Gas company raises my bill by another $10 this month

[jnw]

In one short month they raised my AMP (Average Monthly Payment) gas bill by $10, from $64 to $74.  In 2020, my AMP was only $48.   So it's now 50% higher.   This is depressing.

How much have your gas and electric bills gone up recently?   My AMP electric bill very recently went up from $127 per month to $147.     Why dont' they just charge $500 a month and get it over with.

[EvenSteven]

In one short month they raised my AMP (Average Monthly Payment) gas bill by $10, from $64 to $74.  In 2020, my AMP was only $48.   So it's now 50% higher.   This is depressing.

How much have your gas and electric bills gone up recently?   My AMP electric bill very recently went up from $127 per month to $147.     Why dont' they just charge $500 a month and get it over with.

Lots of people lately are talking about their gas bills in terms of a flat dollar amount. Isn’t this a misleading number, though, because it doesn’t account for usage?

It would give a better idea of rising costs to report your bill as a component of fixed cost plus a dollar per volume of gas cost.

[jnw]

In one short month they raised my AMP (Average Monthly Payment) gas bill by $10, from $64 to $74.  In 2020, my AMP was only $48.   So it's now 50% higher.   This is depressing.

How much have your gas and electric bills gone up recently?   My AMP electric bill very recently went up from $127 per month to $147.     Why dont' they just charge $500 a month and get it over with.

Lots of people lately are talking about their gas bills in terms of a flat dollar amount. Isn’t this a misleading number, though, because it doesn’t account for usage?

It would give a better idea of rising costs to report your bill as a component of fixed cost plus a dollar per volume of gas cost.

My usage hasn't changed.  This is an average monthly payment as well.

[former player]

A friend of mine (in the UK) reports that the 1000 litres of heating oil they bought last week cost 50% more than the same amount bought in September 2021.

[jnw]

I'm about to switch to electric burners, build in a wood burning furnace for heating.  Turn off the hot water heater and line dry everything. 

[jnw]

Maybe solar panels aren't such a bad idea after all, with how much energy prices are increasing each year.  We have net metering here.

[BlueMR2]

Electric prices have been stable, but gas price jumped up this month.  I pay for connection fee and usage.  I normally would have paid around $120-130, but it was $166.

[ixtap]

That is a 15% increase. I checked our local rates and the recent change was +27% (on par with you market increase for natural gas). We only use one or two therms a month, so the admin fees are a big part of the bill, but we will also be having guests a lot for the next couple months, so use will likely increase.

[alsoknownasDean]

I've recently had a ~20-25% increase in my gas rates. Here's what my gas retailer says about the impact of the increase:

"Based on your past usage (or an estimate where no usage data is available) we estimate this price change may result in an
increase of $147.74 to the total cost of your gas bills over the next 12 months."

Looks like it'll be $55 per month in summer including the fixed charge and about $75 per month in winter. Hot water and cooking only, heating is with a bunch of heat pumps.

I'm about to replace my cooktop with an induction unit and the increases in gas rates are pushing me towards replacing the water heater.

[wageslave23]

Our gas bill is up $100 last month compared to the year before.  Gas prices go up and down.

[bluebelle]

We use propane for heat, cooking, hot water, dryer......the price per litre is up over 40% since last year.   I'm hearing people talk about a 300% increase, but they haven't given me price per litre increase, so I'm doubting their math at this point.

[Dicey]

Only $10? And that's serious enough to start this thread? 

[jlcnuke]

Supply and demand has a significant impact in commodity prices. That's just how the economy works. Your personal demand may not have changed, but that is only a miniscule part of the total gas demand and has no impact on the supply side of things.

With current world events, I'd be surprised if you don't see additional increases in the near future FYI.

[Paper Chaser]

There were many reports last fall about energy prices seeing significant increases, especially natural gas. Higher bills shouldn't be a surprise to anybody even with the same usage.

[SquashingDebt]

Our electricity supply rate went up 80% this month.   ..a few months after we switched from a propane wall heater to an electric heat pump.  Oh well.

