Heat with gas? How big is your bill.

[MummaMel]

I just got our natural gas bill and it was $209 for 33 days! I'd love to see some $ comparisions of people in similar homes who are making an effort to keep utilities down.

This covers hot water and heating with radiators. We've been keeping our thermostat set at 65 during the day and 64 at night. This bill is lower than at the same time last year but it still makes me cringe considering we also have an electric bill of $50-$70.

We live in a 1350 sq. foot brick house built in the 1940's. It has very little insulation. We've increased the insulation in the attic, weather-proofed our doors, and the windows were replaced before we moved in. We use space heaters to warm up the rooms that we're occupying. The adults are showering every other day and the kiddos bathe together about once every 3 days. I've started putting the thermostat down to 62 at night and could probably drop down another couple of degrees.

:

[2babybees]

Mine thermostat is also set about that low and my January bill was $165. We are gone during the day for 8+ hours so I turn the thermostat back to 59. The house is cold. It is almost 1500 square feet built in 1904. We have had bills over $200 before. I think it is the reality of higher gas prices. It makes the winters tough. When I walk into my parents homes set at 71 degrees all winter I can only imagine what those bills must look like. Those temps are simply not an option for us.

[Shantimama]

How old is your furnace? We once lived in an older house that had an ancient furnace and the heating bells were out of sight. When we were able to replace the furnace with a new, high efficiency model, our heating bill dropped significantly.

[carolm22117]

Ouch. Ours run $60-$80 for the gas only.

Heat is set at 60-62 overnight, when I get up its cooold, so I bump it up to 68 for an hour to get the chill off and then it gets set to 64-66 for the rest of the day, I turn it down when we go to bed.

We live in a 986 sq ft. ranch built in 1988. I really,really want a new furnace as the one we have is the one that was put in when the house was built, but its just not in the budget right now. We also have a gas water heater, no idea what it is set at and a gas dryer that runs maybe 8 or 9 loads a week.

Our electric is higher than the gas, that has been running $100/month, although last month hubby and I really made an effort to shut off the lights and such and our bill was $92.

[zersha]

We have approx. 1100sq ft mobile home. I keep the thermostat pretty high because most of our windows are drafty (we've replaced 2 so far). At night it's 68 & in the day it's 70-72. We live in a very cold climate, and our last bill was $109. That is for our furnace, our hot water heater, and our stove. Our furnace is 30 years old, but our water heater & stove are newer.

I'm not sure why it's so low. We have had bills in past years that were over $200 during the coldest months.

[cheenya]

Our gas bill was $300 last month. That's for the stove, water heater, and boiler. All our appliances are fairly new, but we live in an older home, about 1,800 sq. ft. We keep the temp set at 62 during the day, 55 at night. I know we need more insulation, but its not quite that easy, we do put plastic on our windows and have been replacing one or two a year. . We also have had a string of really cold weather, even set so low our furnace ran almost constantly for a week and a gallon of apple juice on the floor froze

[roomformore]

We were $198 last month for an 1100 sq ft house. We turn the heat down at night. There are four of us home all day, so we do keep it around 65-67. Our water heater is gas as well. We still line dry most things in the winter (on a line in the basement) so we're not running the gas dryer very much. Our furnace is old and the house is poorly insulated. We just moved here the end of the summer. We'd like to replace the furnace and some of the windows, and add insulation.

[Ruthiegirl]

That sounds about right for natural gas. We live in a 1930's house, 1800 sq feet and our gas in winter runs between 200-400 dollars. That includes the hot water heater and the boiler for the radiators.

[westernskies]

Ouch. I am never complaining about our gas bill again! We live in snowy cold WY and have a 4000 sft home and our bill hovers around $120. This is for 1/2 the home heated with a furnace, and the other half is heated with a boiler and radiant heat. I try to keep the thermastat around 65-67 but sometimes I crank it when I'm cold for a bit and then turn it back down. Our furnace is OLD, from the 50's we think- we know it needs replaced but that is a nice chunk of 4 grand we don't have right now. Someday!

