it all adds up.

I bought my first Philips SL-18 compact fluorescent lamp in the early 80's. I've never had a car that got worse than 28 mpg in town. I have a programmable thermostat and timers for my home lighting. I got a condensing gas furnace and 12 SEER air conditioner in the early 90's. My appliances are as efficient as I could find.

Without mandatory efficiency standards most people will not look beyond initial cost. Maybe higher energy costs will wake our country up before a major shock from events beyond our control.