[nereo]

@JenniferW - are you with Oklahoma Natural Gas? They had to do an emergency buy of natural gas last month to keep the grid stable it seems…

Oklahoma's gas supply was in dire straits, with demand surging and the cold freezing critical equipment. To keep the heat on, the state's biggest gas company, Oklahoma Natural Gas, made a last-minute decision: it purchased fuel from the wildly expensive spot market at nearly 600 times the usual price

Throughout many of your threads a common theme seems to be discomfort with volatility. If that is indeed the case you may want to take measures to stabilize your costs for your own comfort, even if this (often) comes as a trade off with growth.

[kanga1622]

My natural gas bill has doubled. We turned the temp down 2 degrees in each part of the program back in Sept knowing the bill was going to be high. So essentially every month this winter we’ve used less therms of natural gas and the bill is double.

We are very thankful we could easily adjust our budget so this wasn’t a choice between being warm or eating (like so many others have had to face). We were notified by our gas company that we can expect rates to come down this spring but that was before Russia started their mess.

[sonofsven]

I was curious so I pulled my current and one year ago nat gas bills:
Feb 2021 $21.50/mo,  usage 18.1 @ .90732
Feb 2022 $25.05/mo,   usage 19.7 @ 1.04637
So slightly higher usage, and a 15% rate increase
Nat gas for range, hot water, clothes dryer

[Bear Stache]

My gas bill is up 43% from one year ago, my electric bill is up 25% from one year ago. This is the unit cost, so it is independent of usage. My electricity usage actually decreased 20% from one year ago, but my bill went up, due to the 25% increase in price per kWH.

[jnw]

I dont' get how they got away with a 6% inflation last year.   Utilities up 25% and most every grocery I see is up over 10% on most items.

[six-car-habit]

I dont' get how they got away with a 6% inflation last year.   Utilities up 25% and most every grocery I see is up over 10% on most items.

 Who is this They that 'got away' with your 6% figure ?

  Is it anyone who got a raise in the last 2 years, or advocated people making a higher wage, which many folks on this board did.

  Is it anyone who wanted bacon during the early stages of Covid when processing plants for the pigs were being shut down due to worker sickness and national supplies were low, or wanted toilet paper when shelves were near empty, and was willing to pay more for it. Whether the buyer was a restaurant, store, or consumer.

  Is it anyone who accepted any of the supplemental payments for themselves or their children, directly deposited into their bank accounts by the treasury related to covid/  economy stimulus, or took an unemployment check.  Or applied for the PPP program if they were an employer.

  Is it anyone who accepted the large gains [ often much more than 6% ] in their investment accounts, attributed to the stock market values increasing.

  Is it any renter who accepted paying more, and any landlord who increased rents. Or any homeowner who gained 10% or more on their home value or equity ?

  Thinking there is a magic bullet to allow all these examples with no net gain in inflation over the last 2 years is illusory. The federal reserve, or whoever you are blaming for not containing this increase, cannot wave a wand and put an immediate halt to rising inflation. It's like a huge cargo ship or train - lots of energy was used to build up speed and inertia,  now it will take time and effort to stop it.  Anyone who participated in some of the 6-7 examples i listed is partially to blame for your increased costs. I'd guess it would be 70%+ of the population of north america.

[Dicey]

I dont' get how they got away with a 6% inflation last year.   Utilities up 25% and most every grocery I see is up over 10% on most items.

 Who is this They that 'got away' with your 6% figure ?

  Is it anyone who got a raise in the last 2 years, or advocated people making a higher wage, which many folks on this board did.

  Is it anyone who wanted bacon during the early stages of Covid when processing plants for the pigs were being shut down due to worker sickness and national supplies were low, or wanted toilet paper when shelves were near empty, and was willing to pay more for it. Whether the buyer was a restaurant, store, or consumer.

  Is it anyone who accepted any of the supplemental payments for themselves or their children, directly deposited into their bank accounts by the treasury related to covid/  economy stimulus, or took an unemployment check.  Or applied for the PPP program if they were an employer.

  Is it anyone who accepted the large gains [ often much more than 6% ] in their investment accounts, attributed to the stock market values increasing.

  Is it any renter who accepted paying more, and any landlord who increased rents. Or any homeowner who gained 10% or more on their home value or equity ?