[velochic]

We have a 1700 sq. ft. home built in '39. It's stone and the walls are not well insulated. We have new, air-tight doors and double-pane windows. I keep the heat at 19*C during the day (that's about 66F, I guess) and night. We supplement with wood in a wood-burning stove. This past month was $85 and the month before was $47. The wood makes all the difference... often the furnace will only kick on in the wee hours of the morning.

[zinemama]

I second what Shantimama said. Our house was built in 1906 (1200 sq.f) and had a gas furnace from 1972. We keep it 65 in the day, 60 at night. Our heating bills were close to yours.

Last summer we invested in a high efficiency furnace and our bills have been cut in half. It's been dramatic. Yeah, it was a big bite of our savings. But there are tax rebates for the high efficiency models and we don't regret it.

[Caneel]

January bill, 3,000 square foot, 1920s house with 75% new windows and all new exterior doors = $475

Heat is set at 67 in the sleeping area and 68 in the living areas (dh will not even consider going lower, grrrrh)

Gas hot water radiators and gas hot water heater

[the_lissa]

We live in approx 1100 sq ft home that was built in the 1860s and is drafty and poorly insulated.

We keep our house between 60 and 64 depending on the time of day, and our bill is between 75 and 100 dollars in the winter.

Our furnace is natural gas forced air, and our hot water is gas too.

[KariM]

We live in WI and heat a 1300 sq ft home (built in the 1880s) with natural gas. We also have a gas stove/oven, gas clothes dryer, and a gas hot water heater.

We use budget billing, so this calendar year our cost is $103/month year round. I haven't looked closely to see if we're using more or less therms than last year to know if our bill will go up next year.

We've been really fortunate in that most years we end up with a credit at the end of the year rather than a large payment! I guess we consume less than the average household on the budget billing plan.

ETA: We did replace some of windows last year, but still have the original windows in the kitchen, playroom, and living room. We upgraded the furnace in 2004 to a high efficiency forced air furnace and that may be why we have a pretty easy bill, too. We still need to add in insulation and replace the doors and the remaining windows, though!

[Kewpie]

$181.49

12/31 to 1/28

Temp is at 68 on warmer days (15-30 degrees), 70ish on colder (sub zero). Live in Minnesota.

We have a 60 year old, 1100 sf ranch. Vents are shut in basement.

[MommyinMN]

Our bill for Jan. was $148. We have 2000 sq ft home, built in 2007. We have the temp. set at 67 during the day and 63 at night. The high was anywhere from -10 to 35 during that time. We have gas heat, dryer, range and hot water heater.

We also have a gas fireplace that we don't use very often.

[Piglet68]

Just got our gas bill for the last month (mid Dec to mid Jan). We have a gas fireplace and the heating system (forced air) is gas. No gas appliances. Our home is about 1800 sq ft. We keep the temp at 19C during the day, down to 16 at night then 12 during the wee sleeping hours. Our bill was $160.

[my2girlz]

$133 for last month. Our house was built in 2003 and is 2500 sq ft. We keep the thermostat set at 65.

[savithny]

You have to remember...

You can't just compare what people have set their thermostats at, though.

It's likely going to cost more to keep your thermostat at 65 when it is 10 degrees out than it will to keep it at 72 when it is 45 degrees out -- which is why your bill might have something like "degree-days" on it, which is a measurement of how cold it was during the past month.

[nathansmom]

Our bill was $53 this past month. Its been cold here probably not above 40 degrees most days. We live in a 1940's house that hasn't seen much improvement since the 40's. Its about 1100 square feet total with half new windows and doors. We also replaced the furance in 2004 with the highest efficiency at that time. I keep the temperature between 72-76 day and night although I try to remember to lower the temperature if we aren't home. Our bill would probably be lower if I was willing to lower the temperature but everytime I do one of my twins gets really sick (they had a nasty case of rsv as newborns) and the medical costs go up much more than the gas bill so I keep the temperature high.