  Thinking there is a magic bullet to allow all these examples with no net gain in inflation over the last 2 years is illusory. The federal reserve, or whoever you are blaming for not containing this increase, cannot wave a wand and put an immediate halt to rising inflation. It's like a huge cargo ship or train - lots of energy was used to build up speed and inertia,  now it will take time and effort to stop it.  Anyone who participated in some of the 6-7 examples i listed is partially to blame for your increased costs. I'd guess it would be 70%+ of the population of north america.

Love this!

[jnw]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

[ixtap]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

[PDXTabs]

I dont' get how they got away with a 6% inflation last year.   Utilities up 25% and most every grocery I see is up over 10% on most items.

There are half a dozen ways that government officials measure inflation (CPI, PCE, PPI - with and without energy stripped out). But just to take CPI as an example: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf

CPI is up 7.5%, but when you look at the components groceries are 8.165% of the index, natural gas is 0.879% of the index, etc.

[jnw]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.  Automobile Fuel has doubled. Everything I see at grocery store is 10% higher.  Utility bills have risen more than 10%. 

[jnw]

Also automobiles (both new and used) have skyrocketed in price.  Seems like everythign has gone up, and mujch more than 10%.

[PDXTabs]

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.

But that isn't how housing inflation is calculated (although arguably it should be). To be specific, the BLS (more or less) goes around and asks a bunch of people how much they pay (per month) for housing. If your landlord didn't raise your rent, your cost didn't go up. Or to use a personal example I own my home, my housing cost hasn't gone up. Although I believe that technically the BLS tries to use "owner equivalent rent" for me.

[Jon Bon]

I think there is a good chance nearly everyone's energy cost is going to increase dramatically at least in the short term.

[Cranky]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.  Automobile Fuel has doubled. Everything I see at grocery store is 10% higher.  Utility bills have risen more than 10%.

Remember that some of this is skewed because many prices fell in 2020. We paid under $1/gallon of gas for a while. Rents in a lot of big cities fell sharply. Supply and demand got really messed up.

[big_owl]

Natural gas prices have just about clean doubled in the past year so I'm not sure why it would be a surprise that bills have gone up as well. 

[Tempname23]

I don't have gas, I'm in the Fl. Panhandle, our electric company was sold and the new company has raised our rates. The increase for just the electricity (not taxes/franchise fees etc, is 21% for the first 1000 kWhs and 38% for the use over 1000 kWhs. That's pretty hefty, but on a local group I have seen a dozen people complain that their bill is double because of the Power co. increase. I keep telling them no, 21% and 38% blah blah. Please post your numbers, they don't, but want to insist it is the power company doubling there cost. Oh well, math is hard!

[jlcnuke]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.  Automobile Fuel has doubled. Everything I see at grocery store is 10% higher.  Utility bills have risen more than 10%.

Remember that some of this is skewed because many prices fell in 2020. We paid under $1/gallon of gas for a while. Rents in a lot of big cities fell sharply. Supply and demand got really messed up.

Under $1 a gallon? I haven't seen that in decades anywhere I've lived/traveled..
Averages don't show that for the US either. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

[Zamboni]

It's going to keep going up. Natural gas is a fixed natural resource (it's right there in the name of it!) The earth has a limited supply. More and more people are burning it.

Eventually only the wealthiest will be able to afford it. This is a fact, although it probably will not get that bad for a long time. Hopefully by then most people in North America will have invested in renewable resources. Your idea to get solar panels is sound, especially if you are fairly young and plan to stay in your home a long time.

At the moment, the owners of a substantial chunk of the natural gas supply on the other side of the world are in a big offensive to try to increase holdings and secure transportation routes for their existing large supply. This momentary war-based disruption and sanctions/embargos is going to make prices go up, not down. Since prices are determined on a global scale, you living right there next to the fracking that feeds your home gas is not going to save you.

If you care beyond just "the gas company is screwing me!" then you could watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If61baWF4GE

[bill1827]

Thanks for posting that link. I was fascinating and shows that maybe Putin isn't acting irrationally.

[investnoob]

I recently moved into an older building that heats via hot water radiators. There is no charge for this.

I do pay for electricity, though. Here, electricity rates don't increase without ample notice and are based on either time of use or tiers of use.

I only use about $15 of electricity a month (maybe 180 to 200 kwh). The rest of the bill are charges related to debt or infrastructure. So its a $45 bill. I haven't noticed an increase.

I don't have a car, so that is covered.

I also haven't noticed much of an increase in my groceries. But I should look into it. I usually spend about $600 on groceries a month. Maybe they have increased, but I don't think I would have noticed. I guess I am really lucky.

[afox]

Yep, my elec utilty charges about $35 in monthly fixed charges. Doesn't really matter what they call them but I think they use the term "system access fee".

What this means is that as an extremely efficient user I pay an extremely high rate per kwh and saving electricity has little affect on my bill. I could half the amount of electricity I use and would only save $5.

What this also means is that people in small homes pay a very high rate per kwh while people in mansions pay a very low rate per kwh.

This is all by design as far as I can tell.

[Cool Hwhip]

My last natural gas bill increased 61.26% from the same month last year and I used 3.81% less gas this year. I use the gas for the furnace, hot water tank and stove/oven.

Here are the charges on the 2021 and 2022 bills.

Delivery Charges 01/12/2021 - 02/09/2021 $44.20
Monthly Customer Charge .......................................................... $18.59
All Therms 220.29 @ $0.0838 .............................................. $18.46
Volume Balancing Adjustment 220.29 @ $0.0022 .......................... $0.48
Environmental Cost Recovery 220.29 @ $0.0077 = ........................ $1.70
Government Agency Compensation Adjustment ............................. $0.14
Franchise Cost Adjustment ........................................................... $0.19
Efficiency Program 220.29 @ $0.0126 ........................................... $2.78
Tax Cost Adjustment 220.29 @ $0.0006 ...................................... $0.13
Qualified Infrastructure Chrg $ 25.96 @ 4.33% ............................... $1.12
Qualified Infrastructure Chrg $ 11.68 @ 5.22% ............................... $0.61
Natural Gas Cost $64.57
January @ 151.92 Therms x $0.29 .............................................. $44.06
February @ 68.37 Therms x $0.30 .............................................. $20.51
Taxes $5.40
Utility Fund Tax $108.77 @ 0.1% .................................................. $0.11
State Revenue Tax 220.29 @ $0.024 = ......................................... $5.29
Total $114.17


Delivery Charges 01/10/2022 - 02/08/2022 $52.98
Monthly Customer Charge .......................................................... $23.55
All Therms 211.89 @ $0.1067 .............................................. $22.61
Volume Balancing Adjustment 211.89 @ $0.0028 .......................... $0.59
Environmental Cost Recovery 211.89 @ $0.0149 = ........................ $3.16
Government Agency Compensation Adjustment ............................. $0.05
Franchise Cost Adjustment ........................................................... $0.20
Efficiency Program 211.89 @ $0.0128 ........................................... $2.71
Tax Cost Adjustment 211.89 @ $0.0005 ...................................... $0.11
Natural Gas Cost $125.87
January @ 155.39 Therms x $0.61 .............................................. $94.79
February @ 56.50 Therms x $0.55 .............................................. $31.08
Taxes $5.27
Utility Fund Tax $178.85 @ 0.1% .................................................. $0.18
State Revenue Tax 211.89 @ $0.024 = ......................................... $5.09
Total $184.12

[former player]

That level of complication for such small adjustments is insane.

[Cool Hwhip]

That level of complication for such small adjustments is insane.

Isn't it crazy? I guess they are ATTEMPTING to justify all the extra charges.

[Dicey]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.  Automobile Fuel has doubled. Everything I see at grocery store is 10% higher.  Utility bills have risen more than 10%.

Remember that some of this is skewed because many prices fell in 2020. We paid under $1/gallon of gas for a while. Rents in a lot of big cities fell sharply. Supply and demand got really messed up.

Under $1 a gallon? I haven't seen that in decades anywhere I've lived/traveled..
Averages don't show that for the US either. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

Hahaha, we're up to $6 per gallon now.

[NorCal]

Our gas rates have roughly doubled and electricity rates are up around 5% compared to a year ago. We have some more rate increases coming, largely due to investments in renewables and early closures of coal plants.

Last fall I took out a highly inefficient gas water heater and switched to the heat pump variety. The net impact is that my actual bill is about the same as it was last year. I guess that’s a win?

[Abe]

Here in Houston, natural gas rates are up 37% from last year, 20% from last month.

[Just Joe]

Suburban Propane showed up unannounced yesterday and pumped 350+ gallons of propane into our tank. @$6 per gallon.

They tell me today when I called them to WTH them for coming unannounced that fuel today is $6.53 a gallon.

Almost $2000 worth of propane. That's okay b/c of MMM choices and money in the bank.

On the other hand, we were trying to use the tank down to empty so we can switch to nat gas. Line has already been installed.

[Cranky]

I am just saying the 6% number is too low.  There seems to have been more inflation than 6%.  At least 10%.  Whoever said it was 6% was wrong.  i.e. "They" are wrong.

Based on your personal experience or the general economy?

Um home prices have increased much more than 6%.  Automobile Fuel has doubled. Everything I see at grocery store is 10% higher.  Utility bills have risen more than 10%.

Remember that some of this is skewed because many prices fell in 2020. We paid under $1/gallon of gas for a while. Rents in a lot of big cities fell sharply. Supply and demand got really messed up.

Under $1 a gallon? I haven't seen that in decades anywhere I've lived/traveled..
Averages don't show that for the US either. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

Hahaha, we're up to $6 per gallon now.

We paid $3.89 yesterday.

[sisto]

Costs are way up. We received notice from PG&E stating costs were up 90%. Everyone has been complaining about their bills. Ours was the highest it's ever been, thankfully we conserve and are well insulated. I've switch over to doing more cooking with electric over gas lately. Electricity is up too, I'm quite thankful we had solar installed about 8 years ago. We just received notice that we get to keep our good rates until 2030 due to early solar adoption and being on a peak program.

[Sibley]

Suburban Propane showed up unannounced yesterday and pumped 350+ gallons of propane into our tank. @$6 per gallon.

They tell me today when I called them to WTH them for coming unannounced that fuel today is $6.53 a gallon.

Almost $2000 worth of propane. That's okay b/c of MMM choices and money in the bank.

On the other hand, we were trying to use the tank down to empty so we can switch to nat gas. Line has already been installed.

Well, when you're ready to switch to natural gas they can come pump it out free of charge. Considering you didn't ask them to fill it up.

[jnw]

Solar panels haven't increased in price much in the past year? They are starting to look mighty good right now.  Like an array of 20 350w panels.  Probabably can DIY for around 10k. 

I imagine with how much energy prices are rapidly increasing, the ROI might be even like 6 years.  Then have free energy for another 20 years.

Might switch over to electric heating if the 20 panel array can handle it.   I'd realy like 30 panels somehow.  I'll have to see how many can be squeezed onto the south facing roof.

[calimom]

Costs are way up. We received notice from PG&E stating costs were up 90%. Everyone has been complaining about their bills. Ours was the highest it's ever been, thankfully we conserve and are well insulated. I've switch over to doing more cooking with electric over gas lately. Electricity is up too, I'm quite thankful we had solar installed about 8 years ago. We just received notice that we get to keep our good rates until 2030 due to early solar adoption and being on a peak program.

For those of us who experience the special treat of having PG&E as our energy supplier, we likely haven't seen the end of the escalation in cost. Much of this is due to the massive lawsuits the provider has been hit with as a result of the massive wildfires the past five or so years. Some fires have been found to have been directly caused by faulty or poorly maintained systems, budget cuts for tree trimming and so forth, so that the shareholders could see larger returns on their investments. Penny wise/pound foolish and all that.

[jnw]

Costs are way up. We received notice from PG&E stating costs were up 90%. Everyone has been complaining about their bills. Ours was the highest it's ever been, thankfully we conserve and are well insulated. I've switch over to doing more cooking with electric over gas lately. Electricity is up too, I'm quite thankful we had solar installed about 8 years ago. We just received notice that we get to keep our good rates until 2030 due to early solar adoption and being on a peak program.

Here in Tulsa, OK, the power company doesn't want to have to build another power plant to keep up with the growing population here.  So they are offering free weatherization for families who have income of $55k or less.  We just met the requirement at $50k.  They are weatherizing next week sealing all widndows and the duct work as well as blowing in insulation into attic upgrading from R9 to R39.

Since they are paying for this weatherization, to save energy they are happy to offer Net Metering here where I live.  So that's a good thing.  Liooks like I need to install solar.